Missouri’s Senator Claire McCaskill, nobody’s liberal Democrat, appeared on Meet the Press this morning with South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune and she said this about the debt-ceiling brawl:
Here’s the bottom line: This fight has not been about nothing. This hasn’t just been political theater. There’s a philosophical difference here on the hill between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, and it’s pretty simple: They have voted to keep giving taxpayer checks to big oil while they voted to convert the Medicare system to vouchers. Now, that doesn’t compute for us. How can you be more willing to push money—public money—to the most profitable corporations in the history of the world at the same time you’re willing to have smaller Medicare?
So, that’s really the fight here.
Yes, that’s the fight, as both sides acknowledge, including Senator Thune, a right-winger who represents 814,180 folks or 1/379 of the U.S. population. He has the power of, say, New York’s Charles Schumer, who represents more than 19 million folks or 1/16 of the population. (Missouri’s population is 1/51 of the total, so Claire McCaskill represents more than seven times the people as John Thune, but has no larger voice in our political system.)
Senator Thune was asked this question by David Gregory this morning:
GREGORY: Senator Thune, as a Republican here, somebody who’s reportedly in play, what has to be in this agreement to get you to “yes”?
THUNE: Well, I think a couple of things, David. First, no taxes.
“No taxes.” No taxes first, and really, no taxes second, third, and on to infinity.
Republican irresponsibility, as the debt-ceiling debacle demonstrates, knows no bounds.