Time again to defend the ancien régime America does not negotiate with terrorists.* Unless, of course, they’ve been elected to Congress. The terrorists threatening to blow up the U.S. and world economy over paying debts the country has already incurred have demands. And hostages. “House Republicans decided to hold the economy hostage to slash assistance for low-income Americans while protecting tax cuts for the wealthy,” asserts E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post. “That’s a factual statement, not a partisan complaint.” The rest of Dionne’s Monday column details the hypocrisy at the heart of conservative backsliders’ demands for deficit reduction. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) wants the Trump-era tax cuts made permanent, “adding $3.5 trillion to the deficit over a decade.” McCarthy demands cuts to domestic discretionary spending that impact poorer Americans. Republicans want work requirements before The Irresponsibles may receive government benefits or they’ll trigger their MAGA suicide vests. “The fact that Americans with the lowest incomes are political pawns in this exercise is a moral stain on our country,” Dionne laments. But besides citing Adam Serwer’s “The Cruelty Is the Point,” he lacks the space to delve into why the GOP feels obliged to punch down. I don’t. The Irresponsibles are always the deal-breaker. Like the caste system, meritocracy rationalizes inequality, social station, entrenched hierarchies, and rule by hereditary royalty and landed gentry. Republicans mean to protect the ownership class from the rabble. They do know this is the United States of America, right? I’ve written about the meritocratic jungle…