This is a true story and conversation I had with a good friend who could be described as a sane and compassionate small business Republican who I have been quietly working on for years to bring over to the Progressive side.
I was talking with a friend of mine who told me that her Republican Congressman had emailed her a questionnaire about whether he should vote to raise the debt ceiling.
“That really pisses me off,” I said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because you don’t know shit about the issue, so why is he asking you what he should do?”
Her -” How do you know I don’t know shit about the issue?”
Me – OK, How would you answer his survey?
Her – I would tell him we don’t need to go farther in debt.
Me- OK, good luck with that after you and he tank the entire economy and your stocks and 401K go into the crapper. Here is the issue-
This is not a question about whether we need to go farther into debt – it is about whether we should pay the bill for the debt we already have. Suppose you have a credit card with a 6K limit. But you actually ran up charges of 8K which the credit company allowed. Now, should you pay the extra 2K you ran up, even though your official credit limit was 6K? Or should you tell the credit card company to stuff it- your limit is only 6K. In that case you would be defaulting on your debt.
Your Congressman is asking you – do we pay the 8K we actually spent, or do we default on the excess? Now, how would you answer?
Her- I would pay the 8K.
Me- So how stupid is he for sending a survey to people like you who don’t understand the issue and would tell him to do the wrong thing?
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This is the key misunderstanding of the public in a nutshell. Most of the public thinks the Republicans are trying to "hold the line" on FUTURE spending. They don't get that this is a "debate" about paying currently outstanding bills.
President Obama today in his press conference made good movement towards FINALLY getting this most salient point out. In his words, he said (paraphrase)
If this discussion was going on in your house, it wouldn't be - "Should we buy the car or take the trip, it would be, should we pay for the car we bought or the trip we took".
The fact that the "fiscally responsible" and "financially conservative" Republicans have managed to make so much hay out of advocating becoming a deadbeat nation is a complete disgrace that reflects on all of us, Democrat and Republican alike as well as the complicit and corrupt MSM.