The Republican Party’s deficit plan is very simple:
 
1.     Prolong the default crisis.
2.     Push the nation to the very brink of economic collapse.
3.     Repeat it all again and again until election day 2012.
 
The Republican Party cares only about political victory.
 
They don’t want compromise.  They want capitulation.
 
And if America goes into default, it will be [Republicans] fault.
 
We now have the pluperfect form of the Republican Party’s political paradox:  Republicans hate government, but they have to run for office to make sure it doesn’t work.
 
In 1995 and ‘96, the Republican Party shut down the federal government.
 
In 1997 and ’98, Republicans shut down Congress over impeachment.
 
Earlier this year, they threatened to shut down the federal government again unless they got an extension of tax cuts for the very rich.
 
And now Republicans are trying to shut down the entire economy.
 
Republicans are turning America into the laughingstock of the world.
 
If our nation defaults, it will devastate Americans across this country:
 
·      If you have an adjustable rate mortgage, you’ll pay more;
 
·      If you have a credit card, you’ll pay more;
 
·      If you have a small business, you’ll pay more.
 
This Republican default will impose a “Tea Party Tax” on the entire country.  It will force Americans to pay billions more of their hard-earned money when they can least afford it.
 
The Tea Party has Congressional Republicans wrapped around its little finger. But it's the American people who are going to get squeezed.
 
The Republican Party doesn’t care. After all, it was the Bush Administration and Congressional Republicans who put us on this course in the first place.
 
The only way to end this historic nightmare is to resolve another massive deficit – the leadership deficit in the Republican Party.