The Great American Crisisby William Pfaff

The Great American Crisis

William Pfaff

http://www.williampfaff.com/article.php?storyid=648

Paris, October 9, 2013 – Abroad, what is happening in Washington remains to most a mystery of very little interest. It is back pages stuff. If the American government ceases to function because the Republican majority in the House of Representatives refuses to pass a budget bill that does not include a rider disabling President Barack Obama’s health reform program, already law of the nation, well that is America for you. Americans are always telling the world they are an exceptional people.

Among the few foreign observers who have bothered to inform themselves on why the Republicans have imposed this government shutdown (and would-be political shakedown), it has generally been seen as a frivolous political maneuver by the extremist wing of the Republican Party, not to be taken seriously, and sure to be resolved within a day or two. It has happened before.