What exactly do the Republicans hope to accomplish in this debt ceiling debacle...

[Danger Mouse]

...and what's our best way to counter it?

Nobody wants to see Medicare/Medicade/Social Security slashed. Nobody wants to see the nation go into default either. It seems like the Republicans are firmly entrenched and will not yield.

What will happen if the nation does default? What will the political fallout of the default be? What are President Obama's best options for coming out of this both looking good politically and NOT putting our social safety net under the knife?

Are the Republicans determined to force default no matter what? If that's the case, what the hell can we even do? It seems like a big ugly situation that I don't fully understand.

There are lots of insightful and informed people on the DU...maybe y'all can enlighten me a little. This poor old mouse has been too busy to closely follow this story lately. I'd appreciate more of the informed commentary type of information and less of the heated invective kind, thanks. :)

[Rex]

1. I'm beginning to think their paymaster want a default.

[90-percent]

2. Possibility

Seems like The Powers That Be are just playing another game of shock doctrine to kill SS and medicare and other government run insurance programs.

-90% Jimmy

[Danger Mouse]

3. And honestly, what can be done to stop them?

[Horse with no Name]

5. If THAT is the true goal

Then both sides are in on it and there won't be ANYTHING we can do. It will just happen.

[90-percent]

26. The thought

has occurred to me that the bottom 98% of Americans have no representation in government. Our elected representatives do not serve the voters that elected them. Instead they are at the service of the wealthy and powerful heads of institutions and major corporations. The current character of all that pull the strings on our government is that of stupidity, greed and selfishness to the point of psychosis.

Taxation without representation is a trite, but appropriate term. Look at the polls of how many of us want to end the wars and tax the rich and lower the military budget and the 70-90% that feel this way are not even mentioned in any main stream media. They are ignoring a super majority of Americans!

-90% Jimmy

[Still Waters]

19. I think it goes further than that. Since Reagan it has been their strategic goal to starve and

weaken the federal government. They want to eliminate the EPA, Depts. of Education and Labor, sell off the national parks, do away with oversight and regulation of business and Wall Street, roll back civil rights and unions, decimate workers rights and the piece de resistance, destruction of our New Deal safety net. And I think they are almost there. They have been "working the refs" and testing resistance for over 30 yrs. Each compromise to them has only emboldened them, starting with making Liberal a dirty word leading to this point, where in facing a record deficit they refuse to consider anything but cuts.

[lib2DaBone]

4. They want to prove that this is all Obamas Fault.....

This is so a Repuke can get elected in 2012.

What they haven't figured in is the fact that they are going to destroy the whole system.

[Danger Mouse]

7. They're idiots, right up to the bloody end, that's for sure.

[spinbaby]

8. That's pretty much it

They don't care what bad thing happens as long as they can claim it's Obama's fault. And they don't care what Obama proposes, they wont' go along with it.

[zeemike]

12. They know that they could destroy the system

And so what....they just build a new one that suits them better....like privatize everything and leave just the facade for entertainment purposes.

[sakabatou]

6. To bring down Obama, no matter what the cost

[FLyellowdog]

9. Precisely. nt

[liberal N proud]

18. bingo!

[Parker CA]

10. They want cuts. Enormous cuts. To everything. They refuse revenues. All of them. If they

don't get exactly what they want, they'd prefer to see the economy crumble rather than to compromise, even if compromise is defined as a 80-20 split in their favor. They are heartless and soulless greed zombies who calculate economic failure as being a greater problem for Obama and his reelection chances than for their own.

They travel in a clown car manufactured without a reverse gear that will only shut down as it hurls toward a cliff if they get what they want, otherwise they proceed with ever increasing velocity until they launch off the edge, carrying the American economy in the trunk and screaming that Obama disabled the brakes.

[baldguy]

11. It's a distraction.

To cover up the fact that they have no solutions to help grow the economy & create jobs.

[RKP5637]

16. Excellent point!!! n/t

[Doctor_J]

13. Two things, IMO

the first is to destroy SS & Medicare, which looks like it's going to happen

the second is to make the president look like a weak, incompetent fool for giving up some core Dem principles and getting nothing in return. The first sort of leads to the second.

[rucky]

14. They want failure til the midterms

and they're playing "who's whose bitch?"

[RKP5637]

15. IMO they don't care. They don't want to do what's best for the country. In the

old days D's and R's could work together to broker a deal, but IMO the new republicans want to destroy the country. Somehow, they think this will make it better for them. Despite the education and background of some of them, in the big picture they are absolute fools. Additionally, they want to message it as Obama's failure, not theirs.

I thought the following was a pretty good summary ...

http://www.moneyweb.com/mw/view/mw/en/page292671?oid=317978&sn=2009+Detail&pid=287226

[in_cog_ni_to]

17. They should all be arrested and thrown in jail for NOT defending the Constitution of the United

States of America...which they all swore an oath to do. They are a 'domestic' enemy and should be jailed.

[Sparkly]

20. Obstruction. nt

[creon]

21. Ruin Obama

That is what matters.

No price is too high

[spanone]

22. i guess they think if it all comes tumbling down, america will turn to them

dumfuks

[hairyHans]

23. YOU have to do something simple... INSIST

 Why do Americans not insist(RALLY, RANT & RAGE) that the
first cuts to ANY taxpayer-supported wages/benefits are those
of ALL the politicians... President, congressmen,senators,
upper political civil servants!  
 If this were to happens you would have NO problem coming up
with PRAGMATIC not rhetorical solutions. 
 WHY do AMERICANS NOT JOIN TOGETHER EN MASSE AND INSIST
" POLITICIANS FIRST!" . 
 Don't forget: they put themselves first on EVERYTHING ELSE: 
Best benefits, best expense accounts, best health care, best
working environment .... all at taxpayers' expense.`
  
Will you allow them, by dithering, to further reduce your
common American's well-being?
 

[Warren DeMontague]

24. Same thing they 'accomplished' by shutting the govt down in the 1990s.

The same thing a toddler 'accomplishes' by having a massive temper tantrum in the grocery store.

...i.e. nothing.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

25. avoiding be thrown out of Grover's tree house club. n/t

[JHB]

27. Actually, they do want Medicare/Medicade/Social Security slashed...

..."big government", you know. And a pool of money that rightfully belongs in Wall Street's pocket.

[Motown_Johnny]

28. to crash the economy under a (D) president since it has crashed under 2 (R)s

Just smoke and mirrors

[B Calm]

29. Their main objective is to end the New Deal, win back the presidency by

making it all Obama's fault and then give corporations millions of desperate, hungry, and willing to work cheap or starve workforce!

[AlinPA]

30. Default. And to blame it on President Obama. nt