Things have gotten shrill in some quarters regarding the President and congressional Dems capitulation during the recent self-inflicted “debt crisis”. Seems like everyone has better ideas about who should have drawn lines in the sand and where. I wanted to offer my perspective from somewhat nearer the middle on this question.
Rather than get too creative, I’ll cannibalize a note a friend sent... his summary was more succinct than I can usually manage.
There is a lesson from game theory that seems to have played itself out in the recent debt ceiling crisis.
Consider the situation in which several people are all locked in a room with no way out, in gasoline up to their ankles, and each one is holding a lit candle. Which person is the most powerful? Which person is the least powerful?
Answer: The most powerful person is the one who can convince all the others that he or she is friggin' crazy. Give 'em whatever they want, dammit. The least powerful person is the one that comes across as sane and totally rational.
Poor Obama, never had a chance against the tea party.
Solution: whenever the house passes a budget, part of the budget should be any necessary authorization to increase the debt ceiling to accommodate the budget, with "triggers" to handle shortfalls. It's just nuts to pass a budget that says "spend this much" and then say "but you can't have the money".
I agree with my friend. It’s easy to cast stones, but we didn’t default on our debt.
If the administration (or senate) had “Drawn a line in the sand” and the Tea party was loony enough to drive us off the cliff, what would have happened? We might have been able to blame the Republicans, and the Tea Party in particular – but having a ready target to blame would not reduce the carnage. I care more about not wrecking the economy than getting any particular person re-elected, and prefer to support candidates whom I hope share that sensibility.
It appears to me that the deal doesn’t REALLY cut the budget in the near term. It could be overturned by a future congress. It looks pretty hollow. In exchange for giving the Reps some political cover, the real deal has been kicked down the road to the future.
The fact that Medicare and Social Security cuts were discussed doesn’t harm anyone in a material way right now. I don’t know if it was three-dimensional chess, but this outcome isn’t terrible and keeps the patient alive.
Seems like not running the country onto the rocks was a good leadership move. Would I like to see more? Yes. Do I have time to wait? As a result of this deal, yes.
What do you think?