EDITORIAL - Jihad in the US Congress

The United States (US), as Americans are usually proud to flaunt, is not merely a country. It is, too, a big idea to which the rest of the world not only gravitates, but is eager to embrace.

America the country, though, is no small thing. It is the world's most dominant economy and mightiest military power. It is the world's only superpower and global economic leader. When the American economy stutters, most of the rest of the world's falter.

The technical ingenuity and confidence of its people and the productivity of its factories helped build this power.

But it is the other side of America, the US as an idea, that underpins the country's global pre-eminence. The nub of that idea is its subtle rendering of the notion of democracy. It insists on the rights of the individual and has profound respect for healthy debate, but presumes responsibility of all who engage in the process. No one is expected to engage in extremism or jihad to press his claim or win the argument.

Bruising battle

The recent bruising battle over plans for raising the country's debt ceiling, however, underlines a deepening dysfunctionality in the American political process, raising concerns that the world could be in danger of losing the America of the big idea, with potentially grave consequences for global well-being.

Raising the country's debt ceiling is not usually a major issue, and more often a routine one, in the US. For raising the ceiling gives the Federal government the leeway to borrow money to meet its obligations.

This time, though, it was made into a bruising, one-sided fight, in which one set, the Tea Party Republicans, was prepared to pull down the temple if it didn't get its way.

There is consensus that America's US$14.3 trillion - and growing - debt is, in the long run, unsustainable. The issue of debate is how to contain government spending that drives the debt, and how can these options be exercised without dragging the country back into recession.

Losing the american ideal

The Obama administration and the Democrats favoured some spending cuts and the closing of tax loopholes, especially those enjoyed by the wealthiest sectors of the economy, as a balanced approach to the long-term fiscal balance.

The Tea Party Republicans insisted on deep, aggressively implemented cuts in government spending, with no tax increases. They ignored all arguments about the likely detriment to economic recovery, refused to budge on any point and humiliated party leaders who were close to compromises with the administration. In the end, it was President Obama who blinked, getting only from the deal the consolation that there will be no more debt-ceiling confrontations during the 2012 election year.

We sense in this dispute not only a quarrel about economics, but an overlay of race, not too cleverly hidden behind philosophical differences over the structure and size of government. But worse was the win-at-all-and-every-cost behaviour of the Tea Party Republicans. It mattered little that the US government might not be able to meet many of its obligations in the event of a default, and the damage that might have caused to global financial market and the world economy, once Obama was denied victory.

That, for the rest of the world, is not the American ideal.

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