Nothing has changed. Republicans still won't agree to higher revenues. It's why they rejected the Bowles-Simpson plan. And why the "grand bargain" fell apart in 2011. And why the super-committee failed later that year. And why the budget conference will almost certainly fail later this year. Indeed, Mitch McConnell has already said that Republicans are still only open to Laffer revenue, not "revenue that's CBO scored" like the Democrats want....The Atlantic — Business
Sorry, There Won't Be a Grand Bargain Or Any Other Type of Bargain
Matthew O'Brien
Well that's good news at least.
ReplyDeleteRight. The Grover Norquist and Tea Party are making a contribution that they don't realize in stymying the Grand Bargain over "no new taxes."
ReplyDeleteThere may indeed be a continued drag on the economy, but not as great a one as there would be if the parties accepted more austerity, like they both want. We'll just have to muddle our way through at the current spending levels until the next election, unless the Tea Party sends us over the cliff in January or February. Meanwhile, other nations in the world are making their own plans, more than likely making the assumption that the US is no longer going to be the world leader and can't be counted on as the export market it used to be. It may not be all bad. If the US dollar starts to decline against other currencies our balance of payments should improve, helping us to de-leverage and grow the GDP a bit faster and reduce unemployment.
ReplyDeleteyeah but the Admin will be leading the negotiations for the Dems....
ReplyDeleteI can easily see them both cutting "entitlements" so-called in an indirect way that they will project will lead to future "deficit reduction" like change the SS COLA indexing method, push back the age, reduce the unit reimbursements for the Meds, etc...
rsp,