The Mohamed Atta Republicans in Congress

How the Ultra MAGA far right in Congress could crash the economy

Once again Republicans threaten to hijack and crash the economy with the vote on raising the debt ceiling, and this time, because of the nature of this extreme Republican conference in Congress, we have to believe them. Now the debate in Congress is a very real divide between Kevin McCarthy and the MAGA Republicans that control Congress and the Ultra MAGA Republicans in the so-called Freedom Caucus. A group that wants to crash the economy and push for even more hateful and divisive anti-freedom social issues agendas is surely not a “freedom” caucus by any real definition of the word.

But let's take a look at how they became the Mohamed Atta Republicans. As brilliantly documented by conservative author Charles Sykes in How the Right Lost its Mind, the GOP has been headed in this direction since the days of the Tea Party movement more than a decade ago. The Republican Party had a increasingly conservative base among its voters while its elected politicians were a bit more moderate. The tension between these two groups led to an uprising among their voters in which the more established Republicans were called Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) and we saw the rise of the Tea Party Movement in 2010 in which many of the candidates endorsed by the GOP establishment were defeated in primaries. This led to a race to the bottom where Republican candidates and the base itself continue to get more and more reactionary, retrograde, and regressive and their views and policies. This led to an increased focus towards divisive social issues policies over economics, because it was clear that the economic policy of the far right was very unpopular so they could appeal to the base with culture wars instead. As this direction went forward it became more extreme, to the point that it set up the conditions where a Donald Trump could lead a far right pseudo populist movement that could take over the party and move it in the direction of authoritarian right wing policies. Now we are seeing the result of that evolution of the Republican Party from a small government conservative party to a far right pseudo populist authoritarian party that it has become.

But the division between the extreme and more issuing Republicans is not just Kabuki theater, it is very real. We saw this in the battle to elect the speaker in which the Ultra MAGA faction led by Mohamed Atta look alike Matt Gaetz, almost hijacked and crashed and burned Kevin McCarthy's bid for the speakership. Now we see some of the same elements that will not only crash McCarthy's bid to push an already extreme GOP debt ceiling bill to the floor, but this division might well ensure that this Congress will not pass a debt ceiling increase at all, which would crash the economy entirely.

If this Congress fails to increase the debt ceiling soon, The economic consequences could be devastating for most Americans. If our government doesn't pay its bills, it is going to cause an economic catastrophe in our own country as well as around the world. No responsible party in Congress would even fathom the chance of this happening. But this Republican party in Congress right now, and especially it's more extreme fashion, are definitely not a responsible party. This GOP Congress is not a governing party, it is a destroying party. And they may ultimately, serving their narrow extreme far right base, destroy the economy in order to score political points and raise money from their donors in the base.

The math here is real simple. Republicans control 223 seats in this Congress and Democrats control 212, six seats short of the 218 needed to pass legislation. If all 212 Democrats unite behind raising the debt ceiling, which is likely, they will need to find six reasonable and responsible Republicans to vote with them in order to prevent the majority of their party from hijacking crashing the U.S. economy with the debt ceiling vote. You would think it would be easy to find six reasonable and responsible Republicans out of 223, but given how far to the right this party has gone it is anyone's bet as to whether or not there are even in existence six such reasonable and rational Republicans in this caucus. The health of our economy in the future of our country may depend on finding six patriotic Republicans to vote for a debt ceiling increase in save us from economic catastrophe.