Deficit Talks Fail

[grumbler]

How the fuck should it not fail when they can't even agree on wether pizza is a vegetable or not?

  Is that how it sounded when it worked its way down the beetvine to you?

Reminds me of the old game, "telephone."

[jimmy olsen]

Great Depression was worse, the 70s about as bad.

What the fuck?  Ok Tim you are going full retard here.

As we are now, not worse than the Civil War. Duh

Unless you're arguing that our present situation is worse than the Great Depression? 

[MadImmortalMan]

They don't' want to raise taxes, but they really couldn't care less about debt. That' something for the far future.

Except it's not. As our European friends are discovering.

[KRonn]

I feel that this super committee was an abdication of Congress's responsibilities. Congress should be doing what's needed, but instead they appoint a committee to an onery task. Worst of all for what they did legislate if this committee fails are the possibly draconian budget cuts that kick in at some point if nothing is resolved. Plus the possible downgrading of the US' credit rating, again.

[MadImmortalMan]

Fuck it. Let it happen.

[Razgovory]

Great Depression was worse, the 70s about as bad.

What the fuck?  Ok Tim you are going full retard here.

As we are now, not worse than the Civil War. Duh

Unless you're arguing that our present situation is worse than the Great Depression? 

The 1970's were not nearly as bad as the Great Depression.  Even with the ugly fashion.

[The Minsky Moment]

I bet some Romans were saying the same thing in 454 'Eh so what Valentinian murdered Aetius, we have had worse times in the past and recovered'. 

Things did improve after 455.

[DGuller]

Whether we'll recover or not is only partially the point.  What's more concerning is that our country can fracture politically so decisively without any serious reason to do so.  What happens when we face problems of slavery's magnitude?

[alfred russel]

Whether we'll recover or not is only partially the point.  What's more concerning is that our country can fracture politically so decisively without any serious reason to do so.  What happens when we face problems of slavery's magnitude?

If history is any guide, decades of political gridlock followed by death and destruction on an epic scale and the military occupation of 1/3 of the country.

[Berkut]

It wasn't suppose to "succeed".  It was designed to solve the debt ceiling crisis and give time for the GOP to bring the Tea Party clowns to heel.

Tea Party wasn't the enemy, Grover Norquist is the enemy.  In fact, he's probably the most dangerous political terrorist US has to deal with. 

The funny thing is that Norquist is one organized revolt away from completely losing his power, but Republicans have even less balls than Democrats when it comes to clipping his wings.  I find it a little surprising, given how I imagine politicians don't appreciate bowing down to some blowhard.

It does seem bizarre that one of the two major parties has allowed themselves to be hamstrung by this one issue wonder.

[The Brain]

Whether we'll recover or not is only partially the point.  What's more concerning is that our country can fracture politically so decisively without any serious reason to do so.  What happens when we face problems of slavery's magnitude?

Slavery wasn't a problem until it was made a problem.

[KRonn]

Have they gone nuts in Washington?
By David Gergen, CNN Senior Political Analyst

Editor's note: David Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN and has been an adviser to four presidents. He is a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Follow him on Twitter: @David_Gergen.

Cambridge, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Have they gone nuts in Washington?

Last summer, as the debt ceiling debacle ended, our political leaders held out high hope that a "super committee" would meet for 10 weeks this fall and forge a bipartisan agreement that would do far more to bring down the nation's deficits.

Everyone knew that members of the committee had deep differences.

Republicans complain that federal spending under President Obama has gone up dramatically and cuts should come there before any new taxes.

Democrats say that the rich have increased their wealth much more rapidly than the other 99% of Americans, while their taxes have gone down, so that the first order of business is to raise taxes on them. Both sides have valid points, worthy of debate.

But such contentious disagreements have characterized our politics since the dawn of the republic, and in almost all crises of the past, political leaders have worked out compromises. As Thomas Jefferson put it in 1790, "In general I think it necessary to give as well as take in a government like ours." George Washington agreed and pushed continually for what he called "a spirit of accommodation."

Our "leaders" of today, however, have tossed aside the wisdom of the Founders. The super committee is now hours away from abject failure on what should have been relatively easy work. Some tell us not to worry: A breakdown will automatically trigger "sequestration" -- automatic cuts in defense and domestic programs starting in January 2013. But there are already efforts within Congress to void the sequestration process.

A related concern is how financial markets will react. Some economists tell us not to worry about that, either: They say the markets have long assumed failure and have baked that into their investment decisions. But who knows for sure? Who can tell how a volatile mixture of political failure in Europe and in the U.S. will play out in coming weeks? The truth is nobody knows for sure.
If super committee fails, what's next?


That's why this failure of the super committee represents a reckless, irresponsible gamble by our "leaders" in Washington. It's difficult to remember a Congress that has put the nation so much at risk in the service of ideology and to hold onto office. Partisans on both sides are grievously failing the country.

An honest assessment would lay blame on the White House doorstep, too. Yes, the president finally put up a plan a few weeks back and made a few phone calls. But he has been exercising the most passive leadership imaginable. Nor have the Republican candidates for president been any more engaged. Why are their campaigns so focused only on 2013 and so detached from a crisis that continues to deepen in D.C. right now?

It is not as if Congress and the White House are working productively together to solve other problems. They have done almost nothing in recent months to create more jobs and to shore up most homeowners. Hope is not a strategy, as we know, but it seems to be ours right now.

Even as the president promises a larger military presence in the Pacific (how are we going to afford it?), some businessmen are coming home from Shanghai and privately saying China has already won the economic rivalry.

Meanwhile, the White House has played politics with a proposed oil pipeline from Canada. And few raised a peep a few days ago when the chief economist of the International Energy Agency warned, based upon a serious study, that the world would face "irreversible climate change in five years" unless we change course on new energy infrastructure.

Sorry, our noble leaders tell us, we have to focus now on election 2012. What was it that Louis XV used to say? "Après moi, le déluge"?

[jimmy olsen]

Great Depression was worse, the 70s about as bad.

What the fuck?  Ok Tim you are going full retard here.

As we are now, not worse than the Civil War. Duh

Unless you're arguing that our present situation is worse than the Great Depression? 

The 1970's were not nearly as bad as the Great Depression.  Even with the ugly fashion.

Good thing I never said that. I said the 70s were about as bad as things are now.

[MadImmortalMan]

The music was way better.

[crazy canuck]

The music was way better.

I never thought it would come to this but my son was playing some dub-step "music".  He asked me what I thought.  I told him in the voice of my father - "That is not music"