Greg Sargent: "Today in supercommittee follies"

Greg Sargent:

The likelihood is mounting that the supercommittee will fail, leading to a great deal of handwringing in both parties about all the public blame that will be heaped on the supercommittee if they fail to reach a deal.

So let’s be really clear. Democrats have agreed to deep cuts in Medicare in exchange for the tax hikes that most fiscal experts agree are absolutely necessary to fix the deficit. The Dem offer is well to the right of previous bipartisan proposals. But Republicans have said No, insisting that the only revenue increases they can stomach will come from closing loopholes.

If the supercommittee fails, brace yourself for a whole bunch of bogus false-equivalence reporting to the effect that both sides, or the generic “Congress,” are to blame.

"Liberals get 'deja vu' and complain Dems have bungled in debt talks"

Mike Lillis (The Hill):

Liberals on and off Capitol Hill agonized Thursday that supercommittee Democrats had bungled early negotiations over a budget deal and put their party in a position to be bested again by Republicans.

By proposing significant cuts to Medicare and Medicaid as an early offering, liberals said the panel Democrats weakened their party’s negotiating position as Republicans, who have ceded no ground on their central anti-tax message, sat back and watched.
(SNIP)
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee ( PCCC), a liberal activist group, echoed Welch’s message Thursday, saying the Democrats’ early offer to cut Medicare and Medicaid is “just incompetent negotiation strategy.”

“If Democrats on the [supercommittee] are proposing cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or other middle-class benefits, that is fundamentally out of step with what the 99 percent of Americans are crying out for right now,” Green said in an email. “The middle class has sacrificed enough — it’s time for Wall Street and the wealthy to finally pay their fair share, and voters need Democratic politicians to get that.” MORE...

Howie P.S.: I'm having a deja vu experience here , but I didn't know you could get one, too.

"Ed Schultz: When Will ‘Tea Partiers Stop Cheering About Economic Hardship’ They Contributed To?" (with video)

MEDIAite with video (04:07) from MSNBC:

Last night Ed Schultz hosted his show in front of a huge live crowd in Wisconsin, the site of today’s recall election. The raucous crowd actually added a very enjoyable element to Schultz’s proceedings, as they loudly cheered and booed various statements made by Schultz and his guests throughout the show. MORE...

Howie P.S.: John Nichols visits with ED in Madison, WI.

John Nichols on Standard & Poor's: "Downgrading Democracy"

John Nichols (The Nation):

The notion that a credit rating firm could or should steer the direction of the American political discourse—and, potentially, should be unsettling to Democrats and Republicans, independents and third-party activists, liberal and conservatives, socialists and libertarians and even centrists.

If S&P can set the parameters of the debate in the United States, then it is not just downgrading a credit rating. S&P is downgrading democracy. MORE...

NY Times poll: "plurality blames Bush, not Obama, for the deficit"

Greg Sargent:

* The new New York Times poll finds a plurality blames Bush, not Obama, for the deficit, and 72 percent disapprove of the GOP’s handling of the debt ceiling fight, versus only 47 percent who disapprove of Obama’s handling of it.

* But: The poll also finds that only 15 percent think the spending cuts in the deal went too far, versus 44 percent who said they don’t go far enough.

Those numbers mirror Gallup’s findings and suggest yet again that the public has internalized key aspects of the conservative economic worldview. MORE...

Howie P.S.: I hope the electorate is able to figure out by time the next elections roll around that G. W. only managed to create the deficit with the help of many others in his party and with the aid and comfort of some DINOS (DemocratsInNameOnly).

(Updated) Ari Melber: "'Super Committee' not so super" (video)

UPDATE: NEW headline for this post now @The Nation.com: "The Spending Cuts Are Two Sacred Cows Strapped Together With a Time Bomb." Don't believe me? Here it is.


MSNBC-Dylan Ratigan, video (04:40).

H/t to Pam Eakes.

Patty Murray Explains Why She Supports the Debt Limit Bill (video)

SenatorPattyMurray, video (07:40).

Somewhat Discouraging Thought of the Day

This is the Gingrich government shut down all over again, but better played and against a decidedly less adept enemy.

-from John Aravosis (AMERICAblog) on "Tea Party Envy."

Post Debtmadgeddon Pundit Super-Roundup

Greg Sargent (The Morning Plum):

Lori Montgomery (WaPo), Karen Tumulty and Perry Bacon Jr.(WaPo), Timothy Geitner (WaPo op-ed), Steve Benen, Mark Landler and Jeff Zeleny (NY Times), Erik Wasson and Mike Lillis (The Hill), Naftali Bendavid And Carol E. Lee (Wall Street Journal), David M. Drucker and Humberto Sanchez (Roll Call), Joan Walsh (Salon).

"Abbreviated Pundit Roundup" (Daily Kos):

Peter Nicholas, Ezra Klein, Mark Gongloff, NY Times.

Seattle Times ed-board: "spending cuts ought to have been balanced with some revenue increases."

Seattle Times editorial board:

The federal government is not going to be available to do new things. It is not going to be able to fight three wars at a time. It will not be a font of new social benefits. It is not going to be able to bail out state governments.

The political questions will not be what things to do more of, but what things government will have to do less of in order to preserve the things that are essential. MORE...

The Maddow Blog: "Look Ma, no revenue!" (with chart)

(CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE)

The Maddow Blog:

The most asked-after item from last night's show is this chart showing the ratio of cuts to tax revenue in past deficit deals.

It's based in part on this one from early July from Jared Bernstein. His chart is focused on specific bills. Ezra Klein made a similar one at the time time, but grouped the data by president. He includes the expectation at the time that revenue would make up 17% of the debt deal signed into law today. As Chris pointed out last night, that number is actually zero. Our chart adds in a couple of iterations of the debt deal, including President Obama's initial pitch and an early plan from Republicans.

Robert Reich--"The Hostage Crisis Continues: "Why Obama Can’t Pivot to Jobs and Growth"

Robert Reich:

The radical right has not only captured the federal budget. In convincing so many Americans the problem is the size of government rather than their shrinking paychecks and growing economic insecurity, the radical right has also captured the American mind. MORE...

"Katrina vanden Heuvel: Debt Deal Exposes America's Democratic Deficit" (with audio)

The Nation with audio (48:00) from The Diane Rehm Show (NPR):

GDP growth is sluggish, unemployment remains high and poll after poll shows that Americans want job creation, not deficit reduction. Yet today's debt deal shows just how disconnected both parties are from the real economy. Instead of passing a jobs plan, Washington continues to implement budget cuts and austerity measures that will further depress the economy.

On The Diane Rehm Show this morning, The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel discusses the emerging "democratic deficit" separating the political and economic elite from the rest of the country. You can find her latest article on the debt ceiling negotiations here.

"Something is definitely wrong here" (cartoon)

(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

The Economist (cartoon).

Ari Melber on "TheLastWord" - Winners and Losers in Congress's #Debt Deal (with video)

Anna Lekas Miller (The Nation) with video (07:29):

Barack Obama continually told the American people that he believed in a "balanced approach" to solve the debt crisis. Instead, he eventually conceded decades of progressive principles in a deal that the Congressional Black Caucus's Emanuel Cleaver denounced as a "sugar-coated Satan sandwich." While the poor, elderly and disabled now face deep cuts to essential social services, the rich and corporations will continue to enjoy their wealth without sacrificing more in taxes.

Still, despite the imminent threat of default, seventy per cent of the American public was against raising the debt ceiling. The Nation's Ari Melber joined MSNBC's The Last Word last night to describe how Barack Obama might have made the debt ceiling and eventual debt deal more of a compromise and less of a concession.

Eugene Robinson: "A hold-your-nose debt deal"

Eugene Robinson:

It’s supremely galling. It’s unbalanced, unfair and mostly unwise. For President Obama and the Democratic Party, it’s a comprehensive defeat. But it’s not the end of the world.

The deal struck Sunday to free the U.S. economy from its Republican hostage-takers is impossible for progressives to love. It gets all the big things wrong, starting with the most fundamental: Obama never should have acquiesced to linking a routine hike in the debt ceiling — necessary to pay bills Congress has already incurred — with all the difficult spending questions that should be dealt with in the budget process. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Greg Sargent

"As many observers have noted already, Democrats have effectively given up on trying to make the case for further government spending. The result has been bipartisan agreement to marginalize that argument to the point where it’s entirely vanished from the conversation. It’s only in this context... that the deal ...makes any sense." MORE@the link.

Jay Inslee

"...don’t like debt deal, but I’m for it."

John Aravosis (AMERICAblog)

We keep being told that the Obama administration endorsed the GOP talking points on the deficit, and gave away the farm in negotiations with the Republicans on the debt ceiling, as part of a strategic play to win independents come the next election. Only problem? Independents care more about jobs, which aren't being addressed, and which will be hurt by the President's budget deal.

"Geography of the Vote" (interactive graphic)

UPDATE: I can't locate him on the map, but Jay Inslee is listed as a "YES" on the chart that accompanies the graphic @ the link.

NY Times:

Move your mouse over this interactive map to see how each member of Congress voted.

"Why the debt deal should be good for progressives" (video)

MSNBC-Morning Jokesters, video (06:25):

Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Eugene Sperling explains how the new debt deal protects a lot of the president’s priorities.

David Plouffe: "Debt deal will pass" (with video)

The ED Schultz Show, with video from the TODAY Show(04:36):

Senior White House adviser David Plouffe said the new deal to avoid a government default lifts a big cloud over the economy, even if the country had to first endure a "three-ring circus" in Washington.

Plouffe acknowledged that there were key elements of a compromise that eluded the White House and President Barack Obama.

He said, for example, that the administration will continue to push for new tax revenues. MORE...

Greg Sargent: "Did the president surrender, or did he do the best he could?"

Greg Sargent:

Again, I want to stress that I wish Obama had done all the things critics say he should have done. Why didn’t he? Was it a political decision to project a desire for compromise at the outset to win independents? Did he, as Jonathan Chait argues, seriously misjudge opponents? I tend to think Obama sincerely decided that a more table-pounding approach would have been counter-productive. That’s who Obama is. Whatever the reason, we simply can’t know whether a more aggressive approach from Obama would have changed the basic dynamics of the situation or resulted in a better deal.

But it’s precisely because we can’t know that I hope he will do things differently next time, perhaps when the battle rejoins over the expiration of the Bush tax cuts — a fight which, if he wins, will make the current deal far better. The current dynamic just has to be changed somehow, because it’s untenable. MORE...