Deal

It looks as if the Congress may have finally reached a deal with the White House (I knew that Biden would be a good Vice President, as long as he didn't go out in public) to raise the debt limit and cut the budget.

I'm not happy with the precedent it set: The Republicans acted like a spoiled toddler, and treated this legislation like a bucket of toy blocks, grabbed it, and walked over to their side of the room and wouldn't consider letting anybody else play. Then the Democrats, playing the part of the wimpy kid, managed to cajole two or three single blocks from the Republicans to play with and somehow think to themselves... what?; that this is compromise?; reasonable?; success?; a recipe for future negotiations?

I'll be happy to tell the Democrats what this was: a tiny handful of hidebound Tea Party Republicans managing to strong-arm the rest of the federal government over a hugely important piece of legislation. Terrible.

Having said that, I'm generally happy with the spending cuts: Only $900 billion cut now (which hopefully will be of a sensible nature), then the next $1.5 trillion will be worked out carefully with a bit of study in a bipartisan congressional panel (snort!). As I said yesterday: careful and studious cuts are the more important thing. I also like the built-in concept of "if you don't make the cuts, the cuts will make themselves" included in the draft as well. I finally like the concept that raising taxes in the future is considered to be possible as well.

Now all we have to do is get the Democrats out of their diapers for the next round of debt-reduction negotiations, and hopefully a little bit more moderate cutting of the federal bloat can take place soon.