by Lone Shark

There’s simply no way to spin the Budget Control Act of 2011 from a policy standpoint- it’s a terrible piece of legislation that passed the House of Representatives last night by a fairly comfortable 269-161 margin.  The measure increases our spending, almost certainly increases taxes, and continues on with our unsustainable debt trajectory.   It became apparent from the onset of this latest manufactured “crisis” that the outcome was inevitable- there was near unanimity in Congress that the debt ceiling was going to be raised- the question was at what “cost” would it come to the Democrats’ welfare state.   As we’ve just learned, the price was pretty cheap- in exchange for 2.4 trillion dollars of additional deficit spending that President Obama will soon have discretion over, Republicans basically got a bunch of promises to cut a fraction of this newly acquired debt over the next decade.  Considering how President Obama has appropriated and spent money- about 5 trillion dollars worth over the first 2 1/2 years of his Presidency, that concession alone by Republicans is a negligent one.

It’s been frustrating to watch Republicans other than a select few refuse to challenge the dominant media narrative that the federal government was truly facing a default on August 2nd and instead accept a slew of false premises concerning the entire debt issue itself.  Rather than reassure the public that default was impossible outside of the willful refusal by the President to pay our debt service, House Republicans parroted the meme that we need to “avoid a default” and strike a deal before this arbitrary August 2nd deadline- and in the process wound up breaking another of their 2010 campaign promises whereby they ensured that all legislation would be available for public inspection for at least 3 days before coming up for a vote.

Many very authoritative voices on the Right have stated that this deal is the best we could do under the circumstances, now it’s time cash in our “winnings” and move on to the next fight.   Personally, I think Republicans should have exacted far greater concessions from Democrats and have threatened that not raising the debt-ceiling was a real possibility if real cuts were not made and prepared themselves for a fight were the debt ceiling not raised.  Now perhaps that riskier strategy is just short-term thinking that ignored the possible political consequences. Or perhaps it wasn’t, and maybe it was a fight that needed to be fought now.

We’ve been down this road before with illusory spending caps over the decades- most notably the ridiculously named “PAYGO” caps which did nothing to stop deficits and debt.  The inescapable truth is that promises of “outyear” spending cuts that supposedly bind future Congress aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, and spending cuts beyond the current year’s budget are just phony promises made by politicos who most likely won’t be around to keep them.  Now we’re supposed to believe that “Super Committees” will enact real cuts rather than continue with the same old Washington D.C. accounting tricks?

House Republicans chose not to take Obama to the mat and exercise their political leverage in a manner that would actually have mattered fiscally- defunding ObamaCare coupled with significant targeted spending cuts in FY 2012 should have been the goal if Republicans were serious about spending cuts, and probably would have been more politically popular to boot.  But here’s the silver lining- even though Republicans have taken this issue off the table until after the 2012 elections, Obama may actually be even more vulnerable in 2012 than he already was as a result of an increasing awareness of our nation’s “Debt Ceiling” and the reshaping of the issue that underscores the need for far less spending and less government interference in the economy moving forward.

This vote sure made some interesting bedfellows amongst the Florida congressional delegation- you’re not going to see Congressman Allen West or Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz giving each other high-fives over their AYE votes, albeit for totally different reasons.  The same goes for Congressmen Steve Southerland and Alcee Hastings, who both found themselves in the NAY category.  Kudos to Southerland and the other House Republicans who opposed this monstrosity on solid grounds.  The legislation from a policy standpoint is ineffectual at best, and Republicans are now going all or nothing in 2012.  We’re going to need to defeat the Dems “bigtime” in 2012 and take back the Presidency- or else say sayonara.