I've heard some really crass assessments on what game the Republicans should be playing with on whether they're going to raise the debt ceiling or not, but this one by Pat Buchanan on PBS's The McLaughlin Group has to take the cake. He apparently thinks that Republicans should continue to do their hostage taking on the debt ceiling to force cuts to our social safety nets for years to come as a means for political gain and that somehow voters might not eventually decide that's a bad thing.

I guess if you're some relic like Buchanan who is receiving his wingnut welfare and having anyone from MSNBC to PBS to right wing sites employ you where you don't have to worry about whether you'll be starving on the streets when you get old, this world view somehow makes sense. If you're someone who believes in taking care of the least among us and that we should be our brother's keepers instead of saying I've got mine and F-U, this sounds pretty crass and frankly pretty disgusting as far as political games go.

I'm also sure you won't hear one peep out of Buchanan or any other Republican if the debt ceiling needs to be raised once a Republican regains the White House, just as you never heard about this from them under Bush while he was breaking the bank with tax cuts for the rich and waging invasions of other countries that he kept off our books.

Someone needs to be asking not just MSNBC, but PBS as well why they feel the need to continue employing this racist, fearmongering liar at both networks.

MCLAUGHLIN: Question. Why has the debt ceiling caused a political impasse, Pat Buchanan?

BUCHANAN: A couple reasons. One is the Democrat's really don't want to give up on their entitlement programs and take the cuts in things like Medicare. Secondly and probably more important, Republicans aren't going to give them a dime in tax hikes John.

But I'll tell you who's going to win this. Boehner you see has more confidence. You see the president talking in panic. What Republicans are going to do, is they're going to wait until July 20th, and then they're going to take the Biden cuts, all the Biden cuts in social programs, they're going to tie them to the debt ceiling and pass them in the House and send them over to the Senate. So you've got your debt ceiling raise for one year, with the Biden cuts.

I think that Democrats, the President of the United States, will have to sign that. Republicans have an enormous weapon here and they've got the whip hand. By just sending over these debt ceiling increases with cuts on them again, and again, and again. That's how it's going to play out.

MCLAUGHLIN: Are you saying that the Senate's going to become part of the annual budget?

BUCHANAN: I think the debt ceiling battle could, it could be a six month thing. It could be a one year thing every year. Republicans have the whip in here John to force cuts in social spending, year after year after year if they play the game right.