Economic illiterates in positions of power. What could possibly go wrong.

Between this guy, who doesn’t understand that he’s created the shutdown condition and is angling for the default, and Sen. Tom Coburn who doesn’t understand that default has catastrophic consequences, the GOP is the party of economic cluelessness on a massive scale.

Sen. Coburn denies default risk: ‘There’s no such thing as a debt ceiling’ | The Raw Story http://t.co/XSbrJySF7W #edshow #uniteblue

— Sasha (@sasha031) October 7, 2013

It shows a fundamental lack of understanding about how government works, but a single minded determination to wreck government because they oppose all things government related.

It’s why they have no problem with the sequester, which was across the board cuts without regard to importance of the programs or merits of any individual cut.

Now, they’re doing the same with the shutdown. They’ve reasoned that if the shutdown is painful, but not so painful, they can reset where the discussion is and force still more cuts on government spending, even without addressing the ACA, which formed the impetus for their shutdown in the first place.

It’s why the GOP is pushing that 85% of government is still open - that the shutdown only affects 15%. Show that government can still function with significant portions shut down, and eliminate them by fiat (all while claiming solidarity with the same workers who are furloughed, or people/businesses disrupted by the shutdown by blaming the President for not accepting their extortionist demands).

The debt ceiling argument is working in the same way. Making obscene demands and hoping that the chaos results in a reset towards lower spending and less government (the parts of government they don’t agree with, that is).