Sunday, July 31, 2011

Craptastic! It Looks Like A Debt Deal Is On

Yes, it is craptastic. But it is a deal and the dreaded "default" hanging on the United States like a sword of Damocles is lifted.
The highlights of the deal, such as they are, as follows:

An immediate cut of $1 trillion in government spending over a 10-year period.

A $900 billion increase in the debt ceiling.


And my personal favorite,

The creation of a committee to come up with additional cuts worth at least $1.5 trillion to be voted on by the end of the year

Lets take the last component of the deal. Just who will each party nominate to be on this super committee of congress? I expect the Democrats to pick the ones that will most object to serious cuts. But the Republicans, will they put any Tea Party congress members on this committee? Or are they going to put Porkster types? That is going to make a difference as to what happens down the road. And what kind of process of future cuts will be had? Will defense be cut to shreds, a Democrat dream? Or will cuts be equitable and across the board? It is what is the great unknown about this legislation. The Republicans need to put hard-liners in this committee to insure equitable across the board cuts will be done.
The debt ceiling gets hiked. Once again the limit on the United States credit card increases. And once again, something is wrong about this whole process. Because all public debt is included in what we owe rather than each individual debt, we are having this debate every time we pass a budget.
And the $900,000,000,000 in cuts take place over a period of 10 years. Again, one of the arguments the Tea Party folks were making is that cuts needed to be front loaded. It is not real clear if that is what is happening.
And no matter what, this is a huge win for the Tea Party. No bribes occurred to switch votes. They insisted on transparency and, while not perfect, much more than in previous years on major pieces of legislation. Think the so-called health care "reform" plan. And it will not pass unless there are no new taxes. And that appears to be the case.
Amazing how our legislative and executive branches work in such situations. Wait til the bitter end and we get stuck with a crap sandwich. It is not a way to run a nation. We will see if this was all worth it in the next several days.

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