Lynn Stuart Parramore: Crazed Republicans Turn on Each Other!

in Ugly Fiscal Cliff Battle. Fear gripped Middle Earth. The little people looked nervously toward the horizon,, wondering if their few remaining possessions would be snatched away by marauding bands of goblins and orcs. For years the simple, honest folk had suffered as the twin forces of greed and hatred darkened the land, but this time, maybe there was hope. Maybe the goblins and the orcs would turn their fury upon each other, as they battled on the edge of a cliff over which both might fall. And so things appear, as Americans watch the fiscal cliff deadline draw near. There is just a week to go for lawmakers to make a deal, to avert automatic tax increases and spending cuts. Last week negotiations
broke down as Speaker Boehner failed to get enough votes to pass a bill that would have required the wealthy to pay a miniscule increase in taxes, at a time when income inequality is crippling the nation's future. With the House gridlocked, attention turns to the Senate, where some Republicans appear to be in favor of Obama's call for a partial deal, that insulates most Americans from the tax increases, but defers a resolution on spending. A deal may yet pass, but it's getting very ugly in the GOP. The Republican Party, particularly in the House of Representatives, is so blinded by greed and stupidity, that factions are turning on each other. One group, let's call them the goblins, is just plain greedy, but not completely crazy. These are the folks who favored Mitt Romney for president, and simply want to continue shoveling money toward the one percent, as they have been doing very successfully for the past three decades. They are willing to make a deal, because they know that any deal, particularly one that will shred the social safety net, with cuts like those Obama has proposed to make to Social Security, the widely condemned chained CPI adjustment, will work out very nicely to their advantage. They are thrilled, that instead of focusing on the jobs crisis, the country has been railroaded into a premature deficit reduction deal that serve as a cover for conservative wealth redistribution schemes.