The Tea-Publican Hostage Strategy Takes Shape

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Tea-Publican Congressional leadership went to the White House on Wednesday to meet with the president to discuss the pending federal debt ceiling "crisis" — a manufactured crisis entirely of the Tea-Publican's making in order to take America hostage, once again, for their ransom demands to kill Medicare as we know it and various and other assorted "austerity" budget cuts.

It was pure political theater and posturing. Tea-Publicans were on their high horses and were embarrasingly condescending and demeaning in their remarks afterwords about their meeting. How dare the president not simply cave-in to our demands! Can't he understand how brilliant — brilliant I tell ya! — that our boy genius, Rep. Paul Ryan is? The president hurt his feelings. Harumph, Harumph! It brought Weeper of the House John Boehner to tears. "Will somebody please give crybaby here a handerkerchief?"

The real purpose of this meeting was for Tea-Publicans to deliver their ransom demands: "give us what we want, or we kill the hostage!" They wanted to make clear that, yes indeed, they really are crazy enough to default on the U.S. debt for the first time in history and they are willing to cause an economic crisis that will make the Bush Great Recession look like a day in the park.

Steve Benen explains at the Political Animal – Making the hostage strategy explicit:

Indeed, one of the more striking aspects of yesterday’s gathering was the increasingly-explicit nature of the Republican hostage strategy.

…Boehner’s let’s-get-a-deal-done stance masks a deeper belief within the House Republican Conference — that Obama will back down eventually and agree to its demands, forcing Capitol Hill Democrats to follow suit.

“Of course, it’s dangerous,” a House Republican close to Boehner said of the politics of a government default. “But it’s dangerous for everybody, especially the president. At the end of the day, [Obama] will have to give in.”

“Who has egg on their face if there is a sovereign debt crisis, House Republicans or the president?” asked another senior GOP lawmaker.

With a potential debt default by the U.S. government just two months off, and a continued standoff between the White House and GOP congressional leaders on how to move forward in boosting that limit, Republican lawmakers say publicly and privately that they believe Obama will be the one who has to cave.

To be sure, the hostage-strategy dynamic isn’t new, but it’s uncommon for Republican members of Congress to be this candid about their plan out loud. One leading GOP lawmaker acknowledged that the Republican plan is “dangerous,” but the party doesn’t care. Another conceded that the GOP is inviting a “sovereign debt crisis,” but figures Obama would get the blame, so Republicans don’t care about that, either.

The key to an effective hostage strategy is creating a credible threat. When the hostage taker has a gun to the head of hostage, those expected to pay the ransom have to genuinely believe the bad guy really will pull the trigger. Yesterday, the Republican message to the president wasn’t subtle: we really will pull the trigger and then blame you for not paying the ransom.

This, of course, makes the prospect of compromise that much more ridiculous. As far as Republicans are concerned, there’s no need to compromise — they’re the ones with the gun and the hostage. Why strike a deal? If Obama caves, they get what they want. If Obama stands firm, and the GOP deliberately destroys the economy, Republicans will blame the president and destroy his chances of re-election. As far as the GOP leadership is concerned, all they have to do is wait.

In the abstract, this is arguably one of the great political scandals of recent American history. There is no modern precedent for a political party acting like an organized crime family this shamelessly. The American public isn’t hearing much about these tactics, but I can’t help but wonder what the mainstream would think if someone were to tell them that the Republican Party intends to cause a recession, on purpose, unless Democrats drastically cut Medicare and other popular domestic programs.

Basic American patriotism — wanting what’s best for your country — would seemingly prevent such thuggish tactics. And yet, here we are.

Let's just call this what it is — economic terrorism. The Tea-Publicans are at war with America.

RELATED:

* The richest 1% of Americans control 40% of the nation’s wealth. Conservatives believe this isn’t quite good enough.

* On a related note, in a global context, U.S. tax rates are some of the lowest in the world. Conservatives believe this isn’t good enough, either.