Paul Krugman, Nobel Economist, on this deal:
…For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.
Start with the economics. We currently have a deeply depressed economy. We will almost certainly continue to have a depressed economy all through next year. And we will probably have a depressed economy through 2013 as well, if not beyond…
…… Make no mistake about it, what we’re witnessing here is a catastrophe on multiple levels.
It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away. And the damage isn’t over: there will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will…
Sen. Bernie Sanders, on this deal:
“I cannot support legislation like the Reid proposal which balances the budget on the backs of struggling Americans while not requiring one penny of sacrifice from the wealthiest people in our country. That is not only grotesquely immoral, it is bad economic policy.”
Even the New York Times OpEd folks are not impressed:
There is little to like about the tentative agreement between Congressional leaders and the White House except that it happened at all. The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012. The rest of it is a nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists. It will hurt programs for the middle class and poor, and hinder an economic recovery.
It is not yet set in stone, and there may still be time to make it better. But in the end, most Democrats will have no choice but to swallow their fury, accept the deal, and, we hope, fight harder the next time…
President Obama could have been more adamant in dealing with Republicans, perhaps threatening to use Constitutional powers to ignore the debt ceiling if Congress abrogated its responsibility to raise it. But this episode demonstrates the effectiveness of extortion. Reasonable people are forced to give in to those willing to endanger the national interest.
Democrats can look forward to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts next year, and will have to make the case in the 2012 elections for new lawmakers who will undo the damage.
As for me, I have informed the Congressional and Senate Campaign Committees that there will be no more donations from me for spineless Democrats; same message to White House.
As for the Republican Party, The GOPOsaur Party, as far as I am concerned, H*LL will freeze over before I ever vote for a Republican. They have engaged in the equivalent of not just hostage taking, but domestic terrorism.
As for the Democrats in the House and Senate, they all should all vote NO on this agreement. An emphatic no. Let the Republicans pass it if they can with a handful of Democratic turncoats and betrayers of the heritage of FDR. Then let the American People sort it out during the next election cycle.
I can tell you right now, every Democrat who votes for this will see their vote turned into an argument against them in the next election, by the Republicans. That is the bizarro world we live in. That the Democratic Party has not realized this, and Obama has not realized this, and that they continue to pretend they are dealing with people of good will and shared ambitions for the best for America, and not a bunch of rich terrorists, is what amazes me the most.
When Obama says we will stand up to them next time, I just want to puke.
Faxed to: Rep. Todd Young, IN-09, Sen. Richard Lugar (IN), Sen. Dan Coats (IN), Pres. Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Rep. John Boehner, Rep. Eric Cantor
