America’s friends around the world watched with dismay the recent brawl in over raising the federal government’s debt ceiling, and the US Congress’s inability to come to anything like a balanced and forward-looking compromise. On the contrary, the outcome represents a significant victory for the Tea Party’s minions, whose purpose seems to be to reduce government obligations and expenditures to a bare minimum (some object even to having a central bank), and to maintain President George W. Bush’s outrageous tax breaks for the wealthy.
美国在世界各地的盟友惊异地注视着最近因提高联邦政府债务上限而引发的口水战，他们惊讶于美国国会无法达成任何均衡而具前瞻性的折衷协议。相反，这样的结果代表着茶党喽罗的巨大胜利，他们的目标是最大限度地压缩政府的债务和开支（某些人甚至反对设立央行），并继续实行乔治·W·布什总统令人愤慨的富裕阶层减税优惠。