We’re eleven days from a government shutdown, and apparently the teabaggers are maneuvering Congress into something like a fiscal suicide pact. The Right wants budget cuts that would shoot the U.S. economy in the foot. And, as I understand it, if they don’t get their cuts they’re threatening to refuse to raise the debt ceiling, which would be shooting the U.S. economy in the head.

And no, the Dems are no good at negotiation. And are expert at the Republicans the “bad cop/insane cop” act. But I’d also guess that only a small percentage of the voting public understands what is going on in Washington, and I blame media for that.

By design, or by ignorance, or both, the GOP is determined to kill what little recovery we had going on. Then they can blame President Obama and take back the White House in 2012.

Update: See “The Austerity Delusion.”