The lunacy of a small group of tin-foil Republicans has caused a great deal of damage — but not in the way most of the discussion unfolded in the media. You see, the lunacy simply obscured the shellacking everyone of us will probably have to absorb in the coming months.

In the very immediate storm of the short-term crisis — the shutdown of the government and the refusal of a small band to allow the raising of the debt ceiling — it was a no-brainer to view the Democrats and the president as the grown-ups in the room.

But, the lunatics in the Republican Party were really providing a great service to the dominant narrative by the elites by obscuring the utter robbery underway and looming ahead.

The first thing that has to be said, and almost never was said, was that the health care “reform” is a shameful public subsidy for two of the most corrupt industries ever to inhabit the earth: the insurance and drug companies. Why do you think the insurance industry will spend a billion dollars to promote the president’s health care plan? Because, rather than kill this industry that sucks the lifeblood out of individuals and inefficiently drains hundreds of billions of dollars from economic activity, the health care “reform” will line its pockets with new profits by forcing people to become new customers of a corrupt industry.

What was missing from the debate was not the ills of the health care act viewed through the telescope of those (read: the tinfoil-hatted Bachmann brigades) who want to roll  back society to, I dunno, say the 18th Century. Rather, there was little debate about viewing the act through the lens of people who wanted to advance society by pushing for a single-payer, Medicare for All plan –which would kill the corrupt insurance and drug industries, be more efficient, and save the economy a huge amount of money.

But, that’s not even the biggest problem. The “bi-partisan” compromise to end the short-term crisis was embraced, given a lot of love and framed as the grown-ups taking control.

But, it’s really a disaster, if you look at the long-term. Because the deal gives more oxygen for the idiotic debate about the phony debt and deficit crisis. There is now the usual heavy breathing over entitlement “reform” and debt reduction, coming from the likes of Paul Ryan and Patty Murray:

The question of what a new House-Senate budget conference can deliver by its Dec. 13 deadline — in time for Congress to act by Jan. 15 on funding to keep the government open — remained the subject of deep skepticism, well earned by past failures at reaching so-called grand bargains for deficit reduction and spending investments in the past three years.

With the scope of the talks narrowed for now, on the table are ideas left over from past, failed bargaining: possible reductions in other programs — like farm subsidies, federal pensions, the Postal Service and unemployment insurance — and relatively minimal tax loophole closings, possibly as little as $55 billion.

And:

Both Mr. Ryan and Ms. Murray struck positive notes.

“Our goal is to do good for the American people, to get our debt under control, to do smart deficit reduction, and to do things we think can grow the economy and get people back to work,” Mr. Ryan said.

Ms. Murray said, “We believe there is common ground.”

By definition, common ground suggests no grand bargain, which would require a much more difficult trade-off where they fundamentally differ — higher tax revenues that Republicans oppose, in exchange for reductions in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that Democrats vow they will not entertain without curbs on tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations.

I have long-argued that this is entire nonsense. There is no debt or deficit crisis. And there is absolutely no need for reducing Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In fact, we should be raising Social Security benefits AND raising taxes on wealthy individuals.

But, both parities have embraced the idiotic idea that we have a spending problem that, in turn, has caused some Chicken Little-like obsession with debts and deficits, leading to the foolish notion that  entitlements must be “reformed”.  It is true that Republicans are more insane on this topic. But, an honest debate has to point out that the president, and many in the Democratic Party, have led the “bi-partisan” rhetoric about spending.

And that is the disaster that looms for real people. The outcome of the short-term crisis may have been a “win” for Democrats. But, it’s a big loser for 99 percent of the people who now must watch the consensus for mindless, stupid fiscal austerity gain even more momentum.