Extortion for the sake of extortion

"Greg Sargent points out that it’s even worse — Republican leaders in the House, including Speaker John Boehner, have already admitted that they aren’t willing to really force default, so they’re refusing to negotiate for now because they’re waiting until they can threaten to blow up the economy even though they admit they really won’t."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/05/08/house-republicans-and-extortion-for-the-sake-of-extortion/

Congressional Republicans claim that fixing the economy and "jobs, jobs, jobs" is their number one priority, but their actions belie their empty rhetoric. People who were truly concerned about a better economy would not be constantly holding the economy or the faith and credit of the United States government hostage to extract concessions from the President.

Now we hear that Republicans intend to force a default "just because". There isn't even any good reason to hold the economy hostage except for acting like five year old children trying to manipulate their parents by holding their breath till they turn blue.

Are these the actions of a party that's serious about economic matters?

On that note, Moody's Analytics recently estimated that austerity policies will slow GDP growth and reductions in the unemployment rate:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/09/us/fiscal-policies-take-a-toll.html?ref=us&_r=0

If Republican hostage-taking and obstructionism doesn't harm our economy, perhaps their damaging austerity measures will...