I've been visiting this here site for several years now, but this marks my first attempt at a diary. I felt compelled to write this particular piece at this particular moment for a number of reasons. A desire to start some kind of epic flame war on the "true nature" of President Obama was not among them. Like many others, I have long been disappointed by the nature of this entire debt ceiling "debate." Like many others, I find the notion of the debt ceiling itself to be outdated and altogether ridiculous. I have been disappointed by the pathetic media coverage of the issue - "why are both sides so equally partisan?? why has Obama failed to change Washington?? liberals are trash!" - and I was disappointed early on by the White House's inability to define just how radical and unprecedented this hostage situation really was. I have been anticipating an unpleasant, depressing outcome for quite some time. I believe that President Obama and his administration could have handled this situation more effectively and more forcefully along the way.
However, given where things stood on Sunday morning, with fucking default less than 3 days away, I gotta say I'm not particularly upset about this current deal. Again, I am measuring this outcome against the possible outcomes we faced as a country on July 31, when it seemed perfectly reasonable to assume that the house gop would actually roll the dice on blowing off the debt ceiling deadline - even if only for a few days - because they're just that despicable (you can justify crazy behavior much more easily when you firmly believe that god is on your side). Given that reality, and given the kinds of plans that had been floated around over these past few months, I believe that this deal is surprisingly decent.
If you choose to label me as a mere "Obama apologist" or any other kind of dismissive epithet, you have every right to do so. But please, don't insult my intelligence or degrade the dignified discourse this site should seek to uphold just for the sake of convenience. I ask only that you respond with an argument.
As for the substance of why I believe this debt deal is not particularly bad (on political grounds more so than actual policy grounds), I do not think I can improve upon this comment posted over at TPM:
Let me get this straight. The President kept revenues on the table, did not touch the sunset provisions in the Bush tax cuts, ensured that military cuts keep the GOP honest, protected Medicare by adding in only provider cuts in the trigger, made the reduction apparently enough to stave off a debt downgrade, got the debt ceiling raised, wounded Boehner by demonstrating to the world that he is controlled by the Tea Party caucus, took out the requirement that a BBA be passed and sent to the states and got the extension through 2012? What exactly is wrong with this deal?
The fact that there are cuts? If people don't like that, why in God's name didn't they turn out to vote and bring back our Congressional majority? Once these nut jobs were in there, it was inevitable that this crap was going to happen. Whether or not it is advisable to cut spending, what exactly was going to stop this from happening? My experience is that the primary factor in all negotiations are the facts on the ground. The complaints center on a ridiculous notion that if the President had only said "no" harder, that these guys would have caved in. This isn't negotiating over who gets the side of the bed near the A/C. This is a complex matter involving 3,000 members and staffers. Negotiations in these situations don't work like this. That's why I'm irked by the constant parade of people comparing the negotiations to movies and card games. These comparisons obscure more than they reveal.
The GOP came out of this looking unreasonable--I've been getting E-mail messages from friends saying they are back with the Democrats because the Tea Party is "destroying this country." Nate Silver tweeted last week that local conservative talk radio in Kansas was filled with callers attacking the Tea Party! The Wall Street Journal ran two editorials which called the GOP delusional and "childish." The vaunted GOP message discipline broke down--I read stories all over the "inside baseball" papers here in DC where GOP House members went on the record after the Friday vote wondering out loud if the party had been damaged! I don't know if you noticed, but John Boehner spent last week negotiating with himself. No new proposals came out from the Dem side, but he produced two proposals, one of which he had to pull after he didn't have votes. A congressional Dem staffer told me his dad, an urban Catholic who voted for Nixon over Kennedy and has always voted Republican suddenly thinks the GOP is out to lunch and supports the President.
see "Another Take" for full comment
I am going to continue working as hard as I can to make certain that the gop suffers massive (electoral) consequences for its inexplicably obscene positions. I am going to continue working as hard as I can to make certain that the democratic party recognizes where its true strength lies.