Washington politics at its worst, and its best!
July 23, 2011
Got to love the debt ceiling talks in Washington right now - I reckon it'll get higher ratings that Big Brother!
The President of going off pop about the Republicans not able to agree to anything, and with such passion and vitriol. Quite something for national television. His whole point, as I heard it, was how fair and comprising he and his fellow Democrats were being by, if I heard correctly, agreeing to $1,6 Trillion in spending cuts, while those ungrateful Republicans were not satisfied with a mere $1,2 Trillion increase in Revenue. Of course if he had his way, the entire $2,8 Trillion deficit cut this would generate should be taken from the wealthy and big business via tax increases and the removal of legal tax deductions.
What he failed to tell the nation was that up until the day before, everyone seemed to be close to an agreement at $800 Billion in increased Revenues, but on Friday morning he had come into the negotiations with a new demand for a 50% increase in this target, somehow expecting everyone to swallow it and move on. This, in my books, is a material non-discIosure and is more like a partisan political speech than coming from the head of the Executive and our President. I have read this morning that a possible explanation for this change in the goalpost was that the increased Revenues put forward in the Group of 6 plan were substantially higher than what the President had agreed to at $800 Billion, so he had to move quickly to save face.
Whatever the reason, the issue remains unresolved, but that is a position that the anti-spending folks can live with. I guess that's what the debt ceiling is there for in the first place, to stop the government spending too much!
