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AT THE LATEST ANGEL'S CORNER – READERS SOUND OFF ON THE DEBT CRISIS, THE PRESIDENT, AND AN ECONOMIC PLAN FOR AMERICA

AUGUST 2,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:45 P.M. ET

A THIRD PARTY? – Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch is calling for a third party, a centrist party, to take on both Barack Obama and the Republican candidate in next year's election.  Koch, who has a long history of shaking things up politically, believes the time is right, that the public is disgusted with both parties.  He may well be right, but third party movements tend to be ideological, not centrist.  My fear is a third party, or an egotistical third candidate, like Donald Trump, can deny the GOP candidate a victory.  A third party of the type Koch envisions would need to coalesce behind a distinguished candidate with across-the-board appeal.  I know of no such person right now.  David Petraeus has been mentioned in the past, but he's just become head of the CIA, and is associated with the Obama administration.

OUR CREDIT RATING REMAINS, FOR NOW – Two credit agencies reaffirmed America's credit rating after today's debt deal was signed into law, but both warned that this reaffirmation is only temporary, and that much more remains to be done.  Both Moody's and Fitch retained the AAA rating, but Moody's gave a decidedly negative view of the financial future of the United States.  Standard & Poor's has yet to comment.  There is considerable skepticism in financial circles that the debt-reduction plan called for in the new law would actually work, or work well enough to secure America's credit rating in the future.

A PREVIEW OF COMING ATTRACTIONS –  A British parliamentary committee is warning today that Britain has so weakened its armed forces that the nation can no longer carry out its international commitments, and is losing influence.   Americans would be stunned to learned that the Royal Navy no longer has any aircraft carriers, and that Britain has given up its famous Harrier jump jets, which are also used by the United States.  This is what happens when a nation becomes a welfare state, and looks to its military as an ATM from which to grab funds for presumably more important purposes.  Expect to see warnings like this grow in the United States, as the left sees opportunities to slash the defense budget and realize their dream of a reduced America on the world stage.  Do our young people understand?

FEEDING ON OURSELVES – Newly released research says that dieters struggle to lose weight because the lack of nutrition forces brain cells to eat themselves.  This may explain the actions and mentality of many members of Congress, who are forever trying to polish up their appearance.  The moral:  Don't permit major war-and-peace decisions to be made by those who have Weight Watchers cookies on their desk.  As for the president, he is awfully thin, and I urge a congressional investigation to determine how he got that way.  If we detect dieting, a brain scan is in order.  If we see brain munching going on, our national problems are worse than they are.

August 2, 2011     Permalink

SENATE FOLLOWS HOUSE INTO THE ABYSS – AT 6:02 P.M. ET:  The Senate has passed the debt bill, and President Obama has signed it into law.  Thus, we can borrow more money.  What would you like to do with it?  I was thinking that a lovely retirement villa for the president would be a nice gesture, and would be appreciated by all.   Other suggestions are welcome.

The stock market responded to the president's signature by dropping more than two percent, or 266 points, and I don't hear anyone saying this was one of the great days in American history. 

Now the question is where the spending cuts will actually be, whether they will be maintained by future congresses, and whether they will be true cuts, or "reductions in growth," which means you spend more, but not as much as anticipated.

We have only averted a temporary default crisis.  That's really all we've done. 

August 2, 2011         Permalink

THE REPUBLICAN FOREIGN-POLICY SPLIT – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina appeared on television last night, and was clearly distraught.  "The Republican Party of Ronald Reagan died today," he declared.  He was referring to the House passage of the debt agreement, which leaves open the possibility of major cuts in defense.  Graham, along with John McCain, Joe Lieberman and others, militantly opposes those cuts, and correctly so.

As we reported yesterday, there is a battle on for the soul of the Republican Party.  Will it be the party of Reagan, with a strong, unyielding commitment to the defense of this country, or will it revert to being a party of green eyeshades, interested only in "no new taxes," and little beyond that?

Eli Lake, of the Washington Times, publishing, a bit oddly, in the New Republic, writes a superlative piece on where GOP presidential candidates stand on foreign policy.  I strongly recommend it.  But it left me realizing that all the candidates must answer detailed questions on their foreign-policy views.  For example, Lake reveals this about Texas Governor Rick Perry:

In 2004, Perry enticed Citgo—owned by the Venezuelan government, no friend of the United States—to expand refineries in Corpus Christi and move its corporate headquarters to Houston by putting together a grant and low-interest loan package worth $35 million. Perry also sought to persuade the Chinese telecom giant Huawei to expand its North American headquarters in Texas. Last year, the intelligence community quietly pressed Sprint not to use Huawei components in building a national 4G network, fearing the company’s close ties to the People’s Liberation Army would effectively give the Chinese government a listening post in every cell tower of the new wireless network. On August 18, eight Republican senators sent a letter to Obama administration officials warning that the deal could undermine national security. Sprint eventually complied. But, on October 1 of last year, Perry attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the company’s new headquarters in Plano, Texas. “Huawei has a strong, worldwide reputation as an innovator of quality telecommunications technology, with facilities spread across the globe,” Perry proclaimed.

Dave Carney, a strategist who has been with the governor for 14 years and would play a major role on a presidential campaign, defended these moves when I asked him about them. He said that it’s Washington’s job to vet corporations for national security reasons. “Has the federal government kicked Citgo out of the country?” he asked. “I haven’t seen that.” He made the same argument about Huawei, saying, “If this Chinese company is as evil as has been reported, then the federal government should step in to deal with it.”

In fairness to Perry, the responsibilities of being a governor are very different from the responsibilities of being president. And presidents’ views on foreign policy have a way of morphing once they get into office.

COMMENT:  Not a wise comment from Carney, who appears callous.  As for Governor Perry, whom I like, we need answers.  Will he see foreign policy as just another business deal, or will he understand the national security implications of every economic agreement? 

You may remember Governor John Connally, also of Texas.  He was shot in the same car when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.  He made a try for the presidency in the 1970s, but came off as just another businessman who saw the world with a big dollar sign over it.  He didn't come close to the Oval Office.

So Perry needs to explain his foreign-policy views in detail.  Indeed, all the candidates must be closely examined on this subject.  We used to say that a country can survive four years of a bad domestic policy, but four years of a bad foreign policy can be fatal.  We have taken our eye off the foreign-policy ball to attend to our economic woes.  We've got to get that eye refocused again, or our children will pay the price.

August 2, 2011     Permalink 

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 11:25 A.M. ET:

From The New York Times:  A California man is suing the Hilton Hotels Corporation for charging him 75 cents for a copy of the USA Today newspaper that he did not request, according to a complaint filed last week in federal court in San Francisco...The complaint asserts that the practice is not only deceitful, but also wasteful and damaging to the environment.

No doubt about it.  This is a major environmental issue.  I've always said that, especially at cocktail parties in Manhattan or San Francisco.  Darlings, you must learn to understand.

RESET BUTTON, THOUGH PUSHED, DIDN'T WORK – AT 9:39 A.M. ET:   Among Barack Obama's naive ideas when he came to office was the notion of a button that would reset our relations with Russia.  Apparently, The Gifted One felt he could do better than the evil BUSH (!!) or the more evil CHENEY (!!!!) in dealing with Moscow. 

Please take out a scrap of paper and list all the things we've gotten for pushing the reset button.  A postage stamp will do. If you don't have a stamp, one of those little bits from the shredder will also do.

This is what we've gotten.  From Fox: 

SELIGER, Russia -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday accused the United States of acting as a "parasite" on the world economy by accumulating massive debts that threaten the global financial system.

"The country is living in debt. It is not living within its means, shifting the weight of responsibility on other countries and in a way acting as a parasite," Putin told a group of pro-Kremlin youth in central Russia.

He also suggested that Washington may have been flirting with the idea of a default in order to weaken the dollar "and create better conditions for exporting their goods."

"But they had enough common sense and responsibility" to avoid a default, Russia's former president added.
Putin has repeatedly criticized the United States' recent foreign exchange policy and its tendency to cover budget deficits with treasury bills and bonds held by sovereign clients such as China and Russia.

The value of that paper will shrink if U.S. debt is downgraded by a major Western ratings agency and Putin was insistent Monday that the world should be seeking new reserve currencies for trade and savings.

"If the U.S. encounters a systemic malfunction, this affects everyone," Putin told the youth gathering. "There should be other reserve currencies."

COMMENT:  Thanks, Vladimir.  Spoken like a true friend.  In fact, there is no essential difference between Russia's attitude toward America under Bush and its attitude under Obama.  The reset button didn't light up anything.  It is the invention of a small-time Chicago politician with a golden voice who sits in the White House, doing batting practice and calling it the World Series.

August 2, 2011        Permalink

AND THE ECONOMIC BEAT GOES ON – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  Well, as they say, it doesn't rain, it pours.  More economic bad news has come in, and it doesn't portend well for the future. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut back on their spending in June for the first time in nearly two years and their incomes grew by the smallest amount in nine months, a troubling sign for an economy that is barely growing.

Consumer spending dropped 0.2 percent in June, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Excluding falling prices for such items as energy and food, consumer spending would have been unchanged in June.
Incomes rose 0.1 percent. It was the weakest growth in income since September, reflecting anemic hiring this spring.

Stock futures were trading lower after the report was released.

High gas prices and unemployment have squeezed household budgets this spring, leading to tepid overall economic growth in the April-June quarter. The economy expanded at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the second quarter after only 0.4 percent growth in the first three months of this year. The combined growth for the first six months of this year was the worst since the recession ended two years ago.

Many Americans are cutting back on purchases of cars, furniture, appliances and electronics. Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Employers have responded by reducing hiring. The economy added just 18,000 net jobs in June, the fewest in nine months. The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, the highest level this year.

The government issues its July employment report on Friday.

Declining growth and rising unemployment have raised concerns that the country could fall back into a recession.

COMMENT:  Fall back?  Really?  When are we going to end the fiction that the last one ended?  I know what the technical definitions say, but maybe it's time to revise those definitions.  Talk to anyone out there – small business people, manufacturers – and they'll tell you the recession has been ongoing.  Now we have the prospect that it will get worse.

The political implications can be profound, but only if the Republicans nominate a candidate with real appeal, a saleable platform, and a coherent party behind him or her.  Remember, a poor choice of candidates played a major role in denying the GOP control of the Senate in the 2010 elections.  It can happen with the presidency next year.

August 2, 2011       Permalink

GRIM ASSESSMENT – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  A number of assessments of the debt deal are now being published.  One that reflects a common-sense, probably prevailing view, comes from Bloomberg:

The federal government looks to be getting out of the business of trying to spur the economy just as the U.S. expansion shows increasing signs of faltering.

A deal struck over the weekend to cut $2.4 trillion or more off budget deficits over a decade marks the beginning of a prolonged effort to put the government’s finances into better shape. While the immediate economic impact from the agreement is likely to be small, it will add to a reduction in growth next year of 1.5 percentage points coming from the expiration of past stimulus programs, according to economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank Securities.

“Over the next 10 years, there will be further spending cuts and higher taxes, and that’s not good for economic growth,” said Paul Dales, senior economist for Capital Economics Ltd. in Toronto. “It is the start of a meaningful move toward fiscal consolidation.”

The shift from stimulus to austerity coincides with a slowdown in the two-year recovery. A report last week showed that gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the second quarter of the year following 0.4 percent in the first three months, prompting economists to warn of possible relapse into recession.
The economy will suffer another blow next year with the expiration of a temporary 2 percent payroll tax cut, an end to extended unemployment benefits and completion of the $830 billion stimulus program that President Barack Obama signed into law more than two years ago. Obama will press Congress to extend a cut in payroll taxes before the end of the year, White House press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday.

COMMENT:  It's perfectly clear that our economic distress will last for years, maybe for decades.  Reagan used to say that it's always morning in America.  Well, maybe now it's a few hours before dawn.

While it's wrong to blame President Obama for all that has gone wrong with the economy, and everything else, it is perfectly reasonable to point to this country's general decline on his watch.  A second term could even be worse.  Free of political constraints, he could try to take this country even further to the left.

Only a robust economy, not government manipulations, can get us out of this.  In the fact of economic competition from abroad, I'm not sure we know how to build that economy.  But I never lose faith in the United States of America.  We always, in the end, come through.

August 2, 2011     Permalink

AUGUST 1,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:52 P.M. ET:

ANOTHER ECONOMIC BLOW - Manufacturing in July had its weakest growth in two years.  To economists, that indicates that the economy may well weaken this summer.  Countries that succeed are countries that make things.  Advancing an economy is always linked to manufacturing.  Our reason at Urgent Agenda for worrying about cuts in the defense budget is primarily concern for our national survival.  But, secondarily and importantly, defense contributes mightily to the economy.  Keeping those production lines open for planes, ships, vehicles and equipment means good-paying jobs for thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people.  Will someone tell Washington?

WARMTH AMONG BROTHERS – Muamar Gadaffi has expressed warm and sincere thanks for the support he's gotten from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the NATO assault on the Gadaffi regime.  There is today a strong link between Venezuela and some of the world's worst anti-American dictators, like Gadaffi and the mullahs of Iran.  And yet this seems to concern Washington very little if at all.  As America weakens, it is more than possible that Venezuela can become a major base for anti-American operations south of our border, as Castro's Cuba has been.  Of course, Chavez also has the enthusiastic support of a number of Hollywood actors, but at least they don't trade in nuclear weapons, despite their talent for making bombs.

CHILDLIKE, OR EVIL? – It was bad enough for the people of Norway to undergo a horrible terrorist attack that took the lives of so many Norwegians, mostly children.  But the behavior of the Norwegian government in the aftermath has been disgraceful, taking no responsibility for failure to protect its citizens – the first job of a government – and lecturing the immediate world on Norway's moral superiority, while wagging fingers at those who question the reckless immigration policies in much of Europe, including Norway.  This morning the Norwegian prime minister gave another moral lecture aimed at the questioning of multiculturalism, something done recently by Angela Merkel of Germany and David Cameron of Britain.  At one time I thought the Norwegian labor party, which is in power, was just naive and childlike.  Now I'm becoming convinced that it is evil, often showing sympathy for terrorist groups, especially the ones that target Israel.  It's been widely reported that Washington is fed up with the current Norwegian government, believing it doesn't take the threat of terrorism seriously.  It's time for a change in Norway, so the Norwegian people can be better served.

MAJOR GAFFE, AGAIN – Joe Biden reportedly compared Tea Party activists to terrorists in a closed Democratic meeting today.  At first his office declined to confirm or deny that the vice president had made the remark, but, after a wave of criticism began to build, issued a statement saying that Biden didn't believe that term was acceptable in political discourse.  That's nice to know.  If the comment hadn't been reported publicly, I wonder if the vice president would have cautioned his fellow Dems about the level of their conversation.

August 1, 2011       Permalink

BULLETIN:  HOUSE PASSES DEBT COMPROMISE – AT 7:24 P.M. ET:  The House has just passed the debt deal, 269-161 (the latest count).  Numbers change slightly in these things, but it appears as many Dems voted against it as for it.

It now goes to the Senate, where Tea Partier Senator Mike Lee of Utah is threatening a filibuster.  It would take 60 votes to break a filibuster.  Stand by.

The most dramatic moment in the House today came when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona appeared to cast her vote.  Shot in the head in Tucson earlier this year, her appearance was a complete surprise to the news media.  She stood, waved when introduced, and there was a healthy, and humane, bipartisan cheer.  She looked thin, and a bit unsteady, but only a small percentage of victims even survives the kind of wound she sustained, so her appearance was something of a miracle.

Polls are showing a growing anger on both sides of the political fence about the debt deal.  One poll shows more than 70% of Americans opposed.  GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney expressed his opposition today.  A good guess would be that it will get through Congress, averting a default on our debts tomorrow, but undergo some artistic change in the future.

National defense Republicans, and independent Joe Lieberman, have expressed grave reservations about possible further cuts in the defense budget, a concern we've expressed here.  But that would only happen if a joint House-Senate committee can't come up with other cuts by a Thanksgiving deadline.  Some Dems have already said they want further cuts in defense, which won't shock any of our readers. 

Our eyes now turn to the Senate, which is set to vote at noon tomorrow.

August 1, 2011       Permalink

WHERE THE GOP RACE STANDS – AT 10:02 A.M. ET:  Scott Rasmussen is out with a fascinating poll this morning that, I think, shows where things are going to go in the race for the Republican nomination for president.

The inclusion of likely candidate Rick Perry has tightened the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination dramatically, with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney still ahead – but just barely.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters finds Romney earning 22% support, closely followed by Perry, the Texas governor who is expected to enter the race soon, with 18% of the vote. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is in third place with 16%...

...Thirty-nine percent (39%) of likely GOP Primary voters say they are members of the Tea Party. Forty-three percent (43%) say they are not members, but another 17% are not sure.

Perry leads among Tea Party members with 28% support. Bachmann runs second in this group with 22% of the vote, with Romney at 16% closely followed by Cain’s 13%. Among primary voters who are not Tea Party members, Romney captures 29% of the vote. Perry (13%), Bachmann (11%) and Paul (10%) follow at a distance.

Here we see that GOP split again.  But I think non-Tea Partiers will begin to defect to Perry, who is the best campaigner in the bunch.  Unless Romney, who is Mr. Establishment, can light a fire, he may soon be the former frontrunner.

Again, Michele Bachmann continues to impress with her strong showing.  However, I don't think she'll get the nomination, in part because of the narrowness of her base.  And I don't think a presidential candidate will want her as his vice presidential choice, since she isn't exactly known as a team player.  Her role may be in the future.

August 1, 2011       Permalink

PUT HER ON A MILK CARTON –  AT 9:34 A.M. ET:  Nile Gardiner, one of the most astute of the British America watchers, asks a pertinent question this morning:  Has anyone heard from Hillary Clinton?  Does she have a summer address or something?   Gardiner is particularly outraged by Clinton's silence on the massacres in Syria, which, according to the latest reports, may have taken as many as 140 lives just yesterday: 

But where was the US Secretary of State, the official voice of American foreign policy, in responding to one of the most sickening acts of barbarism conducted against civilians by any regime in the 21st Century? Hillary Clinton has been a striking no-show on one of the most important days of her time in office. There has been no statement yet from Mrs. Clinton in stark contrast to many other international leaders. Nor has the State Department even posted a statement from any of its officials regarding the Syrian atrocity on its website. Contrast this for example with the prominent feature on the Syrian violence at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

There is though, prominently featured on the State Department homepage at time of writing, a story about Black Eyed Peas musician will.i.am directing a concert in Beijing later this year.

I can't wait for the classical music. 

This is appalling for a vast government department that employs nearly 20,000 people, and is yet another example of a serious failure of US leadership. Hillary Clinton has all too often been an invisible Secretary of State and a symbol of the Obama administration’s “leading from behind” approach. When America fails to lead, the world is a far more dangerous place, and on both Syria and Iran, Washington has been extremely slow to stand up to the brutal suppression of political dissidents. Clinton’s deafening silence in the face of a savage massacre is a damning indictment of her time as Secretary of State. She needs to dramatically step up her game if she is at all serious about projecting the kind of international leadership that is worthy of a superpower.

Clinton is more capable than Obama, and I thought she would do better as secretary of state.  She says she wants to leave after Obama's first term (which we hope will be his final term) and I suspect she'll return to her left-wing sixties roots, maybe as president of some trendy college or head of some equally trendy foundation. 

The president did issue a statement yesterday saying that he was appalled at the violence in Syria.  That's nice.  I'm sure it will encourage the dissidents.  There does not appear anything that the West is willing to do about the situation, and many, many more will die. 

Meanwhile, the world's "peace activists" are concerned only with condemning the United States, Israel, and anyone in Europe who dares to question reckless and irresponsible immigration policies.

August 1, 2011       Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 9:30 A.M. ET:

From NBC:  A new report says that adults in Washington D.C. abuse alcohol more than anyone else in the country.

This may explain much about where we are.

SOUL OF A PARTY – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  What does the Republican Party really stand for?  Does anyone know?  What we have seen in the debt debate is a split, with Reagan conservatives, along with some moderates, on one side, and the Tea Partiers are on the other. 

While the Tea Partiers also claim the Reagan mantle, and no doubt a large number believe in the Reagan Revolution, there is a militant chunk who clearly do not.  And they can drive the GOP back to the 1930s, a party of green eyeshades that pines for the "old Republic" and has no problem with a modern-day isolationism.  From the Washington Examiner:

As Washington begins to digest the bipartisan deal to hike the debt limit, one thing that’s clear that it will set up an obvious intra-conservative battle between defense hawks and the anti-tax crowd.

For decades, the central difference between conservatives and liberals when it comes to fiscal policy is that liberals want to reduce the deficit through tax hikes and cuts to defense spending while conservatives want to focus on entitlements and other non-defense spending without raising taxes. Given that any deal between the two parties would have to involve Republicans giving something up, there’s always been the potential for tension between these two strands of conservatism. That underlying tension is going to rise to the surface in the coming months.

The anti-tax crusaders, led by Grover Norquist (with assistance from elements of the tea parties) have already won the first stage of this battle. Norquist urged Republicans to hold the line on taxes, but he has also argued that the conservative movement should get behind cuts to the defense budget. And the current deal includes defense cuts, but not tax increases. What’s more, it creates a joint Congressional committee to find additional savings, and if the committee cannot find enough, it triggers further defense cuts – but not any tax increases.

I will have to say it:  Grover Norquist, who is "Mr. Tax Cut" in Washington, is widely reported to be very close to Islamic causes.  His wife is Muslim, and his children have Muslim names.  I stress that I don't say that with any ethnic prejudice, but when a man with this background stresses defense cuts we have a right to know his full agenda.  He's been leading a campaign to get us out of Afghanistan to save money, but it is legitimate to wonder if there are other motives.

By the way, John McCain, a man devoted to national defense, has given his take on the deal:

Sen. John McCain says he'll vote for compromise legislation averting a government default, although "I will probably have to swallow hard."

The Arizona Republican who lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election says he's concerned about the impact of the deficit-reduction deal on defense spending.

But McCain also tells CBS's "The Early Show" that officials in Washington realized "we were not going to let the government shut down."

He also says that while he's worried about the Pentagon budget, he believes the new, special committee that will be established to follow through on promises of deficit-reduction will be more successful than similar panels established for this purpose in the past.

McCain notes the new panel will have the authority to order "up or down votes" on proposed cuts.

COMMENT:  At the heart of the Reagan Revolution was a strong and growing national defense, not a liberal-style gutting of the Pentagon, which we had in the 1970s and, to some degree, again in the 1990s.  We are going to have a fight on our hands for the soul of the GOP, but also the soul and future of this country.  I think the issue is very much in doubt.

Next month will mark ten years since the attacks of 9-11.  Look what we've come to.  Look at the leadership we have.

August 1, 2011       Permalink

THE BIG DEAL – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  Is it a good deal?  Is it a fair deal?  I've looked at the agreement that will presumably avoid a default and find it a mediocre deal, with dangerous implications. 

It does potentially cut more spending than the increase in the debt that it allows, but it emphatically does not protect national defense from catastrophic cuts that could severely compromise our military effectiveness and thus our foreign policy.  We hope those cuts don't occur.  If they do, you can kiss America's superpower status goodbye, as China builds its military power.

The Democrats won't care.  Their party is controlled by a crowd nostalgic for the 1960s.  And, sadly, some of the Tea Party contingent also doesn't seem to care.  While military pay appears to be protected, military strength is not.  Indeed, if panels set up by the agreement cannot agree on where to cut to fulfil the requirements of the agreement, then certain cuts become automatic, and half will come from national security.

Now, it is true that all agreements like this tend to float into space after time, as Congress makes modifications and money gets shifted around by the federal government.  But I am uneasy with the lack of national defense guarantees. 

The agreement calls for no new taxes.  That is the new Republican religion.  It is also wholly unrealistic, unless the economy begins to boom and takes care of a lot of our problems.  Even conservative writers and economists like Ben Stein have been saying that som tax enhancements are inevitable if the American people demand certain services. 

Michelle Bachmann has announced that she will vote against the plan.  Not enough spending cuts.

It is impressive only that the leaders got a deal, apparently without much constructive help from our campaigner in chief.  The deal itself does not thrill.  We will be learning more details as the day progresses.  I will be looking for the reaction, which will probably involve a number of leaks, from military people.

For a reasonable presentation of what the agreement includes, go to the AP piece here, and Speaker Boehner's "slide show" on the agreement here.

August 1, 2011     Permalink