We Are (Still) Not a Deadbeat Nation.

Last Thursday, we looked at the reasoning behind the Federal Reserve's decision to delay plans to taper its stimulus program. Today, we have a little more insight into how and why that happened. Moments ago, New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley said the decision was made partly because results of their economic tests did not suggest the US economy was ready yet for tapering... And in particular, fiscal uncertainties "looming very large right now".

Hey, G-O-TEA Congresscritters, Mr. Dudley is talking about you!

And it's not just The Fed getting fed up with the manufactured crises. Over the weekend, President Obama again urged Congress to cut the manufactured crisis crap. After all, "We are not a deadbeat nation".



We already know the G-O-TEA manufactured crisis meant to take away people's health care and cause more economic harm makes absolutely no economic sense, but that's not all. It's also increasingly making little to no political sense. A new CNBC poll shows huge opposition among Americans to a G-O-TEA fueled government shutdown. Even 48% of Republicans don't support the G-O-TEA anti-Obamacare shutdown scheme, and 36% of Republicans don't support any defund Obamacare scheme.

Yet despite the economic and political reality of now, the usual TEA flavored suspects are peddling their tired old manufactured crisis. They're even threatening other Republicans with primary challenges "negative scoring" (for conservative interest group scorecards) if they don't go along with the Lords of the Crazy in their quixotic quest to destroy America's social safety net. Unfortunately for them, at least some Republicans are still dismissing their insani-TEA.

"In the United States Senate, we will not repeal or defund Obamacare. We will not. And to think we can is not rational," Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said last Thursday on CNN. "To somehow think we are going to defund it is simply not going to happen at this time, and it will, in my opinion, as it did before, harm the American people's view of the Republican party." [...]

The government shuts down next week on Oct. 1 if Congress doesn't act. Senate Democrats believe that even if they do get six GOP votes, completing the bill may take all week, bringing the country perilously close to a shutdown by the time it ping-pongs back to the House. Polls suggest Republicans, being the party out of power, will be blamed. That means once the lights go out, they'll have no choice but to fold. The only question is whether Cruz destroys what's left of the GOP brand in the process by shining a national spotlight on its radical tactics. He's laying the groundwork to escape from the battle with his reputation in tact by preemptively blaming his colleagues -- colleagues who remain skeptical of his plan.

"Tactics and strategies ought to be based on what the real world is. We do not have the political power to do this," Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said Sunday on CBS' "Face The Nation." "So we're not about to shut the government down over the fact that we cannot, only controlling one house of Congress, tell the president that we're not going to fund any portion of this [health care law]. Because we can't do that."

We only have one week left until the manufactured crisis turns into unnecessary economic pain. And yes, it truly is unnecessary. After all, we are not a deadbeat nation. We do not shirk our responsibility to take care of ourselves and each other.

When more Congressional Republicans actually take this to heart, maybe then we can actually take their "economic policies" seriously.

Stop the Insani-TEA!

Yesterday, we got quite the surprise. The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee voted unanimously to continue The Fed's $85 billion monthly bond buyback program. Major stock indices immediately shot up when this was announced, as many had been expecting The Fed to "taper" its buyback program.

Yet while the equity market and a whole lot of talking heads were jumping for joy over The Fed's decision to continue its stimulus program, hardly anyone noticed why this happened. Fortunately for us, Steve Benen noticed.

But as we've discussed many times, [outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Ben] Bernanke keeps urging conservative lawmakers to get smarter about economic policy, to no avail.

He has, over the last few years, occasionally abandoned subtlety and explicitly pleadedwith Congress to consider fiscal stimulus -- or at least less fiscal austerity -- but Republicans have always refused. (Indeed, GOP lawmakers haven't just been content to ignore the need for fiscal remedies, they've also demanded that Bernanke stoptrying to improve the economy through monetary measures.)

Bernanke wants Congress to act as a partner, working alongside the Fed to strengthen the economy. Instead, Congress has acted as an opponent, pushing in the opposite direction.

And now that Republicans are threatening to impose economic chaos on Americans on purpose, the Fed chair apparently figures it's a bad time to start scaling back. He's right.

We've said it here before, and we'll say it again today. Investment begets growth! It should be a simple concept for everyone to understand.

Unfortunately for us, the Congressional G-O-TEA Gang just don't get it. Instead, they're pursuing another manufactured crisis and demanding even more austerity. So of course, we now have to live on a razor's edge for the next two weeks as we await the conclusion of this latest and greatest manufactured crisis.

At least now, there are signs of the conclusion approaching. Brian Beutler reported earlier on the latest twist in the latest episode of Republican Insani-TEA. Even though House Republicans are now set to pass their nonsensical and sadomasochistic budget resolution, the Senate G-O-TEA culture warriors who had originally proposed this very plan are now developing cold feet... Just in time for their feet to meet the fire.

Make no mistake, even the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are realizing their fiscal pipe dream has no chance in hell of getting past Harry Reid. Their insani-TEA is about to crash into reality. And at this point, Republicans are left deciding whether to crash and burn with the G-O-TEA culture warriors while forcing everyone to endure a government shutdown, or save whatever is left of their faces by cutting a last minute deal with Democrats.

A favorite philosopher of ours once uttered three words that forever made their mark on pop culture. Yesterday, Ben Bernanke and The Fed shouted out these same three words when announcing continuation of The Fed's stimulus program. And now, it's time for Congressional Republicans to pay very close attention to the advice we're giving them: Stop the insani-TEA!