Ezra Klein: A deal that found the lowest-common denominator

[highplainsdem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/a-deal-that-found-the-lowest-common-denominator/2011/07/11/gIQAde9TmI_blog.html

The upside of this deal, however, is that “the debt ceiling will cave in and Congress will trigger a global financial crisis” is not one of the potential outcomes. So that’s something. The downside is that we actually haven’t come that far: we’re still pretending that a deal a few months ago will somehow be easier than a deal today, we’re moving to austerity budgeting -- note that neither unemployment insurance nor the payroll tax cut are extended -- when the economy remains weak, and we’re putting off the decisions about what to cut and how to handle taxes.

And that gets to the truth of this deal, and perhaps of Washington in this age: it’s all about lowest-common denominator lawmaking. There are no taxes. No entitlement cuts. No stimulus. Less in actual, specific deficit reduction than there was in the Simpson-Bowles, Ryan, or Obama plans, and even than there was in the Biden/Cantor or Obama/Boehner talks.The two sides didn’t concede more in order to get more. They conceded almost nothing in order to get a trigger and a process, not to mention avoid a financial catastrophe.

There’s reason to be skeptical that a trigger and a process will do much to change these basic dynamics. We’ve now attempted to get a deficit-reducing grand bargain by yoking it to both a near-shutdown and a near-default, not to mention a series of negotiations, commissions, and senatorial gangs. None of it has been enough. And that’s because bipartisan commissions and terrible consequences have not been enough to convince Republicans to agree to revenues, and revenues are fundamental to large deficit-reduction compromise.

Perhaps this deal signals the end of the need to actually reach an agreement, however. If the Joint Committee fails, the trigger begins cutting spending. If negotiations over taxes fail, the Bush tax cuts expire and revenues rise by $3.6 trillion. Neither scenario is anyone’s first choice on policy grounds. But you can get to both scenarios without Republicans explicitly conceding to higher taxes or Democrats explicitly conceding to entitlement cuts in the absence of higher taxes. Politically, that’s the lowest-common denominator, and that might mean it’s also the final deal.

[Oilwellian]

1. Fuck Ezra Klein

[Bozita]

2. The perfect title line for what woulda been called TREASON during the GWB years

The greatest stick-up of all time.

[Unvanguard]

3. This is a reasonable take, though I don't think the trigger will go into effect.

It will be interesting, as well as horrifying, to see how the pieces fall.

[mzmolly]

4. "Security, Medicaid and a few other programs for the poor are exempted."

Good to know.