Debt Deal Debacle

I'm altogether sick of hearing and reading about the completely predictable outcome of our latest manufactured fiscal crisis du jour, so I'll add a few points and be done with it.

If you haven't noticed yet, we're now deep into a rutted pattern of GOP manufactured legislative and fiscal crises. The most notable ones of recent memory were the extension of the Bush tax cuts at the end of last year, the ridiculous gridlock that ran us to the brink of a government shutdown earlier this spring, and now the recent summer showdown over the debt ceiling. In all three of these instances, the administration wholeheartedly and enthusiastically capitulated to congressional Republican demands, deigning to extract any significant concessions or even attempting to champion progressive policies. The short term extension of the Bush tax cuts added another $860 billion to the deficit at a time when the Republicans spent the prior 24 months bitching and screaming about the deficit and demanding that all legislation be deficit neutral. In return, the administration got an extension of unemployment benefits, something that should more or less be considered automatic at a time of unprecedented financial hardship and record unemployment.

The deal that averted a government shutdown in April, while much smaller than today's deal, was also constructed almost wholly on Republican terms. Again, it came down to all cuts to spending, with the day-to-day operations of the federal government held as a hostage. After the deal was cut, Obama himself championed it as an enormous success, while seemingly contradicting himself by admitting that some people were going to have to sack up and deal without support from certain programs (don't worry, none of those programs affect banksters or plutocrats). 

And that brings us to the debt ceiling debacle. Once again, the administration has accepted a deal torn straight from the pages of the GOP playbook - over $2 trillion in cuts, no new revenues. Additionally, we are now treated to the presence of some ludicrous super congressional committee that can ostensibly do nothing and bicker just like the real congress about how best to gut government spending in the face of anemic economic growth while ensuring the banksters and super wealthy never have to pay higher taxes. And we also have the added benefit of the fact that the administration voluntarily allowed the GOP to take the debt ceiling hostage despite numerous congressional Republicans admitting that they would never allow the government to exceed the debt limit, and that up until this point, the debt ceiling has always been a routine, albeit unpopular, legislative act with no strings attached (or hostages taken).

I'm not going to rehash the dead horse that is the "Obama is a shitty negotiator" meme. But at this point, it's apparent to me that these crises end the way they do because it's the result that Obama more or less wants. That's not a new observation either, but one that bears repeating in the wake of his typical "Aw shucks guys, I really tried" statements that inevitably follow these shit shows as he tries to smooth it over with the liberal base for which he clearly cares very little. Maybe it's easier to avoid disappointment in situations like these if you go into them with the realization that the President will just end up giving the Republicans 90% of what they demand.

And now that the latest hostage crisis has concluded and the issue of taxes once again postponed, the President assures us that he will fight for new revenues in the future. Mmm-hmm. I wonder how that will go? You know, given his already exemplary track record of tangling with congressional Republicans. And expect to see the same tactics employed by the Republicans. They keep getting exactly what they want, so why would ever they try anything else or act any differently?