Memory is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved, and most people with a brain would have little problem retrieving information from the past six years unless their brain is dead. It is fair to say that when people think back on the past six years, they will likely remember that Republicans were responsible for damaging the world’s financial system and America’s economy twice, and are right on schedule to do it again. Americans should be used to regularly-scheduled financial crises due to Republicans playing hostage politics, and quite likely they have learned to accept it as the consequence of electing fascists to serve in Congress.
The current debt ceiling crisis marks the third time in six years Republicans were instrumental in creating havoc with the world, and America’s, economy through economic malfeasance and manufactured financial emergencies. Now that they are creating another crisis, they are maneuvering to plan the next emergency to take another shot at thwarting the Affordable Care Act before the end of the 2013 calendar year.
Each of the GOP’s economic disasters has cost the nation dearly including the 2007-08 crash that killed tens-of-millions of jobs and decimated the world’s economy, and in 2011 they cost America a million jobs, nearly $19 billion in interest fees, and a sequester slated to kill over a million jobs within the next year. There is no telling what the current crisis will cost the nation or how devastating the next planned crisis will be will be to the economy, but if Republicans prevail there is little doubt the cost will be painful because the GOP is highly motivated to keep the economy in dire straits. While Americans may be getting accustomed to Republican-created financial crises, world leaders remember the level of damage they are capable of and lashed out at Congress for shutting down the government and playing politics with the debt ceiling.
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While neo-confederates Rafael Cruz and Sarah Palin were minimizing the Republican shutdown in Washington D.C. over the weekend, world economic leaders were pleading, warning, and pressing America to “raise its debt ceiling and reopen its government or risk massive disruption the world over” according to Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) managing director. The World Bank, IMF, and world leaders were in Washington to talk about the international economic recovery until “they found out that the debt ceiling was the issue” and that Republicans shut down the government and made sure “there was no remedy in sight.” As if Treasury Secretary and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke were unaware of the threat to the world’s economy, the leaders lectured them and predicted that even a near-default would lead to higher borrowing costs and a slowdown of the global economy; just what Republicans want.
The chairman of the French bank, BNP Paribas, said “This cannot happen, and this shall not happen. The consequences of this would be absolutely disastrous,” but he was preaching to the choir and likely unaware that Republicans could not care less about the consequences of their actions. Secretary Lew readily acknowledged that “Our work begins at home, and we recognize that the United States is the anchor of the international financial system, and the United States cannot take this hard-earned reputation for granted.” Based on the parade of economic experts decrying America’s flirtation with an economic catastrophe, the nation’s reputation as an economic leader is rapidly vanishing and likely damaged irreparably.
Many of the world’s high-ranking economic officials made open appeals to Congress replete with warnings from America’s allies and creditors alike. World Bank leader Jim Yong Kim said the “world is days away from a very dangerous moment” and that “the closer we get to the deadline the greater the impact will be for the world.” The German finance minister issued a stern directive to Congress that “the fiscal standoff has to be resolved without delay,” and IMF’s Lagarde said “that the lack of certainty, that lack of trust in the U.S. signature” will disrupt the world economy.” Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase painted a bleak picture of the days ahead if there is no resolution and warned that “As you get closer to it, the panic will set in and something will happen” and that “JPMorgan has spent huge amounts of time and money and effort to be prepared” because they remember the damage Republicans wreaked in 2008 and 2011 and understand their willingness to repeat their past performances.
It is a sad day indeed when the Secretary of the Treasury and Federal Reserve chairman of the world’s financial leader have to be chastised and dressed-down by foreign leaders because a group of fascist Republicans threaten the world’s economy and financial system. However, it is becoming a regular occurrence for leaders of foreign nations to question the legitimacy of America as a global leader as evidenced by criticism that “nobody knows if the country will still be solvent in three weeks. What is clear, though, is that America is already politically bankrupt,” or that “a rump in Congress is holding the whole place to ransom that doesn’t really jibe with the notion of the United States as a global leader.” The insults prompted Secretary of State John Kerry to tell world leaders that “When we get this moment of political silliness behind us, we will get back on a track the world will respect and want to be part of.”
After three different financial crises in six short years, it is highly unlikely that any nation will ever respect America again and they certainly will think twice about being any part of this country’s “track;” at least as long as Republicans remain a toxic political movement. The world’s problem now is that toxic Republicans are as unfazed at the prospect of creating a worldwide financial catastrophe as they are destroying America’s economy, and they appear legitimately pleased at the ruin their hostage politics are already wreaking on American citizens and financial markets around the world.
America had gone from being a respected nation under the last Democratic president to a hated warmonger and world economy destroyer under the Bush administration, and just when another Democrat saved this nation’s economy and brought stability to the world’s financial markets, Republicans deliberately caused a financial crisis within 8 months of taking control of the House of Representatives in 2011. Within a year-and-a-half they threatened to send the economy over the fiscal cliff in December 2012, and ten months later are two days away from sending the world’s economy back into the recession they created in 2007-2008.
The state of this nation under assault by Republican fascists is beyond embarrassing; it is distressing to say the very least. For their part, Republicans are undaunted at the level of damage they have wreaked on the nation thus far, and are seemingly delighted to create an economic catastrophe that will affect the entire world. It is a sad commentary indeed that a country that was once a respected and exceptional world leader has fallen so far from the world’s graces due to one political party that still cannot accept the result of two presidential elections, and their willingness to decimate the world’s economy and commit political suicide to punish the people for electing an African American man as President puts them in the same league as any extremist terrorist.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
