View from a smoky budget battlefield

So, Who Won and Who Lost?

“ Anything can happen, but it appears the GOP is on the verge of pulling off a political victory that may be unprecedented in American history. Republicans may succeed in using the threat of a potential outcome that they themselves acknowledged would lead to national catastrophe as leverage to extract enormous concessions from Democrats, without giving up anything of any significance in return. Not only that, but Republicans — in perhaps the most remarkable example of political up-is-downism in recent memory — cast their willingness to dangle the threat of national crisis as a brave and heroic effort they’d undertaken on behalf of the national interest. Only the threat of national crisis could force the immediate spending cuts supposedly necessary to prevent a far more epic crisis later. [WaPost's Greg Sargent] ” It is admittedly fun to listen to the anguished bleating coming from the left.  Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said early reports of the new deal appeared to be “a sugar-coated Satan sandwich.”  The thing is, Liberals are by virtue of the very DNA that makes them Liberal,  unable to comprehend economics.  Never have, and never will.  So they, along with some non Liberals, viewed this as another action fought over losing or gaining face.  But what did the Dems get for sure?  Well, they wanted  the debt ceiling raised  through the 2012 elections. Harry Reid said that was non-negotiable. “ It guarantees the debt limit will be hiked by $2.4 trillion. Immediately upon enactment of the plan, the Treasury will be granted $400 billion of new borrowing authority, after which President Obama will be allowed to extend the debt limit by $500 billion, subject to a vote of disapproval by Congress. [TPM] WIN.  What Republicans won is entangled in words like: “ That initial $900 billion will be paired with $900 billion of discretionary spending cuts, first identified in a weeks-old bipartisan working group led by Vice President Joe Biden, which will be spread out over 10 years. ” Going into negotiations Speaker Boner was concerned that "discretionary" cuts would come at the expense of the military. and he took that off the table.  Evidently Mitch McConnel gave it back, so now up to one-half  will come out of the military's hide. LOSE What did the Country get for sure?  It's still early, and God knows I only got a C in Econ 244, but it appears we got institutionalized indebtedness and insolvency.  Mommy and Daddy sold the kids for a weekend in Acapulco. There is a different view however ... The debt deal is a rare bipartisan victory for the forces of smaller government.