Not so much euphoria everyone. If you think today's pending budget deal solves any problems, you haven't been paying any attention and there are lots of warning signs that Congress has once again simply pushed its whole sorry mess forward a few weeks with no signs that when it all returns, things will be any different.
A few clear signs of this below the swirling ego of Ted Cruz:
First of course, is the obvious fact that this deal postpones a longer-term deal on debt limits only until February.
Second, the deal calls for the two sides of Congress to create a joint committee to develop a "10-year blueprint for the U.S. budget" and report back by Dec. 13th. In other words, accomplish that directive in less than two months when Congress hasn't been able to agree on a budget for years.
Worse yet and a huge question, is who is going to be on that Committee? Chances are one member is going to be Paul Ryan, the wonkiest member of the Republican Party full of great budget plans that only begin to sound workable if you include most of the revenues from Obamacare, which he fully opposes. And then the question is whether members of the Tea Party get representation. If they don't the GOP is going to face more internal division and if they do, the task of the joint committee will be that much more difficult.
And listen to Mitch McConnell's remarks this morning on the Senate floor. Essentially he was euphoric that in his view the current sequester level of funding the government is now the baseline from which his party plans to negotiate. And as they have repeatedly stated, the GOP is not about to approve ANY revenue increases of any kind.
In other words, we're starting out with an across the board whack of 10 percent off the entire budget and in McConnell's mind, his party will begin trying to gnaw off still more over the next two months. And oh yes....his party remains committed to getting rid of Obamacare.
So what do YOU think the chances are of any meaningful progress between now and February when the debt limit issue returns?