Obama's debt: the Fat Lady don't sing yet..........

A bunch of selfish extremists aka the Tea Party shut down the US because they oppose Obamacare, which just happens to be the law of the land. Right?

 

Wrong.

 

Acting alone, the Tea Party does not have the clout; it does not hold the balance of power. The shut-down was fairly and squarely the action of the Republican Party as a whole, and we shall see in the Mid-terms the extent to which the American people liked it. Latest polls show a big loss for the GOP. But another suggests that large numbers of voters want most members of Congress of both parties thrown out in the next electoral cycle.

 

A plague on both your houses, then.

 

The Government played it nasty, and the media played it for sensation; the shut-down was targeted at the most high-profile, sensitive and newsworthy aspects. National Parks were closed, crippling the small businesses that depend on visitors. War memorials were fenced off, or they were until the veterans simply dismantled them.  The video camera at the panda enclosure in the zoo was switched off. The White House was closed to visitors.

 

None of these would have saved real money. They were aimed at targeting beastly Republicans. They missed. The opprobrium fell on the Administration.

 

Every news-cast carried ‘heartbreak’ stories about the legless veteran who couldn’t get his pension; the cancer patient who couldn’t get treatment; the small girl ‘dying’ because her experimental medication had been stopped.  

 

The financial and economic impacts were minimal. In fact, share prices rose by 2%. As to the deficit, in 2009 it was 10% of GDP. It is now 4%, the largest drop in 40 years.

 

Notwithstanding the shut-down, 87% of the Federal Government was still working. And if push had come to shove, Treasury officials might have increased the debt ceiling regardless under the 14^th Amendment which says that the UDDS debt is not to be questioned.

 

So all that has been achieved is kicking a great big can down the road to February.

 

Then there is the ‘sequester’ (which means ‘confiscate’ not ‘cut’) that reduces the obscenely bloated defence budget by 10% and research and development by 5%.

 

At the end of the day it was a lose-lose situation, so who lost most?

 

It was Obama; of that there is no shadow of doubt.

 

Failing to attend the ASEAN conference in Bali was a catastrophic error. The message he would have sent back to Congress if he had attended would have been clear. The problem sits with Congress, not the White House. This would have shown Presidential dignity and aloofness at which Ike would have excelled. He might have taken a bit of soon-forgotten stick from the media, but he is not up for re-election, so what!

 

But of much greater resonance which will be felt far into the future is the damage to America’s standing in the world, its influence in the Far East, its containment of an over-mighty China, and its prospects for a satisfactory conclusion to the Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement.

 

It left Xi Jinping to ooze his way around South East Asia, impressive in his aura of authority and doing deals all the way. Obama opened the door for China to greatly increase its standing and prestige at the expense of the US. America will come to rue the day.

 

The Constitution of the United States ,the democratic institutions, and  the two main political parties are the oldest in the world. They are showing their age. The Constitution is an 18^th Century construct that is designed to separate powers so that no part dominates, preventing  absolute monarchies and oligarchies which were the norm in Europe.

 

The system depends on compromise. The Democrats and the Republicans hold diametrically opposite views, so that compromise is essential if the system is to work.

 

The former stand for higher taxes, more borrowing, higher Government spending, and more business regulation. Red Ed would be quite at home.

 

The GOP stands for tax, borrowing and spending cuts, and less regulation.

 

Enter extremists like the Tea Party and the system begins to crumble. Holding the country to ransom in order to frustrate  the Obamacare law is the antithesis of democracy, sheer blackmail.

 

But they don’t care. They have no fear of the voters. Gerrymandering of electoral districts means that most politicians will keep the seat for life. Unless, that is, they get deselected, and such is their fear of the TP that the majority of Republicans dance to its tune in case it puts up opposing candidates for the ticket.  

 

The fat lady hasn’t warbled yet.