crashfrog writes:
This crisis has been manufactured entirely as a result of Republican intransigence and bad faith. It's not a "disagreement between Democrats and Republicans." It's a refusal by Republicans to raise the debt ceiling under any circumstances. Full stop.
Part of the dynamic is that corporate interests backed the election of a crowd of Tea Party goons, in the belief that they'd be useful in preserving tax breaks for the rich and in destroying as much government oversight of business and industry as possible. The problem is, these Tea Party goons really do believe in destroying the entire government. They're now beyond the control of the corporate interests that got them in. That's why they won't compromise, that's why they won't accept deals that include removing any existing tax breaks for the rich, even if those deals would result in bigger savings and allow more cuts than they're asking for.
Did you see that the FAA
essentially shut down today?
quote:
Taxes on airline tickets expired on Friday when the F.A.A. lost its operating authority, including the authority to collect taxes. Passengers are rightly furious at the nation’s airlines, many of which are pocketing the difference. But the masterminds of this fiasco are the House Republicans who let this happen.
The F.A.A. has also had to furlough some 4,000 workers. Needed airport construction projects to maintain runways, build new traffic control towers and upgrade other facilities have been halted across the country. The only good news is that the air traffic control system is still working because traffic controllers are paid from the Aviation Trust Fund, which still has a positive balance.
All of this happened after House Republicans inserted a new provision into a routine bill to temporarily extend the F.A.A.’s operational authority. The provision would end $16.5 million in federal subsidies to 13 airports in rural communities. The bill passed the House. But Senate Democrats balked, arguing that the right place for changing policy is in the regular F.A.A. reauthorization bill noting that the temporary extension has passed 20 times since 2007 without any additional provisions.
If we can’t put an end to these extravagant subsidies, then we will never be able to rein in spending where really hard decisions are necessary, said Tom Petri, the chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, upon submitting the bill. Talk about pound foolish. When the F.A.A. lost operational authority, it lost its ability to collect $200 million in taxes a week. These taxes would have paid for the airport subsidies in about 14 hours.
And it's only going to get worse.
Your beliefs do not effect reality and evidently reality does not effect your beliefs.
-Theodoric
Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
-Steven Colbert
I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.
- John Stuart Mill
™ Version 4.2
