The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Breathe

    By Flavius on Thu, 08/04/2011 - 1:13pm |

    The debt- limit   "deal" was/is much ado about  nothing. (just a little phrase I thought up, do you like it?) The only tangible result is, there's a new limit in place and it will be increased again before next year's election without the requirement for yet another rain dance.

    None of the items agreed are laws, just vague expressions of intention which bind nobody. And if they are at some point embodied in legislation , the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. What any US Congress votes to do  can be voted to undo by the next Congress.

    Neither we nor the Tea Partiers have gained nor lost. Even the famous automatic cuts in the military and All Other if the the conferees failed to agree are meaningless.How do ten politicians enforce cuts that will actually be implemented by whomever is elected over the following ten years.?

    The one thing of which you can be absolutely clear is that the people who enter Congress in 2014 /16 etc.will regard those agreements as an unacceptable  restriction on their god (and voter)given right to run things as they see fit. And will change them.

     

     

     

    Comments

    Your 'little phrase' is worth noting.  In fact, much of Shakespeare's play, which, obviously, draws it title from your phrase, is about noting.   As in the play, the various players involved in the debt ceiling negotiations all saw things differently, mistaken assumptions arose, and well, hilarity ensued until a sobering, yet happy ending was achieved.  Which begs the question, is this really as we like it?  (Sorry, that was too good a closing line to ignore.)


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 08/04/2011 - 1:37pm

    The one thing of which you can be absolutely clear is that the people who enter Congress in 2014 /16 etc.will regard those agreements as an unacceptable  restriction on their god (and voter)given right to run things as they see fit. And will change them.

    No.  They will try to change them.  That doesn't mean they will succeed in doing so.  That's one reason why what was just done matters.


    by AmericanDreamer on Thu, 08/04/2011 - 1:42pm

    Which is also why the 2012 elections are probably the most significant election in long long while. Does the tea party/cut cap and balance coalition gain strength or does the cut and tax / stimulus coalition gain strength?  The role of government in the economic lives of citizens hangs in the balance.


    by Elusive Trope on Thu, 08/04/2011 - 1:52pm

    Some  legislation will ultimately  be passed to implement the agreements by the special commission. That might have some prospect of  enduring for 10 years-Not much IMHO but to the extent it does, I concede it will  be worth being concerned about.

    I don't think however that applies to the agreement reached over the weekend which  seems to me to not yet have reached that stage. Instead it sounds as if it consists of fairly broad principles ;  sort of an agreement to agree.It's only when the implementing legislation is passed that there may be something that those future congresses can  sink their teeth into...


    by Flavius on Thu, 08/04/2011 - 6:39pm