Randi Rhodes: Prime Time Smack Down

Last night President Obama went on the air to address the nation over the impending debt ceiling crisis. A presidential address to the nation should not have been necessary, but then this entire crisis is not necessary. Many of President Obama’s problems were inherited from President Bush, but this is one that Congressional Republicans created all on their own. The President derided what he called a “partisan three-ring circus” in Washington. Well, a circus is what you get when you include those Republican elephants—a circus and a big mess.

The President hardly had to underscore the seriousness of the threat we face, if only because the threat we face came on right after the President, in the form of the carved coconut face of Speaker of the House John Boehner. I’m sorry, but seeing John Boehner offer a rebuttal to President Obama’s remarks is like giving the Mayberry town drunk, Otis, a chance to rebut the common-sense wisdom of Andy Griffith, except that Otis was a lovable drunk.

The Senate and the House have rival plans to deal with the debt ceiling issue. Check that, the Senate has a plan to deal with the debt ceiling issue. The House has a plan to exploit the debt ceiling issue for the 2012 campaign. The Republican plan would force us to raise the debt ceiling again, in the middle of an election year. And by “us,” I mean everyone except Republicans. And you can be sure they’ll be standing in the way again. If Republicans really want to end this entire mess, why does their plan call for recreating this entire mess in a few months? Democrats want to put this problem behind us. Republicans want to keep it always just in front of us… at least while Barack Obama is President.

BTW, if Boehner’s plan is implemented, the AAA bond rating of the United States might still be downgraded (video below). That’s how bad of a plan it is—it undermines over two centuries of good credit for the United States. If Boehner has his way, the financial reputation of America is shot. It doesn’t matter how good or longstanding that reputation was. It’s kind of like what happened when Rupert Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal.

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