If Jonathan Karl’s reporting is correct, the final deal on the debt ceiling is pretty good considering that this is a hostage situation. First, the president is getting enough money that he won’t have to go back and ask for more before election day in 2012. Second, the congressional debt committee will be authorized to recommend tax hikes. Third, the trigger to enforce action on the debt committee involves across-the-board cuts, but they hit the Pentagon harder than Medicare, and any Medicare cuts would hurt providers and not affect beneficiaries. If this is a true picture of the deal, then the Democrats came out better than most of us feared.
There is still no stimulus mentioned, like an extension of the payroll tax holiday or unemployment insurance. That’s extremely unfortunate, but it seems like the GOP’s bottom line is that nothing can be done by the federal government that might alleviate or improve unemployment.
In any case, this deal is certainly better than blowing up the economy on purpose.
