Republicans Use Debt as a Weapon (Updated)

"We are enslaving future generations, our children and grandchildren to debt that we are irresponsibly putting on their credit card," Arkansas State Senator Terry Rice said, arguing that accepting federal funding as part of the expansion would add to the national debt.

Update:
Time Magazine has dutifully put out the right-wing Fear the Debt by claiming every American owes $43,000. Over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money the correctly identifies why Time has done this, in the post The Real Motivation of the Pain Caucus

Time Magazine made the smart decision to put its dumb cover story about the national debt behind a paywall. The premise — the national debt is like household debt and should be considered as if it’s apportioned equally to every U.S. resident — is stupid on its face. But Matt O’Brien has read the thing because nobody else will, and it’s even worse than its premise. When you’re considering a flat tax, it’s not because you care about the national debt, it’s because you think wealth needs to be massively redistributed upwards, with the debt as the tissue-thin pretext.

From time to time Republicans trot out Fix The Debt but, like the 3-card Monte Dealers they are, Republicans never worry about debt when they are in charge of Government. Debt is a shell game Republicons use to distract their duped drones in order to continue their plans of slashing the social safety net and transferring Trillions of Dollars of future Americans Wealth upwards to their Plutocratic Masters.

This is not a new weapon but, like all the Moldy Chestnuts/ Zombie Lies the Republicons promulgate, a new batch of vicious conservatives emerges to pick up the torch to burn the Social Contract.

Back in 2010 as President Obama submitted his plan to help the country escape the Republicon Recession of 2007, the House GOP got together and trotted out the same old sky is falling, Fix The Debt chicanery,

These unsustainable debt and deficit burdens were not imposed upon us by some outside force, they are created by the choice to grow the federal government and spend at unprecedented levels.
Reflecting on his own coming of age in a time of economic turmoil, Ronald Reagan said, “To be young in my generation was to feel that your future had been mortgaged out from under you, and that's a tragic mistake we must never allow our leaders to make again.”
Today, our leaders are again making the tragic choice to mortgage our children’s future.  But there is an alternative, and over the next two days we will share with you how controlling spending, reforming our social safety net programs and lifting the crushing burden of debt will spur job creation and put us back on a sustainable fiscal and economic path.

Invoking the rotted corpse of Zombie Reagan and his Voodoo Economics is a given but, always worth laughing at, since Ronnie Raygun and Daddy Bush ran up $4 Trillion dollars of National Debt in the 1980's, which famously hamstrung President Bill Clinton, and along with the 1994 Republicon Contract on America gave us the worst elements of the Clinton Economy; i.e. The Budget Surplus.

When the Republicons stole the 2000 election, they made their first order to run the deficits back up, steal the Surplus, and pile more Debt upon the American People. Shadow President Dick Cheney in 2002 observed, "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."

Of course, by 2010, Jeb??? Henserling and Paul90X Ryan conveniently left out wherein they and the Republicon Party ran up Trillions in Debt with their foolish and callous taxcut-and-spending and military adventurism. Most dramatically illustrated by the 5 Trillion dollars of debt the Republicons added to National Deficit with their criminal misadventure in Iraq, the open-ended burden treating our wounded Veterans and their families will cost in the next 25-50 years under the dunder-headed leadership of W(orst POTUS in History) and the evil, criminal agenda of War Criminal Shadow President Cheney.

But, Republicons never take responsibility for their actions, they Just Do and let future generations sort out the mess. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality," - Karl Rove.

Thus, when Republicons are in power massive deficit spending is undertaken usually focused on the military and overseas adventurism, but when the Democratic Party is elected to the Congress or Presidency Fixing the Debt! and slashing Spending for the Social Safety Net becomes the only thing a responsible government can do. 

It derailed President Obama during his struggle with the Domestic Terrorists in the Republicon Party. The vicious use of Fix the Debt! to crush the American People was vividly illustrated by Paul90X Ryan's Path to Penury budget during the 2012 election, correctly called Ludicrous and Cruel by Paul Krugman. Of course, as with every action by the Republicon Party the Fix the Debt rhetoric serves their overarching agenda of stealing Social Security, defunding Medicare, and transferring wealth up their Plutocratic Owners, the 1%. It's the raison d'etre for the modern Republicans.

Much of this is predicated upon the fact that the holders of debt are always incredibly wealthy members of the 1%. "Some people call you the elites... I call you my base," - W(orst) addressing his Moneyed Masters.

As such, according to Republican Orthodoxy, Debt Holders must be made whole before the business of government can continue. If this means using the IMF to extract blood money from impoverished Nations to Vulture Capitalists who buy up their debt on the global market, fine. If it means bailing out Casino Hedge Fund Managers who made bad bet upon bad bet in the rigged housing market, building up towers upon foundations of shit until the whole edifice collapsed then so be it.

The Rich need always to be made whole and the Republicons stalk and slice up the Poor and Working Class in order to accomplish it. This is what the Republicons always do when they assume office. Ronnie Raygun's massive deficit spending, W(orst)'s blundering and destabilizing of the Middle East, and his scheme to swindle Social Security right before the Republican Recession of 2007 are designed to build up massive levels of Debt which the Republicans fully intend to extract from the American People.