A few weeks ago a good friend of mine left Washington, D.C., where he’d been working as a lawyer for a few years, and returned to California, where he now practices. He’s surrounded by highly educated people. And yet he wrote me this week to boast, “You know what’s nice? Nobody is discussing the looming government shutdown. It’s just not on anybody’s radar.” If he weren’t a news junky, it probably wouldn’t be on his either. I normally can’t stand it when writers use their conversations with friends, waiters, clipboard people or whomever else to draw sweeping insights about big things like politics, America and the world. So apologies for going a little Tom Friedman on you. At least I didn’t invoke any of my cab drivers, none of whom ever seem to mention the debt limit. Anyhow I bring this up because I do think it’s illustrative. And I think it speaks to a hidden danger for Republicans, who already know these antics are more politically damaging to them than they are to Democrats. A lot of people around the country, not just in coastal California, have no idea that the GOP is about to harm the economy all over again, like it did in 2011, against its leaders’ better judgment. But they’re about to find out. The last time we went through the unpleasantness of government shutdown and default threats, the country was in a much different place. President Obama had just been gut punched by the electorate. The economy was much deeper in the toilet than it is now. Deficits were twice as high. Republicans had a very large majority. The pendulum had to swing in the other direction. I think the country knew it. And though I don’t think anyone knew how far it would swing or what it would clobber along the way, it wasn’t a huge shock when it whacked into the debt limit. Congressional reporters actually saw that coming in 2010, after the Great Shellacking in November. Obama didn’t help matters by clouding what was really going on. He wanted a deal, he thought Republicans had a fair claim to demand budget cuts, and so he let the fact that he was a participant in the debate obscure its extortive terms.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:51:45 +0000
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