Out of the mouth: (hat tip to brooklynbadboy from another brooklyn bad boy:)
Because what had become apparent was that Speaker Boehner had some difficulty in his caucus. There are a group of his caucus that actually think default would be okay and have said that they would not vote for increasing the debt ceiling under any circumstances.
Despite evidence from the Left and Right to the contrary, Bush and Boehner are both willing to submit to this ignorance. The myth that defaulting on debt is okay is simply ignorance. Caving into ignorance isn't new. We Americans do it with science (look at the idiocy surrounding evolution, although there's lately been some good news) and we do it with politics. I thought better, however, of Barack Obama. Follow me if the topic interests you...
Let's be clear. Defaulting on the debt will have various effects. Even conservative blogger Megan McArdle knows that this default isn't just bad news; it's a catastrophe. Here's five of my favorite predicted results:
- The border control stations are entirely unmanned, so anyone who can buy a plane ticket, or stroll across the Mexican border, is entering the country. All the illegal immigrants currently in detention are released, since we don't have the money to put them on a plane, and we cannot actually simply leave them in a cell without electricity, sanitation, or food to see what happens.
- All of our troops stationed abroad quickly run out of electricity or fuel. Many of them are sitting in a desert with billions worth of equipment, and no way to get themselves or their equipment back to the US.
- Our embassies are no longer operating, which will make things difficult for foreign travellers
- No federal emergency assistance, or help fighting things like wildfires or floods. Sorry, tornado people (survivors, sic. -joseph)! Sorry, wildfire victims! Try to live in the northeast next time!
- Housing projects shut down, and Section 8 vouchers are not paid. Families hit the streets.
How much of this is real? As
the Daily Howler reports, we really don't know. The media and our government are both playing so many word games that I'm not sure they, themselves, know what will happen if and when we default on our debt. (But that emergency services bit sure scares me, with family in Florida and Puerto Rico right in the path of hurricane season.)
What should be clear from my diary is that even if only one-tenth of a conservative's predictions come true, it's a catastrophe. This is as obvious as evolution (just go to those labs where they evolve bacteria for new purposes if you want proof of the latter. And if you want proof of the former... just remember, once you get it, there's no going back.) Meanwhile, world governments are looking at us with even more dire predictions. Do we really need to be the domino that precipitates world financial collapse?
Megan McArdle's not alone. Commenter after commenter has stated the same dire predictions, given evidence, and clearly mapped out the path of those dominos.
So, President Obama, why are we caving in to ignorance? Go ahead and use the 14th amendment, and if they go after you in court like Bill Clinton predicts might happen, maybe that's a sacrifice you have to make. Because the alternative is to say "these people don't know what they're talking about and we're fine with that."
It's times like this that I almost understand where Ayn Rand was coming from. Except it's not the everyday people who are incompetent. The incompetent ones got elected.
My perspective as a teacher and Deaf rights activist is somewhat different. I worry about all the programs for Deaf children which will be affected. Almost every program for teaching comes from government monies. How will education be affected if we default on this debt?
I don't think I've really said anything new here, but I needed to vent, and ask that question.