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Originally Posted by villagegolfer
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Excellent graphic representations of the gravity of the fiscal problem facing the country. Too bad we have a Congress that was more than willing to negotiate a series of insignificant steps, which were designed to permit all the political factions to claim victory in the negotiations, yet will do next to nothing in addressing the problems facing the country.
All the parties to the negotiations were at fault...
The
Democrats held out for continued entitlement spending and never offered a legitimate plan of obviously-needed spending cuts. While theirs was a quiet resistance, they were every bit as much the "party of no" in the negotiations as the Tea Party.
The
Republicans were hogtied by disagreements within their own party. Because of the lack of unanimity in the GOP, they turned down a bargain that the President offered with $4 trillion in reduced deficits including $3 trillion in spending cuts including entitlements, but included $1 trillion in new taxes on the 1-2% wealthiest Americans. That plan actually had a reduction in corporate tax rates resultant from a re-work of the tax code. A deal with those components really could have been a "grand bargain".
The
Tea Party negotiated with all the skill of a bully in the schoolyard, turning down a much more favorable bargain for the country in favor of a complete and unyielding embrace of their extremist ideology. Another "requirement" of the Tea Party was to require a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, a requirement that was politically impossible, which they knew all along. They maintained their negotiating position until the last possible minute, when only a much less favorable and less stringent deal was possible. In the process they caused incalculable damage to the U.S. economy and our reputation. They were raw and irresponsible rookies at the game and it showed...much to the disadvantage of fiscal conservatism, the U.S. economy and the country.
The
President can be commended for offering up what really would have been a "grand bargain" for the country, but his inability to deliver his own party to support such a deal was as evident as John Boehner's inability to garner Republican support for his side of the bargain. It seems they both wasted a lot of time posturing and positing a deal which could never happen. The President refused to consider a balanced budget amendment requirement even though he also knew that it would have been politically impossible to achieve. That could have been a "give up" which would have never been part of any final agreement. His inability to provide any leadership to the negotiations or any of the political factions involved was painfully evident. He was a non-factor in the negotiations, not the role one would expect from the President of the United States.