It is difficult to remember a more dismal moment in American politics. The debt ceiling crisis and the agreement that ended it point to deep dysfunction in our system. In a variety of ways, the episode portends continued short-term economic misery and long-term national decline. It is as if the US chose at the last minute not to commit financial suicide – but only out of preference for a slower, more excruciating form of self-destruction.
The crisis has, however, been clarifying in several respects. We can now say with some confidence that Washington will be doing nothing more to help the ailing economy. President Barack Obama is trying to push an employment agenda. But for the federal government to spur growth or create jobs, it has to spend additional money. The antediluvian Republicans who control Congress do not think that demand can be expanded in this way. They believe that the 2009 stimulus bill, which prevented an even worse economy over the past two years, is responsible for the current weakness. Their approach of depression economics – embedded in the debt ceiling compromise – demands that we address the risk of a double-dip recession by cutting public expenditure immediately.
So instead of trying to pull out of the stall, the US economy will simply have to absorb whatever blow is coming. Some congressional Republicans are just backward, rejecting modern economics on the same basis that they reject Darwin and climate science. Others are cynical, desiring the worst possible economy as an aid to recapturing the White House and Senate in 2012. Still others simply do not believe that government action can ever be a force for good. Whatever their motivations, there is something sad about desperate Americans looking to a party that lacks any inclination to alleviate their misery.