Tea Party Gets Its Way; Dow Drops Like a Rock

"When you look at this final agreement that we came to with the White House, I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I'm pretty happy," said Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

It's almost like there's some sort of relationship here. The Tea Party holds America hostage until it extracts dangerous spending cuts as ransom, and the markets react by dropping — hard— for nine out of ten days. Before the revisionist Republicans over at Fox News' Propaganda Wing can brainwash the moron half of the country with stories about how this is all Obama's fault, let's look at the facts. In early to mid July, it appeared that President Obama had the upper hand in the debt ceiling deal. Republican Senate Leader McConnell indicated a willingness to get a deal done and let the President sort out the specifics, including proposing a bill that would give the President the authority to just raise the debt ceiling as needed. At the same time, the market went on a three day, 300 point rally, culminating in a high of 12,724 on July 21. Then, the Gang of Six senators announces its plan, which would raise the debt ceiling, deal a little with the deficit, and essentially provide political cover for both Democrats and Republicans. It would have ended the crisis and saved the day. Republican Tea Baggers in the House said no and walked away from the table. John Boehner stopped returning the President's phone calls, an incredible breach of etiquette, and more importantly, prolonging the crisis. Incidentally, why did the Tea Party say no? Because the proposed plan would have raised taxes on billionaires. They walked away from a good deal to preserve tax cuts for billionaires. Remember that later, when this giant debacle ends up costing your 401k 10% of its value (or more) and you can't retire until you're 75. Since the July 21 high, the market has been down every day but one. The Dow has lost roughly 1,000 points and shows absolutely no sign of letting up. Wait, how can that be? I'm pretty sure Fox News told me that the best way to fix an economy is to cut spending, tighten our belts, and things would turn around. That's why the Tea Party went after significant spending cuts, right? Well...they're wrong. (See also: 1937). Spending cuts in a shaky economy sink the economy further into recession, and with that, increases debt. In trying to score political points over the Democrats, the Republican hostage-takers pulled out their inner Casey Anthony and whacked the burgeoning economy. Well played, morons. So yes, as you watch the news this week, or perhaps when you log on to your retirement account this week and you see ten percent is gone, you can thank John Boehner and the Republican Tea-rrorists.