The spectacle of a president facing a so-called double-dip recession if the debt ceiling is not raised in a few weeks and confronted by an opposition party that will not yield in its reckless race to the edge of the cliff is sure to erode what little confidence the people have in their political and governmental system.

For the millions of workers and their families who have been suffering from economic depression that has been described as a recession, the stand-off between President Obama and the Republican leaders in both the U.S. House and Senate is nothing less than a warning shot that tells them that they are in for a long, dry, and hungry period.

Although there have been some breaks this week in the GOP’s refusal to consider tightening up tax loopholes that the rich and corporations have enjoyed for many years (not to mention their absolute refusal to increase a single tax), the prospect remains bleak.

John Boehner, House majority leader, and Mitch McConnell, minority leader in the Senate, and all of their party’s colleagues have demanded more than a pound of flesh for any agreement for “revenue enhancement.” The pound of flesh, of course, consists of cuts in benefits or reduction in the scope of the programs in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

The GOP calls these programs “entitlements,” a name they have conjured up so that they can demonize the programs, themselves, as well as the people who benefit from them. In the past three or four decades, the right-wing in the country managed to demean anyone who was on welfare, claiming that those who received those meager benefits were using the money to buy liquor and Cadillacs. They became the “welfare queens” and the pounding they took in the press and in the various legislative bodies at every level of government eventually led a Democratic president (a Democrat!), Bill Clinton, to end “welfare as we know it” back in the 1990s.

The same path is being cleared for those on Social Security and the other programs, which are not entitlements. If they can get the majority of Americans to think of those programs as entitlements, it will be much easier to reduce or eliminate them. Most Americans do not believe that this could happen, but Republicans will be happy if this turns out to be the first stroke of the axe, even if the program takes another 10 years to be killed. That’s the way the right has worked for a few generations. If anything, they are long-range planners on behalf of the corporations whose bidding they do.

This week, the battle raged as it has for weeks, to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, so the country does not default on its load of debt. And, the Republicans want social spending to be slashed and burned, in exchange for any changes in the Obama Administration’s efforts to raise revenue (as in taxing the rich).

Boehner, Rep. Eric Cantor, McConnell and most other Republicans have said just one word about any taxation of either corporations or the rich: “NO.” They have said no to so many things involving the nation’s and the people’s welfare that they are, indeed, now rightfully known as “the party of no.”

The Republicans have said that they would agree to leave some of the social programs in place, as long as they get an equal amount in tax cuts for the rich and corporations. They want a dollar-for-dollar exchange, never mind that the rich and the corporations have most of the wealth of the nation already. The Grand Old Party is against extension of unemployment benefits because, they claim, those checks make it too easy for Americans to sit back and do nothing, living off the fat of the land, as it were.

It’s that attitude that makes it a wonder that they have rank-and-file members left in their party. Those are the very people they are cutting off at the knees. Yet, those working people who are Republicans maintain their enrollment in the party, although they may not faithfully vote for their party’s candidate as they used to. Unemployed workers who are Republicans suffer just as much from the collapse of U.S. manufacturing and heavy industry as anyone else, but the party is steadfastly against giving them a helping hand.

Unemployment has risen slightly in the past few weeks, to about 9.2 percent and even the Obama economic advisors say that workers are in for a long job drought. With that in mind, how can either party, but especially the Republicans, be so blatant in telling the workers and their families to get lost?

The dire predictions of economic chaos if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling has raised the prospect of political and, possibly, social chaos. Now, that is enough to scare even the alienated lawmakers in Washington. So, Republicans have offered to allow Obama to borrow up to $2.5 trillion, but not raise the debt ceiling, in increments, which borrowing would last through his term of office. It was Obama’s turn to say, “no.”

Most Americans know by now that a small tax increase on the rich and the corporations would resolve the problem of the debt ceiling for a long period of time, but that appears out of the question. Boehner stood before the nation a few days ago and said that the American people would not stand for a tax increase, but surely he knows, if he reads any polls, that three-quarters of Americans favor taxing the rich. After all, they well know that’s where the money is. Judging from the various polls, though, the American people would indeed stand for the rich and Corporate America to pay their fair share in taxes, so Boehner apparently is making a great leap of faith that he is supported by the people in his brinkmanship with the national economy.

With 14 million Americans looking for work and in fear that the GOP will live up to its promise of denying them any extended jobless benefits, the scene that is playing out in Washington is something akin to a horror movie in which the end is already known and it is not a pretty sight. Add to that the prospect of a sharp downturn in the economy if the debt-ceiling problem is not resolved and you have a recipe for massive panic for tens of millions of families. Those who are well off may not be too alarmed, but the people who have suffered the loss of their homes, their jobs, their education, and their place in society are living in fear.

Even if the Democrats and the Republicans come up with an agreement in the next several days, the way they have conducted the nation’s business over the past year or two has not been reassuring for America’s citizenry, especially if Obama takes the first axe swing at Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. If confidence in a government that strives for the common good is shaken any more, politicians everywhere had better be prepared to deal with more profound problems. Too many Americans have spent the last several years in an economic depression. This time, however, it could be the entire nation that has that experience.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former union organizer. His union work started when he became a local president of The Newspaper Guild in the early 1970s. He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers in New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Click here to contact Mr. Funiciello.