Bernie Sanders' is trying desperately to present a reasonable plan to balance a debt deal with both tax increases and spending cuts -- meeting the Republicans halfway. Give them spending cuts (including defense cuts, albeit not so Republican) and they'll reciprocate with a tax increase on the wealthy.
Compromise. Normal. Simple. Reasonable.
And totally insane, if you listen to the Beltway Media. The Republican plan to allow the economy to crash again? Perfectly serious and we have to listen to them! But Bernie Sanders is effed in the head, according to the very serious press.
We have a Democratic Senate and a Republican House, but the notion of an equitable, 50-50 split is thought of as fanciful nonsense backed only by liberal extremists. When Republicans demand a 100-0 split in their favor, meanwhile, and failure to do so will mean they cause a recession on purpose, this is somehow just routine and predictable.
The Republicans ought to be shamed every second of every day by the press and the American people for this game. They're employing 300 million (plus) human shields here, and they're getting away with it. I'll repeat this over and over and over: I can't believe we're debating the debt ceiling here.