World's View of America & Fiscal Cliff - sign of American decline

From the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...rican-decline/

CNN anchor Ali Velshi had a tough word for the U.S. fiscal cliff negotiations: embarrassment. Velshi, lamenting the bitter politics and institutional logjams that nearly sent the world’s richest country over a self-imposed cliff, called the whole sordid episode an “embarrassment for America.”

Australia’s national treasurer, Wayne Swan, lashed out on Twitter in apparent frustration. “We’re not immune from global developments,” he said, citing “the impact of America’s fiscal cliff fight” on Australia. Snow, long a critic of conservative American politics, wrote, “It is lamentable that so much of the world’s post-[global financial crisis] economic recovery has been held hostage in such a reckless way by the Tea Party.”

America-pessimism seems to be getting a big boost this week. Mexico’s El Economista newspaper published a scathing article by editorial director Luis Miguel Gonzalez, who in his first sentence says that the fiscal cliff crisis shows that the United States is now “una república bananera” — a banana republic. Gonzalez blames Democrats as well, calling the partisan divide an intrinsically American quirk, similar to our “hamburger-eating contests.”

Probably the strongest critics have been in the state-run Chinese media, which are always happy to predict the decline and fall of the American system. An editorial by the state-run Xinhua news agency argued that the fiscal cliff is just the latest bad sign for the “long-term sustainability” of the American experiment. Here’s their case:

In a democracy like the United States, tax increases and spending cuts, the exact dose of medicine needed to cure its chronic debt disease, have long proved hugely unpopular among voters. So the politicians have chosen to kick the can down the road again and again.

But as we all know, the can will never disappear. Sometime and somewhere, you might trip over it and fall hard on the ground, or in the U.S. case, into an abyss you can never come out of.

Of course, this criticism is probably as much about implicitly defending the Chinese system as it is about gleefully condemning the American. But it does have its sincere adherents. On China’s ever-raucous social media, some Chinese Web users seemed to agree that the fiscal cliff proves that the American system can’t work.

Apparently it isn't enough that the GOP/TP is self-immolating, why do they feel compelled to drag down the rest of us with them and their reckless fiscal hostage-taking antics. Enough of this "our way or we blow up the economy."

Originally Posted by Rhumb

Apparently it isn't enough that the GOP/TP is self-immolating, why do they feel compelled to drag down the rest of us with them and their reckless fiscal hostage-taking antics. Enough of this "our way or we blow up the economy."

I found it interesting that the rest of the world, namely countries in Europe, don't like Republicans or the TP.

Originally Posted by Rhumb

Apparently it isn't enough that the GOP/TP is self-immolating, why do they feel compelled to drag down the rest of us with them and their reckless fiscal hostage-taking antics. Enough of this "our way or we blow up the economy."

I love it how under Bush administration liberals say it is all Bush's fault but under Obama administration the finger still gets pointed at Republicans in a democracy where both sides have to work together. These democrats are fvcking fiscally irresponsible.

Originally Posted by Green_Shine

I love it how under Bush administration liberals say it is all Bush's fault but under Obama administration the finger still gets pointed at Republicans in a democracy where both sides have to work together. These democrats are fvcking fiscally irresponsible.

Originally Posted by Rhumb

Apparently it isn't enough that the GOP/TP is self-immolating, why do they feel compelled to drag down the rest of us with them and their reckless fiscal hostage-taking antics. Enough of this "our way or we blow up the economy."

Continued exponential unfunded spending is equally (if not more) reckless

Yes, in the long term, but the particular policies and approaches the GOP, and the Tea Partier faction in particular, are pushing to address it are by far the least responsible and most reckless of all this. The petulent and childish brinksmanship and hostage-taking the GOP/TP have resorted to risk killing the patient (our economy) far before any long term rehabilitation (long-term, well-considered spending and entitlement reform) can take place, which eventually it must. But at least let's make sure we have a recovering and reasonably patient to work on rather than a cold corpse to try to put into long-term rehab therapy.

Originally Posted by Rhumb

Yes, in the long term, but the particular policies and approaches the GOP, and the Tea Partier faction in particular, are pushing to address it are by far the least responsible and most reckless of all this. The petulent and childish brinksmanship and hostage-taking the GOP/TP have resorted to risk killing the patient (our economy) far before any long term rehabilitation (long-term, well-considered spending and entitlement reform) can take place, which eventually it must. But at least let's make sure we have a recovering and reasonably patient to work on rather than a cold corpse to try to put into long-term rehab therapy.

This is total crap. I love how you people try to characterize the GOP doing anything less than 100% of what Obama wants as holding the country hostage. The GOP people were elected for a reason, and it wasn't to be a rubber stamp for every hair brained libtard wish list item that Obama and Co. and come up with.

Spending the country into oblivion is holding America hostage. Crippling debt is holding America hostage. Refusing to cut spending and continually increasing spending exponentially is holding American hostage.

I swear, it's like watching a bunch of kids stomp their feet if they don't get their way.

Originally Posted by Act of God

The GOP people were elected for a reason, and it wasn't to be a rubber stamp for every hair brained libtard wish list item that Obama and Co. and come up with.

They were elected because they're Pro-Life and against gay marriage. And like everything else they have to offer, neither are new ideas