However, a fair number of tea party members in congress were actively promoting defaulting on the debt. That's different than some random guy with a page on the internet. That's a lawmaker with a vote who can affect the outcome. So their political career would be hurt. The election wasn't the next day, it would have taken a long time to replace those yahoos and the damage would have been done. Examples:

Ted Yoho, rep for Florida, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-tea-partys-gov...

Trump (who isn't in congress, but had a shot at being president: http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/05/08/media-slam-trump...)

yes, it is nuts, but people who vote in congress supported it, and the pres. candidate of one of our two parties also said that.

Actually, most of the Republican party is in the process of committing political suicide right now. Enough with your vacuous false balance.

You are right sir. And after the ratings agencies downgraded US debt, they actually appreciated in value. Because anyone who understands government finance knows that issuer's of currency cannot default on their own debt instruments unless they want to.

Check out HyperNormalisation by Adam Curtis - should be on interest.