The deficit reduction supercommittee is apparently bogged down in the usual partisan squabbles. Big surprise. The Democrats won’t accept a package of cuts only, and the Republicans balk at any tax increases. Will the threat of the nasty automatic cuts that will happen if there’s no agreement be enough to move anyone off dead center? [...]

The federal government, at least for the moment, will stay in business. The most recent threat of a shutdown was averted when FEMA found enough money under the mattress to limp along until the end of its fiscal year, when it will be automatically funded again. The right-wingers in the House wanted any additional disaster [...]

The Republicans sure love drama, don’t they. First they threatened to shut the government down unless their demands were met. Now they’re swearing they won’t agree to raise the debt ceiling unless they get the deep cuts they want. Shutting down the government would have caused some pain, but no permanent damage. Failure to raise [...]

The game of chicken over raising the debt limit continues, with Republicans (and some Democrats) vowing that any vote for it will have to be accompanied by deep budget cuts, and tax increases of any kind will not be considered.  If Republicans have their way, there’s only one possible outcome. The social safety net, already [...]

The post-2010 Obama style is emerging. Out is the optimistic liberal standard bearer. In is the Clintonian triangler. Let the Republicans frame the agenda, stay above the fray, expend as little political capital as possible, then step in as the mediator to forge a last-minute consensus. Hey, it worked brilliantly for Clinton, and it might [...]

Enough said.

Unless there’s a surprise agreement, the government will shut down at the end of the day tomorrow, largely because of the intransigence of the Tea Party members of the House, who apparently see compromise of any kind as a betrayal of their core principles. This, of course, is no way to run a government. Compromise [...]

We may yet get a budget deal without a government shutdown, but it won’t be any credit to the Tea Party absolutists who see ANY compromise as a betrayal of their core principles. It will be because feckless Democrats caved on theirs. The last I heard, the Dems were so desperate for a deal they [...]

A little lighter fare for the holidays. I’ll be back to my nasty old self soon enough.

We now have two commissions recommending ways to trim the deficit. The one the president appointed made its preferred approach known last week, and now an independent commission has come up with an even stronger approach. Given the current state of affairs in washington, both approaches are dead on arrival. The GOP will have nothing [...]