An extortionist minority in charge

First it was the defunding of government operations that was used as a bargaining chip by a faction of Congress. Having succeeded in shutting down the government, they are now using the debt ceiling as a trump card. 

The core of the US political crisis, which could have far-reaching negative ramifications, has nothing to do with government funding, nor was it born out of fear of the long-term forecast by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that the baseline series for federal debt in public hands would rise to above 200 per cent of GDP by 2076. It is simply because some key minorities, both inside and outside Capitol Hill, hold Obamacare in contempt. When the effort to kill the Affordable Care legislation in Congress failed and it became law, and when repeated attempts to repeal the law also failed, they reached for a new lethal weapon, one they hope will annihilate funding for the entire programme and effectively kill Obamacare: the threat to default on the national debt.  

The strategy originated with hardcore conservatives such as former Attorney-General Edwin Meese III (under the Reagan administration) and pays no respect to the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which places the country’s debt under the guardianship of the Constitution. The so-called principle of the national debt’s inviolability – the assurance that the US is bound by the highest law of the land to honour its debt obligations – is held as a fundamental principle of the US Constitution, and one that has made US Treasury Bonds one of the safest investment havens.

Trouble began shortly after President Obama won a second term and after the push to repeal his healthcare law was going nowhere. Conservative activists formed a loose coalition to plot a new strategy to derail it. Over time, that small circle of conservatives grew into hundreds. The drafting of Tea Party players into the coalition, and strong financial backing from the likes of the billionaire Koch brothers, have created a broad-based and multi-front maelstrom that is rocking the Obama government. There is a defunding “toolkit” that outlines an action plan as well as talking points for questions like “What happens when you shut down the government and you are blamed for it?” It also offers a suggested script for phone calls to congressional offices, and sample letters to editors. There is a “Defund Obamacare Town Hall Tour” that gather grassroots supporters across the country. The stars of the Tea Party movement make frequent appearances at these meetings. New conservative groups are aided and abetted. These Tea Party-inspired groups have grown both in complexity and the amount of money that flows throw them. The Tea Party Patriots, Young Americans for Liberty and Traditional Values Coalition are just a few among their number.  

To these groups, the word “catastrophic” – which is now being used in headlines across the world when discussing the US crisis – does not matter. The only thing that matters to them is their trivial desire to shut down Obamacare and a president they dislike with passion. To them, no abuse is off limits because the end purely justifies the means. A case in point is a US$5 million Internet advertisement sponsored by the group Generation Opportunity, which shows a menacing Uncle Sam popping up between a woman’s legs during a gynecological examination. 

The American public is generally equally divided on the Affordable Care Act, but with 57 per cent disapproving of cutting off funding as a way to derail the law. 

The last redistricting of voting precincts may have made compromise by moderate Republicans more difficult, but it should not have made it impossible. The seeming invincibility of the “defund Obamacare” movement represents a political phenomena in a democracy that is being ruled by an overzealous minority that defies the long-held principles of democracy itself.

In the end, even if Congress fails to agree to raise the debt ceiling, President Obama still has one card left – his constitutional right to exercise executive power to overrule a congressional decision in a time of crisis. He will be chastised by many for doing that.  

It is not unlike the situation President Abraham Lincoln described when a group of southerners blamed him for the succession movement when he refused to compromise over the extension of slavery: “A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!”