At 11th Hour, G.O.P. Blinks in Standoff →
The New York Times:
The decision came about 24 hours before the Treasury was due to exhaust its borrowing authority, putting the nation on the brink of a default.
Good for Democrats and Obama for standing their ground and not giving into a dangerous, reckless tactic that cost the country dearly (and almost cost us much more).
The Tea Party is probably the loudest and most dangerous fringe in U.S. politics today (and that’s saying a lot — both sides have some really whacked-out fringes). But this just shows that the real power in the Republican party is, was, and always will be big money. And big money won’t let a debt default happen, because it could be very expensive for them.
Democrats have known this about our party for years: the needs of the people always take a back seat to the needs of big money. Truly liberal policies are rarely even discussed, let alone enacted, even when the Democrats are in power.
The Tea Party was under the impression that they actually had more power over the Republicans. But no — they have enough to cause trouble, but not enough to actually make policies against the interests of big money. (Nobody can.)
Once again, George Carlin was right.