Will The GOP Force A Government Defaut And Destroy the Economy?

I have increasingly referred to Congressional Republicans - especially those in the House of Representatives  - as rabid dogs, anarchists and/or saboteurs.  Some have found those adjectives harsh, but in the grand view, that is precisely what they are as they increasingly determined to force a government shut down coupled with a default on the United States' financial obligations regardless of the fact that such a course of action will wreak havoc on the nation and world's economy and harm countless millions of Americans.   All because these Republicans are afraid to stand up and say "No" to the delusional elements of the GOP base - namely. the Christofascists/Tea Party lunatics - who in their childish tantrums threaten Republican incumbents with primary challenges, if the fanatics wishes are ignored.  A piece in Politico looks at this disturbing move towards destroying the economy and the financial well being of millions of Americans.  Here are excerpts:

House Republicans are seriously entertaining dramatic steps, including default or shutting down the government, to force President Barack Obama to finally cut spending by the end of March.
The idea of allowing the country to default by refusing to increase the debt limit is getting more widespread and serious traction among House Republicans than people realize, though GOP leaders think shutting down the government is the much more likely outcome of the spending fights this winter.

Republican leadership officials, in a series of private meetings and conversations this past week, warned that the White House, much less the broader public, doesn’t understand how hard it will be to talk restive conservatives off the fiscal ledge. To the vast majority of House Republicans, it is far riskier long term to pile up new debt than it is to test the market and economic reaction of default or closing down the government.

GOP officials said more than half of their members are prepared to allow default unless Obama agrees to dramatic cuts he has repeatedly said he opposes. Many more members, including some party leaders, are prepared to shut down the government to make their point.

Starting Monday, Boehner will huddle with his leadership team to discuss his preliminary thinking on a spending strategy. A source who attended meetings to prepare for those private talks said GOP leaders are authentically at a loss on how to control members who don’t respond to the normal incentives of wanting to help party leaders or of avoiding situations — like default — that could be public relations nightmares.

The truth is Boehner is at the mercy of a Republican Conference that is far more resistant to compromise than he is. Boehner was embarrassed when he had to pull his plan for raising taxes — and then watched as three-quarters of his members opposed him on the final tax increase bill after Christmas. He might be the weakest speaker of his generation right now — and there is a fair amount of back-biting about who to blame for the recent debacles.

Not to sound like a broken record but this anarchist/saboteur mentality traces directly back the rise of the Christofascists in the GOP.  Facts, reason, logic and objective reality mean nothing to these extremists and radicals.  The y are NOT conservatives as they pretend but rather are radical bomb throwers who do not care who they harm.  For the time being, President Obama is calling them out and one can only hope that he will continue to do so.  The GOP in its current incarnation needs to be destroyed and, hopefully, replaced by a political party that is not untethered from reality.  Here's a quote of Obama via the New York Times:

To even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It’s absurd. As the speaker said two years ago, it would be -- and I’m quoting Speaker Boehner now -- "a financial disaster not only for us but for the worldwide economy." So we got to pay our bills. And Republicans in Congress have two choices here: They can act responsibly and pay America’s bills or they can act irresponsibly and put America through another economic crisis.

But they will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy. The financial well-being of the American people is not leverage to be used. The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip.

And they’d better choose quickly because time is running short. The last time Republicans in Congress even flirted with this idea, our triple-A credit rating was downgraded for the first time in our history, our businesses created the fewest jobs of any month in nearly the past three years, and ironically, the whole fiasco actually added to the deficit.

 Andrew Sullivan sums up the threat that today's GOP constitutes to both America and the global economy:

[T]the GOP is the single greatest threat not just to the American economy right now but to the global one as well. There is no party in the democratic West that comes close to their extremism: the British Tories have spent the last years doing all they can to avoid a credit downgrade; ditto the French right. But these fanatics want to save this country's fiscal standing by destroying it. They must be stopped - and the president is not the one who can really do it. Only we can. Public opinion must rally like never before to expose and defang the lunatics running the GOP asylum. And fast.

And let's also not forget that these same extremists who are willing to push the nation into default refuse to even discuss additional tax increases to address the situation that they themselves depict as meriting extreme action.  The levels of Republican delusion and hypocrisy are absolutely breath taking.