The reality is that there’s a Democratic President and a Democratic Senate and nothing really, really good is going to happen while those are a reality. Like I said originally - if the House were to hold off past the 2nd, what do you think would happen? Do you really think that Obama would give up and surrender at that point, or do you think that markets would panic (or even that Obama would engineer market panic) and that thirty or so Republicans in the House would give way to a clean increase?
If this is the deal - a big if - the House has managed to extort a lot of concessions from the Democrats in a situation where they could very well have gotten nothing.
Is it everything that I want? Of course it isn’t. But it’s a damned sight better than the alternative. Also, because it’s going to bitterly divide Democrats, it’s anything step on the road to the real reforms that will have to take place beginning noon on January 20, 2013.
I wasn't a big fan of the CCB bill. That said, it was kinda my compromise position in that it cut $6 trillion of the $9 trillion ten year outlays. Capped spending as a percentage of GDP and promised a BBA. Figured it was a good start.
The numbers being thrown around now are just illusions and passage gives the impression that the problem is "fixed" when in reality it is just pushed back for a year and a half while adding another $2.5 trillion to the mess. Pure politics on both sides and THAT just makes me sick.