Kicking the Grand Bargain down the road
by digby
Wouldn’t it just be something if after all this sturm und drang, the Republicans ended up agreeing to massive cuts in government after all? I for one will be shocked, shocked I tell you.
Even as President Obama and congressional leaders focus on a fallback plan to lift the nation’s debt ceiling, top Democrats and Republicans have begun to map a new way to craft the same sort of ambitious deficit-cutting plan they abandoned last week.
As part of the deal being discussed to raise the debt ceiling, leaders on Capitol Hill are forming an especially powerful congressional committee that would be charged with drawing up a new “grand bargain,” possibly by the end of the year.
Key elements for a big deal remain in place. Obama has been clear that he wants one and has started making the case to skeptical factions of his own party that getting the nation’s fiscal house in order is in their best interest. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) also remains committed to an ambitious plan, having told his troops that he didn’t become speaker to do small things. And, perhaps most critically, the markets are demanding it. The credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s says Washington must agree to reduce the debt by $4 trillion over 10 years to avert a downgrade.
[…]
But hopes for a grand resolution in coming months face the same question that hangs over the current crisis: whether tea-party-aligned conservatives in Congress who forced the debt-ceiling showdown will provide the necessary votes for an eventual major deal, even if it includes new taxes…House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who has emerged as the leader of this contingent, has argued against such a deal. But his views may be shifting along with those of some rank-and-file House Republicans whose imaginations have been captivated by the idea of slicing as much as $5 trillion out of the federal budget over the next decade.
You don’t say. And the most exciting thing about it will be that we can keep this argument going for many more months, which is so exciting. (Certainly the silly liberals will be kept distracted trying desperately to hang on to the last shreds of the safety net, so that’s good.)
Who knows whether this will go anywhere. And if it results in a clean debt ceiling vote, I guess we live to fight another day. But it does appear that we have a new starting point for bipartisan agreement: four trillion dollars in deficit reduction over the next ten years. That’s what President Obama proposed in his budget, although he spread it out over 12. Paul Ryan asked for 6.5. I think we’re seeing the outlines for an awesome “compromise.”
And the good news is that just as soon as we all this cutting out of the way we’ll be able to start on the progressive agenda. President Obama:
“If you care about making investments in our kids and making investments in our infrastructure and making investments in basic research,” he said, “then you should want our fiscal house in order so that every time we propose a new initiative somebody doesn’t just throw up their hands and say, ‘Ah, more big spending, more government.’ ”
Absolutely. I’m sure once we all agree that government is too bloated with all the current useless programs and ruthlessly cut or end them, “somebody” will be eager to sign on to “more big spending, more government.” Because they’re very fair-minded that way.
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