Debt Ceiling Deal Reached; Americans Can Go Back to Watching CSI

Congress and the President reached an agreement in principle Sunday night, ending the sad spectacle of America's two political parties fighting like Jerry Springer guests over whether or not to pay our nation's bills.

The deal, which is expected to pass the Senate but still faces an uncertain future in the House, will do a number of things. Some of them will violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution. Let's get to the highlights. First, the deal cuts spending by $917 billion over the next ten years. (It should be noted that the proposed cuts ($91 billion/year) are barely enough to cover the $75 billion a year in additional interest payments Americans will pay if they default.) Second, the bill creates a Super Congress, made up of a dozen lawmakers, divided between Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate. This Super Congress is tasked with writing a law proposing an additional $1.5 trillion in cuts in 2013. That bill would then be presented to both chambers of Congress, with no opportunity to amend the bill in any way. The Senate would be barred from filibustering the bill. If the Super Congress cannot reach agreement on these $1.5 trillion in cuts, the current law triggers an automatic $1.2 trillion in cuts, split evenly between defense and non-defense spending. In theory, Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid are off limits; then again, this is America we're talking about, and a significant portion of the conservative party is all in favor of starving old folks. So, we'll see. As for the Super Congress, let's not overlook its creation, which concentrates the legislative power of all of Congress into the hands of just one dozen folks. Why isn't this getting more play in the media? Congress is creating a mini-Congress to handle trillions in cash and cuts? No one has a problem with this? You will come 2013, and your Senator is powerless to stop the bill or amend it in any way. Whose interests do you think will be represented in this Super Congress? If you say anything other than "the obscenely rich" and "corporate America" you simply are not paying attention. This was a manufactured crisis designed to do one thing: scare you into supporting things that are against your own political and economic interests, and to allow for a change in the system to tilt the playing field even more toward the wealthy. Congratulations, America! Your calls to stick it to old people and sick people, and a refusal to call for even mild tax increases on the wealthy, have brought us to the effective end of our democracy. We are no longer even represented by our representatives, as they are impotent to do anything other than sign off on this damned spending cut bill. Well done! Notice that there are no tax cuts, in either the original round of deficit reduction or the Super Congress second round. Keep in mind that every single reasonable economist tells us that, in order to balance the budget you have to do some combination of decreased spending AND increased taxes. What's the rational conclusion of a balanced budget bill that doesn't increase taxes? The only conclusions are that the budget cutters are not serious about balancing the budget, and perhaps never were. The debate never was seriously about balancing the budget. If it was, tax increases would have been part of the deal. But they weren't. Folks, the only thing on the table for cutting was your retirement, your old-age medical care, your mortgage subsidies, your child's education spending, your veteran disability care, your community's infrastructure, and your road repairs. The people who caused the economic crisis? Not a single cut. The speculators who drive commodity prices ever higher? Not a single tax increase. The corporations sitting on $2 trillion in cash who refuse to invest that in America (and simultaneously cut jobs at every turn)? Not a single tax increase. Hell, they didn't even close the loopholes that lets corporations pay lower tax rates than anyone reading this article. Oh well. At least the made-for-tv, fake debt ceiling debacle is over. The deal has been reached, so Americans can finally go back to what we've been doing the last thirty years: praying and begging for the rich to trickle some of that sweet, sweet cash down our way. Good luck with that...