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Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive by Matt Taibbi, rollingstone.com | August 3, 2011
So the debt deal has finally been reached. As expected, the agreement arrives in a form that right-thinking people everywhere can feel terrible about with great confidence. The general consensus is that for the second time in three years, a gang of financial terrorists has successfully extorted the congress and the White House, threatening to blow up the planet if they didn't get what they wanted. Back in 2008, the congress and George Bush rewarded Hank Paulson and Wall Street for pulling the Cleavon-Little-"the-next-man-makes-a-move-the-n---er-gets-it" routine by tossing trillions of bailout dollars at the same people who had wrecked the economy. Now, Barack Obama has surrendered control of the budget to the Tea Party, whose operatives in congress used the same suicide-bomber tactic, threatening a catastrophic default unless the Democrats committed to a regime of steep spending cuts without any tax increases on the wealthy. read more »Hiding Behind the Budget Act by The New York Times, The New York Times | August 3, 2011
The Budget Control Act of 2011, which President Obama signed on Tuesday after Congress passed it by wide margins, is as contrived as the artificial crisis that spawned it. The bill, like a tired opera production, is full of clumsy staging and failed gimmicks left over from previous decades. It is not only bad policy in its goals of cutting spending too much, but it is bad procedure. It allows members of Congress to avoid responsibility for their actions through a cutout committee, a spending limit and the pretense that this Congress can tell the next one what to do. read more »The Debt-Ceiling Debate: An Orwellian Affair by Anthony Dimaggio, truth-out.org | August 3, 2011
The ongoing debate over the national deficit and the much fraught over debt default is staggering in how it has catered to conservative dogmas, in opposition to any progressive solution to the current impasse. Propagandists in the Democratic and Republican Party should be congratulated for their stunning achievement in these talks. They've managed to stand reality on its head, successfully framing the issue of corporate wealth as one of unfair and crippling "taxation," while portraying massive "cuts" in Social Security, Medicare, and other programs as a needed and shared "sacrifice." News flash to the American public: benefit cuts to Medicare and Social Security ARE a tax hike, even if Republicans and Democrats refuse to admit it. Any legislation that imposes increased costs on the public effectively amounts to a tax increase against the American people. We should reject the Orwellian "distinction" between "harmful tax hikes" and "necessary shared sacrifices" on the other. read more »The End of a Nightmare, a Template for Another by Steve Benen , Washington Monthly | August 3, 2011
In case anyone's forgotten, over the last 72 years, Congress has raised the debt ceiling 89 times. Lawmakers from both parties, working with presidents from both parties, have treated this as routine housekeeping. Preconditions have never been applied to this process, and neither party has ever used the law to hold the nation's full faith and credit hostage. This year, far-right Republicans changed the game, and they apparently have no intention of going back. This wasn't a one-time hostage strategy, threatening the nation's well being in a fit of partisan rage; this was the creation of a new norm, to be repeated forever more. Why? Because the dangerous scheme worked -- when radicalism is rewarded, the result is more radicalism. It sets the stage for the next debt-ceiling showdown, likely to occur in early 2013. Between now and then, the more attention is focused on eliminating this law, the better. read more »How the Tea Party Won the Debt Deal by Paul Harris, The Guardian | August 3, 2011
After the midterm elections of 2010 put many Tea Partiers into high office, they then set about dragging the system rightwards. Ably assisted by a president who has fetishised compromise in the same way the Marquis De Sade liked a good spanking, they made positions that used to be considered rightwing into the middle ground. The only way for the left to fight back is to do the same to the Democratic party. Constantly rowing for the middle isn't working anymore. Not when the middle sits so far to the right. If liberals want to be relevant in the Democratic party, they need to start ousting traditional Democratic candidates in the primaries. Just as the Tea Party has done with the Republicans. They need to create a loud and clear voice that makes unreasonable demands and fights for them. In short, the president needs to be afraid of his left, not just of the right. read more »The Hostage Crisis Continues: Why Obama Can’t Pivot to Jobs and Growth by Robert Reich, robertreich.org | August 3, 2011
With the hostage crisis behind him, the President is now ready to talk about the nation’s real problem. Nine paragraphs into his remarks today announcing the nation has paid most of the ransom the radical right demanded as a condition for maintaining the full faith and credit of the United States (he didn’t use these exact words), the President pivoted to the agenda he should have been talking about all along: “And in the coming months I’ll continue also to fight for what the American people care most about: new jobs, higher wages, and faster economic growth.” But what precisely will he fight for now that the debt deal has tied his hands? He says he wants to extend tax cuts for middle class families and make sure the jobless get unemployment benefits. Fine, but the new deal won’t let him. He’ll have to go back to Congress after the recess and round up enough votes to override the budget caps that now restrict spending. What are the odds? Maybe a little higher than zero. read more »What Do We Do Next? by Erica Payne, Huffington Post | August 3, 2011
Pathetic. That is the only word I can think of to describe the bungling political strategy that will conclude with half the Democrats in the House and most of the Democrats in the Senate voting for total capitulation. Otherwise known as 'The Debt Ceiling Deal,' Total Capitulation will be signed into law by the man who became president of the United States because millions of Americans believed he was tough enough to fight and smart enough to win. Instead of 'audacity,' we got 'better than the alternative.' Is avoiding default a good thing? Sure. But 'not as bad as it could have been' IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THIS COUNTRY. And what Washington doesn't want you to know is that it never should have gotten to this point. read more »The Most Terrifying Result of the Debt Ceiling Crisis by Bob Greenstein, Huffington Post | August 3, 2011
The most terrifying result of the debt ceiling crisis is not the deal itself -- with its tight discretionary caps, its special joint committee that Republicans already are saying they won't allow to raise any revenues, and its potential for arbitrary across-the-board cuts. Instead, it's the precedent that Republican congressional leaders say the crisis has established. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared on the Senate floor today that this "creates an entirely new template for raising the national debt limit." As he explained on CNBC last night, "In the future, any president, this one or another one, when they request us to raise the debt ceiling, it will not be clean anymore." read more »The World Has Been Watching by William Pfaff, truthdig.com | August 3, 2011
Few Americans know, or much care, about the opinions foreigners hold of the United States. This was displayed during the ignorant and solipsistic debate over when or whether the United States will pay its debts, which concluded Tuesday with a promise that it will soon be renewed. The debate was conducted as if foreign lenders had no role in the affair, and as if “the full faith and credit” of the United States were not a guarantee freely offered to those who in the past chose to purchase American bonds and other obligations. There is an important issue that was not included in the deficit debate in Congress. It concerns exactly the present dysfunctions and long-term validity of the American economy, and in that respect, the future of the “American way of life” in this dollar-based international economy that the United States has created and globalized, at the instigation and with the collaboration of Wall Street. read more »The GOP’s Carjacking on Capitol Hill by Ruth Marcus, The Washington Post | August 3, 2011
Welcome to the new Washington normal: endless rounds of legislative carjacking. Perhaps that’s unduly grim — pessimism fueled by the exhaustion of the moment. Perhaps, having peered into the abyss of political gridlock and economic collapse, those Republicans who pushed things to the brink this time will be chastened on the next round. Perhaps, but I’m sticking with pessimism. One side wanted the car, had a gun and wasn’t afraid — certainly not afraid enough — to use it. The other had a child in the back seat. Those who blame Democrats or President Obama for being lousy negotiators fail to appreciate the fundamentally asymmetric nature of the current bargaining. You cannot practice the art of the possible with a party that insists on finger painting with a single color: spending cuts only. read more »
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TARP expected to cost U.S. only $25 billion, CBO says, The Washington Post | November 30, 2010
The Troubled Assets Relief Program, which was widely reviled as a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street titans, is now expected to cost the federal government a mere $25 billion - the equivalent of less than six months of emergency jobless benefits. read more »
If GOP wins, Expect More Obstruction, The Washington Post | October 19, 2010
I'm cautious about the conventional wisdom that the Democratic Party is about to get flattened by a Republican steamroller. Pollsters are less certain than they'd like you to believe about who's a "likely voter" and who isn't. read more »
Bank of America to restart foreclosures in 23 states, The Washington Post | October 19, 2010
Just 10 days after announcing a nationwide halt to foreclosure sales, Bank of America, the nation's largest bank, said Monday that it would begin resubmitting paperwork on Oct. 25 to restart foreclosures on borrowers who missed their payments in 23 states. read more »
Banks Restart Foreclosures, The Wall Street Journal | October 19, 2010
Bank of America Corp. reopened more than 100,000 foreclosure actions, declaring that it had found no significant problems in its procedures for seizing homes. GMAC Mortgage, a lender and loan servicer, said that it also is pushing ahead with an unspecified number of foreclosures that came under intense pressure.
