Insanity

When we look at the way our political leadership in this country  - Republican and Democratic alike -  has gone about the debate on the budget and debt ceiling, the term we keep coming back to is insanity.

We wish there was another way to put it. How else can you explain doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results?

We're not even sure we can give the President any more leeway in his dealing with the Republican Congressional leadership on the debt ceiling and budget issue. Mr. Obama has been willing to compromise so much there are now five separate sources who've confirmed the President has at least floated the idea of raising the age of Medicare eligibility, just so that he might get the Republicans to agree to ANY kind of budget.

It doesn't seem to matter that less than a month ago, one of the top economists in the world - Paul Krugman - pointed out that raising the Medicare age from 65 to 67 would actually cost Americans MORE money than if we left the age barrier at 65. President Obama's push to get Republican leadership to agree to a deal - ANY deal - has pulled him into political waters so deep, we're not sure he's even above the waves anymore.

Still, when it comes to the highest levels of insanity of those involved in the debt and budget negotiations, Mr. Obama isn't even in the same boat as his Republican colleagues.

Speaker of The House John Boehner continues to deny that his party's strategy of extremism wouldn't come back to bite him sooner rather than later. That the Speaker seems to have lost control of his party members is proof enough of how loopy the idea was to depend on people who don't understand basic concepts of government to be your fellow leadership members.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is a perfect example of Boehner's insanity (or incompetence). As journalist Steve Benen noted on Monday, "the oft-confused House Majority Leader [Cantor] tried to argue that Republicans have already made all the concessions they should be expected to make: they’re willing to raise the debt ceiling after Dems pay the ransom."

This was even after the President said about Republicans, point blank, "I do not see a path to a deal if they don’t budge, period."

The nuttiest member of this crew, however, seems to be Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Mr. McConnell bluntly stated in October of last year just before the elections, that the Republican Party's goals weren't to fix America's economy, or put Americans back to work. He said, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

Not cutting taxes, or fighting terrorism, or balancing the budget - just making President Obama a one-term President.

Since that initial damning statement, McConnell has denied multiple times - even just last weekend - that the GOP is trying to destroy the economy in order to sink President Obama. Of course, in the same appearance that he denied it, he restated that, "...[making Obama a one-term President is] my single most important political goal along with every active Republican in the country."

It is insane for anyone, in the face of our current budget crisis, to attempt to deal honestly with a group that brags that their only goal is to cause their main political partner to fail, at any cost.

That President Obama continues to try and bail out both Republicans and the nation is either a testament to his dedication to America - or further proof that his brand of insanity may merely be different than that of his Republican colleagues... but not by much.