Imagine that - Republicans are planning on using the deficit as a political tool to prevent Democrats from passing anything that might have even the remotest chance of improving unemployment or the economy. And the chances are remote. With Congress firmly gridlocked and with Dems loving nothing more than to negotiate with themselves, the litany of shitty half measures that will be served up will do little to make significant gains in the months ahead. But that is a feature, not a bug. Remember, we won't slide back into recession, and there's a light at the end of the tunnel in 2013. Because Obama's economist-free Council on Economic Affairs said so, that's why.
But in general, this should surprise no one. The GOP spent the first two years of Obama's presidency crying wolf about the deficit to impede legislative progress. Even when the Democrats tied themselves in knots to make bills deficit neutral, the Republicans found other reasons to oppose them anyway. And they were rewarded handsomely in 2010 by an ignorant electorate that collectively scratched its ass and grunted out "spending bad" and voted for the people in power who sounded most like them. So they are just going back to the same dogeared page in their playbook. It worked so well for them once, why would they try anything different this time around?
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