Robert Laszewski
First posted 7/27/11 on Health Policy and Marketplace Review
On this blog a month ago, I said the politicians were starting to scare me with the apparent eagerness of some to actually take the government to default to make a political point.
For weeks we have heard political leaders on both sides tell us there would be no default.
But the two sides have so backed themselves into opposite corners that they have left no opportunity to meet in the middle. Democrats say they have to have a tax increase, or failing that no cuts to entitlements. Republicans say absolutely no tax increases and they need to see entitlement cuts.
This only gets fixed if somebody capitulates. The consequences for any side doing that might be the loss of their own base going forward.
There isn’t any middle ground here because there is no middle ground left in Washington, DC. The last few elections have seen the replacement of “moderates” by evermore far right or far left senators and representatives. This process has only been exacerbated by the gerrymandering of Congressional districts to ensure they were safe for either side but at the same time leading to their coming under the control of party activists pushing their representatives either far left or far right. It also hasn’t helped that each side is so certain of their cause and only has to dial their favorite channel to be assured of that. Continue reading “Reaping What We Have Sown: The Debt Standoff”