TPM - McConnell - GOP To Hold Seniors And Poor Hostage - No Debt Limit Rise Until ----

[TheMastersNemesis]

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cut or reformed. Will they demand vouchers for all and outsourcing of Medicaide?

[upaloopa]

1. I say let them have their way. Go off the cliff

And don't raise the debt limit. Medicare and SS and Medicaid are ideologue issues not budget issues. We should never compromise on the ideologue issues.

[DearAbby]

2. Seal the deal in the blood and pound of flesh from the poor

ghoulish people, dont mention defense spending cuts, go right to the throat of the poor.

[Blue Idaho]

3. Because the last time they held up a debt ceiling deal

It worked out so well for them? Let them do it - the American people will hate them more than they do today.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. Nothing they can threten is worse than what caving in to blackmail brings

In the short run more harm might come from surrendering to this form of extortion, than might come from giving in, but in the long run the cost is always much higher. That tactic can not be allowed to take root in American politics or our Democracy will become as healthy as Russia's. Even defaulting on America's debt, as much lasting harm as that would cause, is better for us as a nation in the long run than surrendering now to that form of brinksmanship would be. It never ends with one successful kidnapping that gets rewarded with ransom. If Republicans learn they can always get Democrats to shred the social safety net by pointing a gun to a puppy's head, there will be no safe puppy in America, let alone what that means for all of us who depend on that safety net to survive. Let them pull that stunt then watch big business slap them in the face as they scramble to repair some of the damage that will fall in their lap too.

[tiny elvis]

5. tpm is wrong

threat/demand
extortion, blackmail, kidnapping

the harm to seniors and poor is the demand, not the threat
the arbitrary artifice of debt limit is the pretend hostage

the priorities of corporate machine logic are inhuman and easily mistaken