the thing is, this is a democracy. and elected leaders are held accountable to their constituents, and these people were voted into office on the coattails of the worst economic climate since the 1930s. the Tea Party folks absolutely were willing to risk default rather than negotiate on principle, and the larger Republican party actually has signed a blood oath to never, ever vote to raise taxes (and this oath has been around since the 1980s).
we can all sit here and talk about what Obama and the few sane Republicans can do -- and have, McCain had a moment where he referred to the Tea Party folks as "hobbits," which was nice -- but the Tea Party is large enough, and their influence quantified enough by the 2010 midterms, that they are able to hold a gun to the head of the GOP, and the GOP does control one of the two houses of congress.
i blame the American people, quite honestly.
i look around at our crumbling infrastructure and note that it hasn't changed much since the 1980s, while at the same time China speeds into the 21st century on high speed trains. i look at our millions without health insurance (and also the millions who stay in jobs they hate and are unable to release their talents because the fear losing said insurance) and compare them to the modern European welfare state with it's happier, healthier citizens and longer lifespans. i look at the Republican party and see the most anti-gay mainstream political party in the developed world. i see a minority of citizens who think our debt comes from welfare and spending on transportation, rather than from endless war and entitlements for the elderly. i see the elderly who vote in their own self-interests, as we'd expect. i see a public who re-elected possibly the worst president in our history and believed that Saddam Hussein needed to pay for 9-11.
i see a group of people who wish to live in the 20th century and fear modernity.
i also see a President doing his best to govern an increasingly ungovernable country where cultural divides between urban and exurban/rural grow daily, fueled by the insanity blaring out of talk radio as people commute hours through strip mall landscapes to precarious jobs they hate.
i also see that Obama did get cuts in defense spending to be part of the conversation.
right now, i'm blaming America first.
or at least Republican primary voters -- a small, angry percentage not just of the GOP itself, but of the American electorate as a whole -- who are organized enough to take out a GOP candidate in the primaries.
THEY are who really scares Republican members of Congress.