POLITICS - The U.S. Financial Hostage Crises, Tea Party Radicals Crash Agreement (again)

These Tea Party radicals are just as bad as al-Qaida or any other foreign terrorist.  They are willing to risk the U.S. economy and our 'full faith and credit' around the world to get what they want, and cannot get through legitimate legislative means.  They think they can dictate U.S. policy by holding a 'gun' to our heads.

Democracy means you do not always get what you want, it requires compromise.  Our nation's debt limit has nothing to do with any other policy and needs to be raised without attaching demands.

"Senate suspends negotiations pending 'more acceptable' plan from House GOP" PBS Newshour 10/15/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Negotiations in the Senate towards a shutdown solution were interrupted by news that the House GOP would attempt to pass a bill that Majority Leader Harry Reid disparaged as "a blatant attack on bipartisanship."  Congressional correspondent Kwame Holman reports.  Judy Woodruff gets an update from Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico.

"Known as the 'safest asset,' bond market braces for U.S. debt ceiling deadline" PBS Newshour 10/15/2013

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SUMMARY:  If lawmakers fail to avert a debt default, there could be a devastating impact on the national economy: mortgages soaring, consumers unable to borrow, the government forced to pay more to borrow more, plunging us deeper into debt.  Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on how the bond market is anticipating the situation.

"Senators Restart Talks as Default Looms" by JONATHAN WEISMAN, New York Times 10/15/2013

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With the federal government on the brink of a default, a House Republican effort to end the shutdown and extend the Treasury’s borrowing authority collapsed Tuesday night as a major credit agency warned that the United States was on the verge of a costly ratings downgrade.

After the failure of the House Republican leadership to find enough support for its latest proposal to end the fiscal crisis, the Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders immediately restarted negotiations to find a bipartisan path forward.  A spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said Mr. Reid was “optimistic that an agreement is within reach” with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

With so little time left, chances rose that a resolution would not be approved by Congress and sent to President Obama before Thursday, when the government is left with only its cash on hand to pay the nation’s bills.

"With G.O.P. Badly Divided, Boehner Is Left ‘Herding Cats’" by ASHLEY PARKER and JEREMY, New York Times 10/15/2013

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After House Republicans began their closed-door meeting on Tuesday with an impromptu rendition of “Amazing Grace,” Speaker John A. Boehner stood up with what he hoped would be an equally inspiring message.

The Senate was trying to steamroll the House with a new plan to reopen the government and lift the debt ceiling, leaving his team with only two options: “We can wait on the Senate for four days and accept whatever they give us,” he told them.  “Or we can go on offense and force their hand.”

It was yet another moment of decision for Mr. Boehner, who finally finds himself at the crossroads he has been marching toward for weeks: an imminent financial default on the one hand, and on the other an unyielding conservative rank and file that persists with the futile effort to take down President Obama’s health care law even if they also take down the speaker in the process.