Visual Source: Newseum
Daniel Markovits:
In the bigger picture, however, the debt deal represents a substantial success for President Obama and the Democrats. It does indeed impose cuts that will slow the economic recovery and unjustly burden working Americans. But the deal is much nearer an affirmation of the president's core commitments than a surrender. Moreover, the deal that the president got is much, much less bad, from the progressive point of view, than a coldly rational observer would have predicted. The reason the president beat the odds is simple: The Republicans blinked...
Given this posture, and given the tea partyers' apparent commitment to ideological purity over electability, basic negotiation theory predicts that only deals close to the Republican negotiating position — the position embodied in Cut, Cap and Balance — would ever be made. The most that the Republicans should have agreed to is a short-term stop-gap rise in the debt ceiling, insisting on some cuts in social spending now while retaining all of their leverage for demanding deep, structural cuts in a subsequent negotiation in the fall.
The deal that was struck is dramatically — shockingly — better from the Democrats' point of view.
This seems to be a "best deal possible" rather than "deal is good" argument, which would be impossible to make. Contrast with:
Peter Nicholas:
Some Democrats also question Obama's negotiating skills, grumbling that he gave up weapons he could have used in the battle. In particular, many believe he should have left open the possibility that he would use the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which holds that public debts "shall not be questioned," to override the congressional limit on the federal debt. Even if Obama never actually used the 14th Amendment, the threat would have strengthened his negotiating position, Democrats say.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said he had advised the White House to "assert" the president's right to increase the debt ceiling using the 14th Amendment. It was clear that "they were contemplating that possibility," Durbin said. But the White House never used the amendment as leverage to improve its bargaining position.
"It was a mistake to publicly take that off the table," said another Democratic lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the negotiations. "I don't know why you would do that."
Seems to me that's the better of the arguments.
Ezra Klein:
There are now two sides in the American tax debate: the Republican Party, which refuses to have a serious conversation about taxes, and the Democratic Party, which . . . refuses to have a serious conversation about taxes.
Let’s start here: We cannot fund anything close to the government’s commitments if we don’t raise taxes, or if we let only the Bush tax cuts for income over $250,000 expire. And that’s true even if we make deep cuts across all categories of federal spending.
Read and reread.
Mark Gongloff/WSJ:
Moody’s just came out and said, great job, USA, you get to keep your AAA rating. For now.
This follows Fitch, which earlier said more or less that they were still reviewing the US rating, a process that could take through August. They didn’t promise they’d keep a AAA rating at the end of the process, but called the debt deal “a step in the right direction.”
Now the big shoe dangling is S&P, which is really on the hook, having sounded the loudest warning about a downgrade. The size of the debt deal doesn’t seem to hit the $4 trillion mark S&P has said would be necessary to keep a AAA rating.
My prediction? They’ll issue a similar placeholder statement soonish.
From HHS:
In accordance with the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced historic new guidelines that will ensure millions of women receive preventive health services with no cost sharing, including:
well-woman visits
screening for gestational diabetes
human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing for women 30 and older
sexually-transmitted infection counseling
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening and counseling
FDA-approved contraception methods and contraceptive counseling
breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling
domestic violence screening and counseling
By eliminating barriers like copays, co-insurance, and deductibles, these guidelines will help improve access to affordable, quality health care for all women. New private health plans must cover the guidelines on women’s preventive services with no cost sharing in plan years starting on or after August 1, 2012. Call your insurer for more information.
Good for a lot of women after implementation. And going to be tough to justify taking back when Super Congress convenes.
Greg Sargent:
Even if Dems don’t take back the state senate in the end, it seems clear that the Wisconsin recall wars are shaping up as a dress rehearsal of sorts for the 2012 elections. Whatever happens, Wisconsin Dems have already succeeded in creating a true grassroots movement built around an unabashedly class-based set of themes that rely on a type of bare-knuckled class-warfare rhetoric that makes many national Dems queasy. In this sense, success in Wisconsin could offer a model for a more aggressive, populist approach for Dems in 2012.
NY Times:
In the coming 2012 elections, the strategic calculation for Republican candidates weighing Tea Party ties “depends on the state, depends on the politician and it depends on the particular race,” Mr. Ayres said.
Evidence of political uncertainty is everywhere, and this week’s debt votes in Congress highlighted the Republican soul-searching, doing little to clarify a simple path to Republican victory.