Tom Harkin: “I would like to follow up a little bit on what the Senator from New Hampshire just spoke about; that is, the absurdity…”

“I would like to follow up a little bit on what the Senator from New Hampshire just spoke about; that is, the absurdity, the absolute absurdity of what is going on in Washington today. Our Nation used to have a two-party system in this country, but it is increasingly apparent that one of our two parties has morphed--has morphed--into some kind of a quasi-religion driven by one ideology: preserving and expanding tax breaks for the wealthy and for big corporations. To that end, many Republicans in Congress are perfectly willing to push the United States of America into defaulting on its debt obligations with dire economic consequences. This is a very dangerous detour in our Nation's political and economic life. But just as dangerous, just as dangerous as the prospect of a default on our debt obligations is the Republican's determination to defund and dismantle as much of the Federal Government as possible. To that end, they are demanding deep, Draconian cuts to Federal funding and investment at a time when unemployment is already sky high and rising, and when our economy remains fragile. To justify these deep cuts, Republicans with this new ideology have articulated an absurd economic theory--absolutely absurd. They claim slashing Federal funding and investments by trillions of dollars will somehow magically create jobs. I don't know of any Main Street economist, or anybody with an ounce of common sense, who agrees with this bizarre theory.…”