Budget rock, meet debt ceiling hard place

by David Safier

All bets are off.

I've read analyses of what's going on with the shutdown and the debt ceiling, and I have yet to find anyone who has come up with a decent prediction of what will happen next. Shutdown? Continuing resolution? Debt ceiling? No debt ceiling? No one seems to know.

The Democrats are standing firm — it's about damn time — saying they won't make concessions to the [fill in the blank: terrorists or kidnappers. They both work]. The Republicans are a party divided, with Boehner allowing the tea party faction to blackmail him rather than using his better judgement. Yes, Boehner has "better judgement." Not good judgement, just better than the spineless capitulation which has become his default position.

Something's gotta give. Usually it's the Democrats who pull us back from the brink and give into enough of the Republicans' unreasonable demands to avert a crisis, guaranteeing yet another crisis a few months down the road. This time, I don't know. It looks like the Democrats are holding their ground. And it's very possible, even probable, that the less crazy wing of the Republican party will continue to be blackmailed and terrorized by the elected crazies and by the billionaires who are the real power behind the far right's demands.

If you want to know more about the details, look at the posts below where other bloggers have discussed the crisis more ably and thoroughly. All I'm saying is, the stakes are huge, nationally and internationally, politically and economically. I don't have a clue what's going to happen in the next few weeks, and it scares the hell out of me.