Van Jones calls the GOP strategy what it is - Bodies on the Beach...

For four years, the right-wing calculus has been that prolonging and deepening the suffering of American families was a small price to pay - if it would put them back in power. This approach became the cornerstone of Republican strategy the day of the inauguration - when GOP leaders like Paul Ryan first sat down to plot against the new president. It was true in 2009, when Mitch McConnell openly admitted that the top GOP priority was defeating Obama. It was true just a few weeks ago, when Senate Republicans blocked the Veterans Jobs Act. They believe that by increasing America's economic pain, they can increase their own political gain.

Their theory is this: if enough dead bodies pile up on the beach, Americans will fire the lifeguard - and Republicans can get the lifeguard's job.

That is why Republicans in Congress have blocked traditionally conservative ideas like tax cuts for small businesses, simply because the President proposed them.

They have relentlessly opposed commonsense policies like helping young people pay less on student loans or making sure more folks whose mortgages are underwater can refinance their homes. They did all they could to block passage of the stimulus bill. They conveniently ignored the fact that the stimulus embraced many conservative principles: one-third was to help states and cities that were struggling to keep teachers and first-responders on the job. Another one-third was for tax cuts for 95% of Americans.

If they had stopped there, it would have been bad. But they went one step further. They brought our nation to the brink of default over a debt limit they had always raised in the past.

In short, they made things worse. On purpose.