The Republican Bet

It’s an old game with clear and well-known motivations. Republicans put on an irrational show before the need to increase the borrowing capacity of the federal government, in the prospect of reducing the re-election chances of Barack Obama. They will keep the matter on hold until the last minute, buying time for their own purposes.

They will have to authorize an increase in the debt; otherwise, they will be responsible for a global financial and economic catastrophe.

If Washington can’t pay their own debts, interest rates around the world will become sky high, creating an authentic financial tax that will plague the entire planet. What, then, are they looking for? First, Republicans always remember that they are the government and that any Democratic president is a vulgar “impostor.”

That explains why they treated Bill Clinton as an “illegitimate president,” making every effort to remove him. They treat Obama as if he had taken power after a “coup d’etat.” Their second objective is to delay the economic recovery that, even though shy, encourages the Obama administration, in order to deepen the crisis.

They propose reducing the fiscal deficit by cutting public spending, which drives the economy everywhere, aggravating the recession and increasing unemployment as the presidential elections approach. If the government, the main national economic operator, reduces their expenses, other agents will also follow suit by reducing their own circulation, producing a kind of economic paralysis.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke defined with theatrical words the economic outlook if an increase in the debt of the federal government is not authorized.

The consequences would be “catastrophic, dire, a major crisis,” he said. That is exactly the objective of the Republicans, but in a “controlled” manner within the United States economy. That is how they expect to sabotage the possible re-election of Obama, but only time will tell if they will succeed.