Tick, tick. August 2nd is the Debt Limit Armageddon. Or Not.

And time is rapidly running out. We now find ourselves on a boat sailing just above Niagara Falls. The closer we get to the edge, the greater the danger that we will be sucked over the precipice.
Several days ago, I would have put the odds on option (b) at better than 50-50; today, sadly, I reckon the odds are less than 50-50. In other words, the prospects point increasingly toward a default. Let us hope that is not the case. No one can be sure of the near-term financial consequences, especially if Congress then acted quickly to reverse itself, as it did over the Bush bailout in 2008. But a default, however short, will definitely fuel a growing perception in the world of America in decline.
We also know that the credit rating agencies such as Standard & Poor's and Moody's -- both eager to reclaim their manhood -- are watching these follies with a gimlet eye. Even if Washington passes a version of Reid/McConnell, averting a default, S&P has made clear that absent some sort of multitrillion plan that goes with it, there is a good chance it will downgrade our credit rating. If we actually default, the credit agencies are practically guaranteeing a downgrade.
So, where does all this come out? I deeply regret -- and hope that I am wrong -- that as of this eleventh hour, the answer is option (e) -- default and downgrade. We have one more hour till midnight.
This is no way to run a country

Their rhetoric is equally extreme. Lines in the sand are lines in the sand no matter who draws them.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Saturday, July 9, 2011

ICYMI: 70 House Democrats Tell Obama No Cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid in Deficit Deal

Letter Details Objections to Proposed Social Security COLA Cut


(Washington, D.C.) — U.S. Representative Donna Edwards (D-MD) announced yesterday (see press release below) that she and 69 other Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to President Obama urging him to “protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security by keeping these important programs off the bargaining table.” The letter also provided a detailed explanation of why the formula used to calculate the Social Security COLA should not be changed so that benefits would be reduced, which is a subject of bargaining in the deficit-reduction talks.


“Getting more than one-third of House Democrats to sign this letter in two days is a major achievement,” said Eric Kingson, Co-Chair of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign. “It shows the depth of opposition to these harmful proposals.”

Of course you don't. I didn't expect you would. You've got as tight a hold on your end of the rope as any conservative on the other side.

You're missing the point; lines in the sand is extremism.

Tea Party: no taxes
Liberals: no cuts in social security or Medicare

Those lines were drawn early on in this debate on the debt ceiling.

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of "anything goes." Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God" in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.