If you didn’t know better, you would certainly say, judging by their behavior, that the Republican Party is deliberately sabotaging the economy to damage the Democrats. I can’t say that I know better. So I’m going to say, judging by their behavior, that the Republican Party is deliberately sabotaging the economy to damage the Democrats. I’ll cite two examples, based on Republicans own pronouncements of what they say is important, and I just don’t see how you can come to any other conclusion.

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE: It wasn’t so long ago that the GOP concocted a brand new idea about what afflicted the marvelous machinery of the markets. Uncertainty! This was dreamed up to explain why you couldn’t reform the crazy, runaway-expensive health care system in the US. Because the discussion CREATED UNCERTAINTY, and that would DESTROY BUSINESS ACTIVITY. Fast-forward to the totally manufactured debt-ceiling debate, where conjuring massive uncertainty about the entire fiscal apparatus of the country, and by extension, the world, was run all the way to the eleventh hour plus 59 minutes, creating not just an Olympic-calibre level of uncertainty at the time, but a radioactive fallout about whether the US can ever be counted on again.

THE DREADED DEFICIT: Everyone knows, though many many prefer to pretend otherwise, that you don’t run a contractionary fiscal policy when you are trying to crawl out of a recession. Yet that is all the GOP has been advocating for the ENTIRETY of the Obama presidency, both now, during the faltering recovery AND during the initial economic freefall that they so thoughtfully bequeathed to all of us. But but but...they say they are worried about the deficit! The deficit is what matters! I’ll say this one time. The Republicans had PLENTY of opportunity to address the deficit when they controlled government. No I’ll say it two more times. The Republicans had PLENTY of opportunity to address the deficit when they controlled the government. The Republicans had PLENTY of opportunity to address the deficit when they controlled the government. Draw your own conclusions.