At the time our staff is gathering content for Wednesday morning's edition, Senators Reid and McConnell have resumed their talks for a Senate deal, which could potentially get a vote at some point on Wednesday. The embarrassingly disastrous House Republican plan already went up in flames late Tuesday afternoon. The House plan was so bad, not only had all House Democrats agreed to vote against it, but even the right-wing Heritage Foundation was warning Republicans to vote against it - which is why Speaker Boehner had the bill pulled.
President Obama, in an interview Tuesday afternoon, still said he believes Congress will send him a bill that solves this problem before much more damage is done to our economy. That assurance didn't calm Wall Street credit ratings agency Fitch, who began warning late on Tuesday afternoon they may downgrade the nation's credit rating again if Congress doesn't pass a plan to fix both the debt ceiling and government shutdown, right away.
Obama's assurance also didn't calm the nerves of millions of Americans, who overwhelmingly - and correctly - blame Republicans for creating this horrible situation.
For all the anger and blame being thrown around, and debate about what the core reason is for America being in this jam there are a few key groups that seem to be escaping accountability right now: uninformed voters, moderate Republicans, and the Supreme Court.
Yes - stupid people are to blame for this mess. Some of them may even be reading these words right now.
Indeed, as a recent Pew Research poll found, 64 percent of Tea Party Republicans think blowing through the debt ceiling will have no major effect, even though EVERY trustworthy economic expert worldwide disagrees. Of course, these are the same idiots that elected people like Florida Rep. Ted Yoho, a man who continues to insist he's going to stop Obamacare. It doesn't matter to Yoho that the Affordable Care Act is already in place, helping millions - and according to the CBO, repealing the ACA would add billions to the deficit.
We also have to blame the media at large, to some degree, for those uninformed, brainless voters who chose morons like Rep. Yoho, specifically, the right-wing media. Year after year, legitimate studies keep proving that Fox "News" viewers are the least well-informed of all Americans. Even those people who don't watch cable news or listen to talk radio are better informed than your average right-wing fool. Yet, those idiots vote too - and as we mentioned, they vote for morons like Rep. Yoho.
Finally, the Supreme Court must also come in for some of the blame, in allowing the massive misinformation of Americans. While the Citizens United ruling is the most well-known recent mistake of this kind by the Court, the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo ruling - the one that said that money was speech - is the original failure in this regard. As the Court has just begun to hear another case that might allow even more money to brainwash voters, this failing is even more key now.
No matter who in DC is to blame for this mess, the truth is that we've all had a hand in creating this disaster for many years.
We just hope that somehow, Congress can arrive at a solution at the last minute. America needs another massive financial crisis like we need another hole in our collective head.
