Why Obama Won Debt Deal

The president got what he most wanted, postponing another debt ceiling fight until after the election and without politically damaging entitlement cuts.

Everything else is eye wash. Most of the spending cuts are in the out years, which is another way of saying it won't happen.

And one more committee to study cuts? Oh please, even if they call it a "super" committee that's always a Capitol Hill euphemism for doing nothing. Adding so-called triggers for cuts if goals aren't met also means nothing. Remember Gramm-Rudman?

Giving up tax increases on the wealthy is probably Obama's biggest concession, but that fight lives for another day when the Bush cuts are scheduled to expire later on.

Even if liberals beat up the president for this deal, he wins. Nothing would help him more in his obvious effort to move to the center and appeal to independent voters for reelection.

Now on Craig's Blog: "He's Baaack! Nader Seeks Dem Challenger"

 

 

 

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Comments

[Russell Dee]

09:59 PM on 08/02/2011

Part 1

Obama won for the reasons you gave and more reasons:

1. Dems now say the "super" committee must add new taxes from the rich & dems might make it happen because GOP doesn't want military spending cut. If the GOP won't allow new taxes on the rich then the military will be cut & the GOP could get the blame.

2. Some dems complain that the rich escape new taxes but even if taxes had increased on the rich it wouldn't have happened until the Bush tax cuts expired, & it looks like tax increases on the rich might still happen when the Bush tax cuts expire. Obama hasn't lost a thing on that issue yet, & I think the stage is set for Obama to win that issue since 60% of Americans agree with Obama on the issue & the GOP has lost the "intentional default" leverage.

[R.W. Sanders]

07:20 AM on 08/01/2011

Is Obama a Manchurian candidate? Sure looks that way. Only "negotiates" with republican leaders, always surrenders key points before talks even begin, and screws progressives every time. With this debt deal, we are much further down the road away from democracy. Now, government spending power has been allocated to an unelected group of twelve. And you can bet there will be no progressive voice on this committee. Just six clones of Ben Nelson on the democratic side. This is not only morally and fiscally wrong, it might be unconstitutional. I feel duped because I voted for a con man. He must be challenged in the primaries for 2012 by a real democrat who is not owned by the power elites.

Rather than the economic death spiral of spending cuts, we should be spending on government work programs. Government paychecks get spent just like those of private industry. And this deficit will not go away until this economy grows. You cannot cut your way to prosperity.

[John D Rachel]

07:39 PM on 07/31/2011

Obama won. The American public lost. The flags should be at half mast. He should not have conceded any cuts. He should have taken everything off the table and kept them off. That would have shown not only courage and strength, but some perspective. The good of the country has again been traded for political points.

[Anish Jain]

03:18 AM on 08/01/2011

Go write another "novel." Keep out of economics. Defaulting would have caused the international economy to collapse. You are just like the tea party---on the left, rather than the right.

[John D Rachel]

06:56 AM on 08/01/2011

Obviously you have no understanding of what is going on. There was no reason to strike a deal because there was no legal grounds for defaulting. The debt ceiling argument is not based in law, it is based in politics. I would never for a minute want the country to default on its obligations. It is suicidal. So put your insults back in the dark hole you pulled them out of. And if you can actually read and understand what you read, please look at this ... "Really Bad Television­": http://jdr­achel.com/­?p=711