Does the GOP Want the States to Default?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senator-jim-demint-warns-republicans-debt-ceiling-vote/story?id=13916811

I'm not an economist, but I do know that not raising the debt ceiling would screw the US over, in the short and long terms. I don't know what happens to nations that default on... okay, Greece.

A balanced budget that this so-called 'Senator' is attempting, will crush the nation's economy.

So, with their fancy 'patriotic' (read: jingoistic) love of the flag, they want to... starve that flag's nation?

Do they not care about America, or are they totally not concerned about the monies anymore?

tl;dr - Are the GOP going insane?

Yes they do. It's called starving the beast.

The idea is to bankrupt the government so it spends less on social programs.

Honest to God.

Starvin... the...?

So, this is all just to blame the default on Obama, I'm guessing. A sort of civil brinkmanship. Then, while Obama gets the blame the GOP can swoop the polls! But they'll pick up the tab, of course.

So, by starving all the poor and homeless, there will be more tax cuts? Can someone please explain to me why near half the population still votes for them?

One of these days, E.U. and China will create a lottery (respectively Blue and Red Card) to allow U.S. refugees to work in these dreamlands. XD (OK, I'm exagerrating a bit, but still...)

edited 27th Jun '11 6:44:27 AM by RufusShinra

I dunno.

I'm sure the Americans will come to our Great Supranation and marvel at our free, quality healthcare and amazing standards of living.

I'd laugh, but it's really not funny to think the most powerful nation in the world is just destroying itself for basic, short-term greed. Anyone with some spark of intelligence would understand that a country with a good middle-class foundation is much more able to create money for the powerful. Hello, GOP, Ford's Five Dollar a Day, the policy even young students learn about in Europe!

I really wonder if someone thought it through, in Wall Street and the Capitol. I mean, what will happen if they create a system with all the riches in financial and high-cost products, with 90% of the population living in poverty (because that really seems to be the long-term goal, here)?

Ironic here, but not so sure after all: don't you think that kind of behaviour is like the pre-revolution societies in Eurasia and China, with an oligarchy always taking more and more and twisting the legal system to create a protected category of citizens?

I thought that too. If it weren't for the damn ABC logo at the top of the page, I thought I was reading my history notes on the Wiemar.

To be fair, there really is a reasoning behind all this. The thinking is that by gutting the social programs you encourage individuals to be more responsible, and to get off their lazy butts and go to work for less money, and save more of what money they do make. This in the long run will result in a stronger economy.

It just happens to be wrong in so many ways.

{No. No pre-emptive digs at other posters —Madrugada}

edited 27th Jun '11 8:23:20 AM by Madrugada

Christ, it's like something lifted right out of the mouth of a Dickens villain.

edited 27th Jun '11 7:31:51 AM by TheBatPencil

Is that the thinking, or the excuse? Because when some GOP politicians want to cut disaster relief, it doesn't look like responsible behaviour, does it?

I should point out, that's the relatively old-type thinking. The thinking of guys like Greenspan, as an example. Things are a lot different these days.

These days, to be honest, a lot of it is outright trolling and bullying. It's a race to see how much you can piss off the "liburls", because that's what gets you the support.

Please note that I'm not talking about little-c conservatives. I'm talking about the Conservative Movement.

Well, it might also be a sort of total disconnect from reality. They're playing almost 100% on politics and party politics and have basically forgotten what they're actually supposed to be doing; running the country.

Pretty much. The Republican party has long since gone off the rails of what it once was in favor of simply trying to posture about how liberals are devilspawn and the GOP is here to save the day.

Its apparently much easier for them to win votes by being jingoistic psychopaths who take advantage of that a lot of conservative voters are less educated and therefore less likely to identify logical fallacies.

edited 27th Jun '11 8:39:56 AM by Midgetsnowman

So... how long before it snaps?

I believe somewhere I saw a poll about conservative voters preferring somebody who stuck to their guns versus liberal voters preferring somebody who could compromise.

Isn't that one of the definitions of "conservative"?

Not as applied to descriptions of voters. Even on the things they want to change, it's an insistence on stubbornness.

on the topic:

The GOP doesn't want the state to default, what they want is to take it right to the brink of defaulting so they can vote to raise the limit and "save the day" from those greedy, lazy hippy liberals who want to destroy the nation by feeding the homeless and taxing those poor, homeless billionaires.

Basically, they're trying to make the nation desperate so that they'll listen to their bullshit. Its helped them get corporate profits so high after the crash, and its helped corporations hire people for minimum wage or as close to minimum wage as possible.

I also dislike the republican party, but I can see why some people would agree with their tenants.

By the "brink" of default, we means that banks will essentially end up owning many states. The government will no longer be able to afford public services, and many Americans have been calling for across-the-board privatization, anyway.

In their current magnitude, banks are openly challenging the authority of the state.

Why it's always the wrong dudes challenging it?

So... my idea of the United States of Verizon, Walmart and Google are that bit closer to the reality?

Not google. They don't want to be evil.

Think United Corporations of Verizon, Walmart, and US Bank.

speaking as someone who banks with them, US Bank is the very definition of evil.

USAA is where it's at. All the awesome of a credit union with all the resources of a larger bank.

At least if the Corporations ran the US openly they would have the resources to give me a good job as part of a corporate paramilitary force..