Tyranny of 87 must stop
reference to the years immediately preceding the French Revolution of 1789. I am referring to July 2011 in the United States of America, the greatest democracy in the world. Or so I thought.
The Tyranny of 87 is the bizarre, surreal, but all too real situation we are in right now in the midst of perhaps the most significant and economically turbulent issue that has been before Congress in decades: the raising of the debt ceiling.
The tyranny is coming from the 87 members of Congress from the tea party caucus, whose selfish and irresponsible demands during the debt ceiling negotiations may very well mean either outright default or what could be even worse and too late to avoid — the downgrade of the country’s gold standard AAA credit rating. What is worse, these 87 little tyrants have no clear understanding of the fallout of either scenario.
We have witnessed House Speaker John Boehner, who many believe is at heart a reasonable, responsible and truly bipartisan leader, lose control of his caucus, giving the 87 even more power to rule with their ultra-right-wing mantra masquerading as the “will of the people.” He has allowed himself to be ruled by their iron-fisted ways and demands to the point that he has kowtowed into including a balanced budget amendment to his already DOA plan.