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The deal isn't finalized yet, but it looks like we have a deal and we are only waiting for the faux-celebration when the President signs. Obama will make it seem like a big victory, but the only people who can truly feel that way are these Tea Party yahoos and their billionaire backers.
I am in that mood where I don't want to follow news anymore, or at least not political news. I don't know why I ever should want to. It's not my world, no matter what. But sometimes that becomes so resoundingly clear that I can wonder how I ever came to care.
Bah, until the brainwaves are stilled forever and one is buried over, one can still appreciate the black comedy of it all. And, of course, there are the little joys, like this sunny morning, and the cats, and all those books, so many worlds in which to get happily lost.
I think I'll hang out at the Chestnut Tree Cafe this morning. Care to join me for a little Victory Gin?
_ _ _
And then there are the reported terms of the deal, which amount to an abject surrender on the part of the president. First, there will be big spending cuts, with no increase in revenue. Then a panel will make recommendations for further deficit reduction — and if these recommendations aren’t accepted, there will be more spending cuts.
Republicans will supposedly have an incentive to make concessions the next time around, because defense spending will be among the areas cut. But the G.O.P. has just demonstrated its willingness to risk financial collapse unless it gets everything its most extreme members want. Why expect it to be more reasonable in the next round?
In fact, Republicans will surely be emboldened by the way Mr. Obama keeps folding in the face of their threats. He surrendered last December, extending all the Bush tax cuts; he surrendered in the spring when they threatened to shut down the government; and he has now surrendered on a grand scale to raw extortion over the debt ceiling. Maybe it’s just me, but I see a pattern here.
...
Make no mistake about it, what we’re witnessing here is a catastrophe on multiple levels.
It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away. And the damage isn’t over: there will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will.
In the long run, however, Democrats won’t be the only losers. What Republicans have just gotten away with calls our whole system of government into question. After all, how can American democracy work if whichever party is most prepared to be ruthless, to threaten the nation’s economic security, gets to dictate policy? And the answer is, maybe it can’t.
-- Paul Krugman for The New York Times
I am in that mood where I don't want to follow news anymore, or at least not political news. I don't know why I ever should want to. It's not my world, no matter what. But sometimes that becomes so resoundingly clear that I can wonder how I ever came to care.
Bah, until the brainwaves are stilled forever and one is buried over, one can still appreciate the black comedy of it all. And, of course, there are the little joys, like this sunny morning, and the cats, and all those books, so many worlds in which to get happily lost.
I think I'll hang out at the Chestnut Tree Cafe this morning. Care to join me for a little Victory Gin?
_ _ _
And then there are the reported terms of the deal, which amount to an abject surrender on the part of the president. First, there will be big spending cuts, with no increase in revenue. Then a panel will make recommendations for further deficit reduction — and if these recommendations aren’t accepted, there will be more spending cuts.
Republicans will supposedly have an incentive to make concessions the next time around, because defense spending will be among the areas cut. But the G.O.P. has just demonstrated its willingness to risk financial collapse unless it gets everything its most extreme members want. Why expect it to be more reasonable in the next round?
In fact, Republicans will surely be emboldened by the way Mr. Obama keeps folding in the face of their threats. He surrendered last December, extending all the Bush tax cuts; he surrendered in the spring when they threatened to shut down the government; and he has now surrendered on a grand scale to raw extortion over the debt ceiling. Maybe it’s just me, but I see a pattern here.
...
Make no mistake about it, what we’re witnessing here is a catastrophe on multiple levels.
It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away. And the damage isn’t over: there will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will.
In the long run, however, Democrats won’t be the only losers. What Republicans have just gotten away with calls our whole system of government into question. After all, how can American democracy work if whichever party is most prepared to be ruthless, to threaten the nation’s economic security, gets to dictate policy? And the answer is, maybe it can’t.
-- Paul Krugman for The New York Times
