Congress finally realized that going over the debt ceiling cliff was going to do too much damage to the country and they pulled a last-moment deal. Unfortunately for all of us, it is not much of a "deal" because it merely sets us up for another crisis in January and February. The Republican Storm Troopers will again tie some piece of their "wish list" to continuing national solvency. If it is not the Affordable Care Act, then it will be Social Security or Medicare or Education or the EPA. Since they do not have enough legislative power they will continue to blast at the front door by holding the nation hostage when it comes to running government, paying thousands of government workers, and borrowing with excellent credit. Can we really take this for three more years?
Basically, a small faction of the Republicans want to crush national government and they came very very close to doing it this time. The irony is that these are people who have been elected to "govern." But instead of governing, they have done everything possible to cripple government. When government shuts down, food inspections stop; but food inspections have already been critically limited simply by picking away at funding. Likewise for just about every government program.
The money is there, of course, if Republicans would allow even modest increases in tax revenues. But, of course, their battle cry is "no new taxes!" Meanwhile, the super-rich continue to get richer and the rest of the population gets poorer. It is, indeed, the super-rich, like the Koch Brothers, who are behind the Tea Party and other right-wing conservative groups. What they want is their own little playground in which they can do anything they want without interference from government.
This is by no means the first time in the history of the United States that wealthy Capitalists have taken control of government --- national and local --- but periods like the late 19th Century have never been economically productive or produced a prosperous middle class. I hope that we can avoid re-living that history.
