A while back Andrew Sprung detailed the dismal state of the US government:
[T]he GOP, led first by Gingrich and then by Bush Jr., blew through norms and broke taboos that had greased our democratic machinery for decades prior to the early 90s. These include, "you shall not filibuster every pending bill or block every opposition appointment" as well as "you shall not torture detainees or politicize Justice Department hiring."
Fallows can't believe what Congress, led by Congressman John Mica, has done to the FAA – essentially forcing airport safety inspectors to work unpaid and run up expenses on their personal credit cards:
Governments exist precisely because it doesn't make sense to pass the hat for airport safety — or border protection or the public-health service etc. You can argue about a lot of government responsibilities, but transportation safety is pretty close to everyone's idea of a core public function. But — to hell with it! And to those 70,000 families with no paycheck. Let them cut back. This will help the recovery in so many ways, just as the the $1 billion or so in foregone FAA revenues will help cut the deficit.
Doug Mataconis nods:
It is, perhaps, understandable, when partisan rhetoric gets heated when dealing with big issues like the national debt, the size and scope of government, or the use of military force in a foreign country. In fact, that’s to be expected and even encouraged because these are important issues. An FAA funding bill is not one of those important issues, and the disputes between the House and the Senate are of a nature that, in ordinary times, ought to be capable of some kind of resolution. The fact that this issue has remained in limbo since 2007 demonstrates how it’s apparently become impossible for our legislators to resolve even minor disputes, and it leads me to think that, in some fundamental way, the system is indeed broken.
Frum echoes Sprung's original point:
The debt ceiling debate feels like one of those tragic episodes out of the history of the fall of republics. To gain their point on a budget matter, Republicans did something unprecedented in the annals of American government. They made a bargaining chip out of the public credit of the United States. In a well-functioning democracy, certain threats are just not used, and the threat to force the country into default should rank high on the list of unacceptable threats. …[S]omething that was once unthinkable has become thinkable.
(Photo: "Washington, Rip" by Will Steacy, who photographed decrepit money before it's destroyed by the Federal Reserve.)
The Dish 