President Obama bends to blackmail

Pretty much the whole story here:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60543.html

A six-shooter lies gleaming on the table. There are five bullets in its chambers. You spin the cylinder and hold the gun to America’s head.

“Stop, don’t pull the trigger!” says Barack Obama. “We can’t risk America’s future.”

“Aww, go ahead and shoot,” say the Republicans. “Maybe it will reduce the size of government … permanently.”

And that was the debt ceiling debate. President Obama was not willing to risk a default that might ruin the American economy and topple the world’s financial system.

The Republicans, or more specifically the tea party Republicans in the House, simply did not care. Some said that they wanted default. It would be healthy. America could sell off its national parks and the gold reserves in Fort Knox. I kid you not. You didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Or we could simply not pay the military. Now there was an idea! There are 1,137,568 members of the military currently stationed in the United States. They have rifles, tanks, artillery, jets and missiles. And we’re not going to pay them? I don’t think so.

In the end, the Republicans got what they wanted.

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Money quote:

In a new CNN poll, 77 percent of Americans said that the elected officials who dealt with the debt ceiling acted like spoiled children.

Spoiled children everywhere should be insulted.