A dangerous game of chicken.

The big debate these debate these days seem to be about the federal government debt ceiling. Without an act of Congress, the US government won't be able to borrow another dollar. Essentially, when we hit that dollar amount, the US government will not be able to pay for another thing except with whatever money they have in hand at that moment. But whatever cash they have on hand won't be enough to pay for much. This means the government won't be able to pay for anything and we will default on our debt obligations.

I'm not an economist. Even if I were, I don't know that I could explain all the possible implications of a default, but a world wide economic crises much worse than our last crash doesn't seem far fetched. Huge stock market losses and continued losses in real estate. Look at what's happened to some small European countries that had debt issues like Greece and Portugal. It can't be a good thing. It's not unimaginable that this sinks the whole world especially the US for at least the next decade.

But a lot of Republicans are acting as if default is not a problem and the growing deficit is the much larger issue. In the long term, they may be right. But in the short term, it seems crazy that the debt ceiling wouldn't be raised. But here's what I'm wondering. Are the Republicans just acting crazy as a negotiation tactic? Are they ignoring what most financial and economic types are saying because in their uneducated little heads, they really believe nothing will happen? Or are they just doing this to get the more reasonable people who see the dangers ahead to concede more than they otherwise might. I'm not real sure on this, but I think they are just acting crazy.

Here's the problem with just acting crazy. They are playing to a base that will want them to act more and more crazy as time goes by. It's sort of how this Birther thing got out of control for so long. It didn't make sense for someone to be reasonable and just shut it down. Even if they score a few short term objectives in the long run, it's giving the crazy reason to be more crazy. There's already too much of that going on in politics.

California Budget Proposal

So since he's been elected, Jerry Brown has been trying to tacke the $25 billion budget deficit in California. He's offered a couple proposals, but unable to get a single Republican to agree to a single dollar more in taxes, so not much has happened. He's made the easy cuts to reduce the budget by about half, but taht's it. So the fair question was, what the hell do the Republicans actually want? What's their answer? Yesterday we found out.
$2.4 billion from early childhood programs and mental health case services.
$1.3 billion adult health care centers, in home support for elderly and disabled people and CalWORKS programs for the working poor.
$ 1 billion for 10 percent pay cuts for every state employee.
And assuming $ 5 billion more in tax receipts.

So it's screw the disabled, the old, the poor, and the children. I realize taht no one likes new taxes, but this is ridiculous.