Learn to Share

"It's unthinkable that this country will not meet its obligations on time. It's just unthinkable we'd ever do that. It's not going to happen.''

- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on CNN's "State of the Union" 07/25/2011

"You know, what I really want right now is to -- to get a debt ceiling deal for my birthday. That's kind of sad, I know."

- President Obama in an NPR interview answering the question of what he wants for his birthday.

"Show me the Money!"

- Jerry McGuire

The American people know that the Republican position in the debt ceiling debate, of all spending cuts and no revenue increases doesn’t make sense.

Congressional Republicans thought that they could bully President Obama into cutting entitlement programs, then blame him for the collapse of any debt ceiling deal when he wouldn’t. They would get the cuts they wanted and not take any heat for their inflexible anti-tax stands.

Much to their surprise Obama called their bluff.

Obama signed on to large cuts in Social Security and Medicare angering his base. But, he also supported a modest increase of revenue that was based almost entirely on closing tax loopholes. This offer turned into a trap for the Republican who now appear they are more interested in protecting their “no tax increase” pledge to Grover Norquist than the world economic system.

When Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) walked away from a deal not once but twice, he missed a huge opportunity to get everything he said Republicans wanted. Now the Senate will step in with a more moderate proposal that will pass the Senate quickly, which the House will be forced to accept.

If Congressional Republicans don’t cooperate, they will suffer a tremendous backlash as average voters pay a high price for their intransigence. Maybe that will jolt the Party back to reality.

Since 2000 Republicans have operated in a political atmosphere where facts mean nothing and spin means everything. The Bush tax cuts didn’t create jobs and under-taxed rich people are not “Job Creators.” The Bush Administration has one of the worst job creation records of any modern Presidency. All the Republican economic policy has done is squander the Clinton Surplus and create an economic catastrophe. Yet the Republicans remain committed to repeatedly driving over the same cliff. Economic reality simply don’t matter as much as keeping their Tea Party base happy.

And they have to.

The Republican establishment looked the other way for years and years as the anti-tax crazies, xenophobic nativists, and the hard core Christian right, took over Republican Party organizations in State after State. Even before these groups formed into the Tea Party movement, the Republican establishment thought they could control them and treated them with the same condescension as the Liberal establishment.

They were wrong.

Those activists have now worked their way up through the ranks to the national stage. Their loyalties are not to the Republican establishment, or even big business. Their loyalties are to each other. They can ignore the establishment and rely on each other for funding and volunteers. Furthermore, Citizens United insulates them from the need for big business or Party money. Outside groups from all over the country can come into any Congressional District and drop lots of money on extremest candidates far to the right of the voters.

As a result Congressional Tea Partiers have no need for, and nothing to fear from the establishment groups that ran the Party for years.

The Senate is a different matter. Senators need the support of big business to run expensive statewide campaigns. They don’t share the hard core self destructive fanaticism of the House and they need a deal that doesn’t hurt their big business donors.

Unfortunately for them, the Republicans have trapped themselves in an anti-revenue philosophy driven by the hard right of their party. (http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/mark-mellman/168895-gop-gets-it-wrong-on-tax-increases). Their position is not held by the American voter, and is far outside of the main stream. (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/house-republicans-no-tax-stance-far-outside-political-mainstream/).

Skepticism of the “cut only” philosophy runs long and deep. A recent compilation of polls show 19 different polls validate the findings that Americans support revenue increases along with spending cuts as a way balance the budget. (http://www.capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/bruce-bartlett/2292/americans-support-higher-taxes-really).

Republicans need only to look to Florida, Wisconsin and Ohio, to see what can happen to them nationally, if they don’t moderate their position. These three states had freshman Republican Governors who took office in January with high approval ratings only to devastate those ratings with hard core, ideologically driven policies that were immensely popular with their hard core base, but far out of line with voters beliefs.

If they don’t cooperate on some sort of deal, the budget debate will be devastating for the Republicans in 2012. Right now the Democrats look like the only adults in the room and the Republicans look like a spoiled, self-centered child in the middle of a tantrum.

For the future of their Party and for the future of the Country it is time they grew up and learned to share.