To the Editor:
Re “While the Markets Swoon . . . ,” by Joe Nocera (column, Aug. 9):
It turns out that we didn’t actually have to default on our obligations to throw the world economy into apoplectic turmoil. We have accomplished the wondrous feat of paying our bills and still creating a crisis of confidence.
We can ill afford to repeat the charade of the last several months. I hope that what we are witnessing is but a momentary response and that world markets will soon find their equilibrium.
But if there is a lesson to be learned, it is that the reckless abandon with which the Republican Party threatens our country’s well-being must stop. Its efforts to damage the opposition have instead taken down the very value of this country. For all that Standard & Poor’s has miscalculated in the past, it is correct in its assertion that we are a nation that no longer instills trust. And that is a loss far greater than any stock market decline.
It is past time for the Republicans to stop being the bully and to start being a productive partner.
ROBERT S. NUSSBAUM
Fort Lee, N.J., Aug. 9, 2011
Note from KBJ: It's not President Obama's fault for not putting a plan on the table. It's not the fault of Democrats for rejecting Cut, Cap, and Balance. It's the fault of the Republican Party. The letter writer's partisanship destroys his credibility. The people he blames are precisely the people he dislikes, and he blames them because he dislikes them.
