Someone let loose with a funky cold aphrodisiac in DC this evening, for we have some very strange bedfellows on the debt ceiling bill. When both the hard left and the hard right are sniping at the same thing, it is either (a) suitable for use as fertilizer or (b)has something going for it.
I'm not quite sure which we have here. For maintaining the basic functioning of the Republic, this works. However, the Rube Goldberg budgetary contraption that the bill conjures up sets up an across-the-board chopping block for some things that best not be chopped.
It gives the Tea Partiers a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment; I don't like the the prospect of Anthony Kennedy having to sign off on the constitutionality of next year's budget numbers. Even if aiming for a balanced budget is a good idea, it puts too much power in the courts; it does make for an interesting show of folks on the left raising Keynes about tying the hands of government.
It also gives the left a vehicle for a back-door tax increase, if the 12-member supercommittee passes out a loophole-cutting tax bill. That created some interesting back and forth between the White House and GOP leaders today; yes, tax increases are possible, but not likely, at least not in overall rates.
The old Greek curse was said to be "may you live in interesting times." As Arte Johnson's Laugh In German soldier would put it, "Verrry interesting, but stooopid." If democracy is the worst form of government (except everything else we've tried), divided government is even worse than that, but it still muddles through.
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