Why The Debt Ceiling Fight?

Elizabeth Drew analyzes the motivating factors of all the players in the debt ceiling fight at the New York Review of Books (via nc links):

The Republicans displayed a recklessness that should have disqualified them from being taken seriously. Any deal that was reached would contain substantial cuts in the coming fiscal year—too soon, as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the head of the Congressional Budget Office Doug Elmendorf have recently warned. The antitax dogma of the Republican Party is strongly rooted in mythology. The theory that tax cuts create jobs has been discredited by the results of George Bush’s tax policies. The Republicans cling to the myth that “small business” owners are the “job creators,” and so they oppose proposals to eliminate the Bush rate cuts for even those earning over $250,000. But relatively few small business owners earn $250,000—in fact, fewer than 3 percent of the 20 million people who file business income on their personal tax forms (the 1040s) earn that much.
Finally, the antitax position of many conservatives would seem to be illogical, since they also hate deficits: but their real aim is to reduce or eliminate federal programs. They call efforts to redistribute wealth “socialism,” but have no problem redistributing from the poor and middle class to the wealthy through taxes, as set forth in Paul Ryan’s budget plan, which the House approved on April 15. Under the Ryan plan, the taxes of the richest one percent of Americans would be cut in half, while taxes would be raised on most of the middle class. People earning over $1 million would be taxed at a lower effective rate than the middle class.
Consistent with the philosophy of Ryan’s idol Ayn Rand, this scheme would by 2050 eliminate virtually all federal programs other than defense and Social Security, much of which would be privatized, while his voucher program would replace Medicare. The Ryan plan was so radical that even Republican candidates have been distancing themselves from it though the party higher-ups had declared it a “litmus test” for Republicans seeking office.

The Ryan plan is an abomination, and the fact that it is seen as the baseline for the Republicans demonstrates how far onto the fringe the GOP has gone.  Obama has tried to pave the way for re-election by pushing for a deal, even on very generous terms for the Republicans.  But the Republicans ignore all common sense and obvious facts and hold to their ridiculous faith in the markets and tax cuts, the leading drivers of our current economic situation and giant deficits, along with their foolish wars.  Government programs and entitlements need adjusted, but taxes have to go up, especially on the extremely wealthy.  This radical hostage-taking of the U.S. economy should make Republicans unelectable, but I have very little faith in the wisdom of voters, especially in rural areas.  Combined with the laziness of Democratic voters who only show up to vote in presidential elections, we have quite the mess.  Even after the debacle of the 2008 election for Republicans, they have managed to dig in harder and double-down on bad ideas.  They fought tooth-and-nail to prevent any action which might ease the economic slowdown, won a lot of useless tax cuts in the stimulus plan, then didn't cast a single vote for it.  But amazingly, people returned them to power in the House of Representatives and most state legislatures and governors' offices in 2010.  After that win, Republicans slashed spending, and often taxes, making even more people unemployed, when our worst problem is unemployment.  Now Obama is offering them the farm, and they want more.  It will not end well.  Republicans are bent on the destruction of the modern state, even though the consequences of this will be very bad for the average American.  For some reason, many people who will suffer, root them on and give them support.