We are in the midst of what I believe to be the biggest, most serious political scandal in American history.
Every sex scandal, from Clinton-Lewinsky down to Larry Craig, pales by comparison. Clarence Thomas's tax evasion and conflict of interest scandal does as well, along with every other bush-league example of theft or corruption. Even Watergate--so iconic and shocking that the "-gate" suffix has become an instantly-understood shorthand for political scandal--was small potatoes by comparison.
The scandal is nothing less than this: the majority of elected Republicans in Congress are currently engaged in a criminal conspiracy to hold the economy and good credit of the United States hostage, demanding political concessions as ransom. A smaller fringe of extremists are even intentionally conspiring to commit economic terrorism by forcing the United States to default--in the process, causing irreparable harm to not just the United States, but nearly every person and business in America--in the belief that they will be able to profit politically from the damage and aftermath.
I will not call this treason, no matter how apt that label seems emotionally. Treason has a very specific definition in the Constitution, and this--arguably--isn't it.
But I will call it what it is: a criminal conspiracy to commit economic terrorism by manufacturing an economic crisis, holding the economy hostage and threatening to force the country to default on its debts if their demands are not met.
The Republicans in Congress are worried about their re-election. They are worried about suicide primaries from the extremists in the Tea Party. But by all rights, everyone involved in this criminal conspiracy should be far more worried--no-shit, dead seriously worried--about facing hard time.
It's not as if they've made any secret of their intentions. Their threat since the very beginning of this scandal has been a straightforward one: "give us our political goals, or we will refuse to raise the debt limit and send the country into default." Most of the media has, of course, been complicit in whitewashing this threat by portraying it as just another set of negotiations over good faith disagreements in policy.
The distractions thrown out are as various as they are irrelevant: whether or not the national debt is a real crisis, how much focus we should place on that debt, how we should approach reducing it, whether or not the government spends too much, where we should cut spending, whether or not revenues should be a part of a debt reduction deal, which proposals have merit and why, which side is offering more concessions, and many more.
They are irrelevant because they paper over the scandal at the very core of this crisis from the very beginning: that this situation exists solely because the Republicans in Congress have threatened to harm the economy of the United States if their political demands are not met.
Nothing else matters. Debating all of the side issues only distracts from this. The question that should be asked of all Republicans in Congress at every press conference and public appearance is: "Every credible economist from across the political spectrum agrees that if the US defaults on its debt, it will cause catastrophic economic harm to the country. How can you defend threatening to do that in order to extract concessions for your political agenda?"
Up until now, it has been possible to put forward arguments that mitigate these crimes somewhat: for example, that they don't actually believe a default will be harmful, that they are mistaken in thinking that refusing to raise the debt limit is reining in spending, or that they don't actually intend to allow the country to default and are will pass a clean bill at the last minute if they can't get what they want.
These arguments are no longer credible:
BOEHNER: "And secondly, a lot of them believe that if we get passed August the second and we have enough chaos, we could force the Senate and the White House to accept a balanced budget amendment."
Chew on what that really means for a moment.
This is an explicit admission that "a lot" of Republicans in Congress 1) intend to force the country to default, 2) understand that it will cause grievous harm, and 3) expect that if they cause enough "chaos" by doing this, they will be able to use that economic crisis to extort even more concessions.
An admission like this should trigger a wide-ranging investigation into exactly how many members of Congress are currently conspiring to harm the economy of the United States for political gain.
If these people had spent the last six months or more threatening to crash the economy by hacking major financial institutions, they would be in jail by now awaiting a trial. If they were openly threatening to do it by manipulating the stock market, there would at minimum be an SEC investigation. If they kidnapped actual human hostages and televised their political goals as a ransom demand, they would be arrested for terrorism and likely be in an undisclosed location by now.
But because they are only members of Congress who are openly conspiring and threatening to crash the economy in order to benefit politically by abusing their positions of power, they are untouchable.
We need to never let them forget this betrayal.
Every press conference they should be challenged to defend recklessly holding the economy and credit of the United States hostage.
Every election should be an opportunity to remind voters, in plain and blunt language, how the Republican Party has held their financial health hostage in order to extort concessions from the President and Congress.
Every elected Democrat and candidate should be hammering their opponents with this charge, demanding that they justify threatening to crash the economy for political gain.
No Republican should be able to appear on TV, regardless of the topic, without being pressed by their interviewer to defend their explicit intent to force the United States to default in order to advance their agenda.
The Republican Party has finally crossed the line. The Republicans in Congress no longer represent a legitimate political party willing to work within the system--they are a criminal organization willing to commit economic terrorism against their own country and fellow citizens.
Recall them, where possible. Defeat them. Prosecute them. And put them behind bars where they belong.