A Hold Your Nose Deal by Eugene Robinson Washington Post Columnist WASHINGTON — 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...

Joe Nocera’s column in today’s New York Times will be quoted often in years to come. He and a few others — like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich — have written that America’s future is being sabotaged by the children who were elected last November. Nocera writes: These last few months, much of the country has watched in horror as the Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the...

Bill Day, Cagle Cartoons This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

By the end of the day, Congress and the President will have enacted legislation to take much more money out of the economy than the Stimulus bill put into it in February 2009 with tax cuts and infrastructure investments to offset the effects of a looming Depression. The $787 billion back then is dwarved by the estimated $2.5 trillion in cuts to the budget over a decade by an agreement that will be passed as...

The long-awaited and controversial legislation raising the U.S. debt limit in two stages and providing for certain immediate and future spending reductions is also unconstitutional in part. This bill was passed on August 1st (Monday) by the U.S. House of Representatives. It will likely be approved by the U.S. Senate and signed by the President on Tuesday, August 2nd – just before a Federal “default”...

Well, no one can accuse Mitt Romney of not being transparent. Romney has apparently stuck his finger up in the wind to see which way vital Tea Party sentiments were going on the debt ceiling limit issue. For weeks he has had his finger stuck in a much shadier area on this issue. But now the big battle is over and he needs Tea Party votes so suddenly he is speaking out: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney...

“Satan Sandwich” was coined by Emanuel Cleaver, chair of Congressional Black Caucus, to describe the debt/ceiling compromise. I have wondered for a long time if part of the problem of public discourse is lack of what? lyric ideas that lead to in depth solutions. What can one do with a Satan Sandwich? Supersize it? Make the problems worse for all. Condemn it for the overage of transFATS? Make...

UPDATE: I happened to be watching the vote on the debt ceiling bill, when the delightful images appeared of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on the floor of the House surrounded by applauding and smiling Representatives. Below, in my original post, are my impressions of this wonderful moment—albeit rather short. The Huffington Post, however, has more background and reaction on the event along with photos...

Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, victim of a shooting by a deranged gunman in Tucson, has returned to the House floor to cast a crucial vote in favor of the debt ceiling compromise. Aside from the pleasure of seeing Rep. Giffords return to her duties at all, it is a a pleasure to see her choose this opportunity to do so.  A better symbol for the moderate Democrat could hardly be conceived of. The entire...

But, Do They Now They Own the Economy? The only problem with being an absolutist AND trying to govern a country is that from time to time you get your way. I can see John Boehner patting Eric Cantor on the back and saying, “congratulations son, I hope it works. If it doesn’t, you, the Tea Party, and maybe the Republican Party are sunk.” If you believe the Tea Party got as much as you could get in a divided...

Will House Democrats sink the debt ceiling limit bill? So far the bulk of attention has been on the Tea Party Republicans, but Greg Sargant has a report suggesting House Democrats may be simply leaving it up to Republicans. If this is the case, it’ll hurt the Democrats: if it turns out that there is a perception that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi isn’t going to push for the bill, the onus will...

David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Is there voter suppression underway in the recall elections in Wisconsin? Sounds that way.

Will the debt ceiling limit deal actually hurt the U.S. Economy? Here’s a good roundup.

Although the links between the excruciatingly slow recovery from the Bush Recession and the record-high federal budget deficit are to an extent incidental, it is sadly ironic that an upshot of the deficit cap compromise hammered out on Sunday is that less money will be invested in the economy, which is to say the nation’s future prosperity, and the recovery could bog down even more. While the Republican...

After weeks and weeks of mind-numbing talk from both sides, a compromise solution was finally reached on the debt ceiling crisis yesterday. Pundits are now trying to figure out who won and who lost in the skirmish. From my perspective, the status quo is maintained. President Obama, while disappointing some of the far left, compromised enough to move towards the political center for his re-election campaign...

Taiwanese animation from Next Media Animation on the debt ceiling limit deal:

Osama Hajjaj, Abu Mahjoob Creative Productions While analysts, advisors and columnists disagree about who won and who lost the most — Republicans or Democrats, the president or Congress — the real losers are the American people who wanted signs that we have a responsible government (we don’t) and who want their cake-and-eat-it-too (and got neither). The economy …The deal itself, given...

Delegitimizing those who win elections is not strictly an American preoccupation. According to this article by Louis Bassets of Spain’s El Pais, the struggle over the debt ceiling that is apparently winding down in Washington has analogues in other venues and countries, and is a trend that is pushing the world toward anarchy. For El Pais, Louis Bassets writes in part: Living on the edge and challenging...

You have to bring back Groucho to explain this one. In a classic scene, he and Chico negotiate a contract by tearing off items from long sheets of paper until they are down to a sliver each. “If any of the parties to this agreement,” Groucho reads, “have been shown not to be in their right mind, this contract is automatically nullified. That’s in every contract—-it’s called a sanity clause. “You...

Have U.S. lawmakers lost the plot over the last few weeks? This editorial from Sweden’s Upsala Nya Tidning offers members of the U.S. Congress some practical advice about what to do about the U.S. debt ceiling, and some comparative politics just to remind them that America isn’t the only developed country struggling with debt and social safety net reform. The Upsala Nya Tidning editorial says...

The Bus is hanging over the edge of the ravine. The Bus is crammed with human beings. The driver behind the wheel, steps away from the crisis, leaving others hanging… At the moment, on cable and network tv, many reps and senators are hedging now about how they will vote on the agreement just announced to not default et al. They are right now, to a person, saying, “I havent read the legislation…”...

It will be interesting to see what Nancy Pelosi decides to say and do. Apparently she has been missing from the cameras and airwaves since Obama announced a compromise had, in plan, been reached just an hour ago. She could come out slugging, or in Throw Mama From the Train persona. Reasoned hope says for many of us, let the posturing be over now, there’s been so much of it, some of us would rather watch...

Lowest level of spending since Eisenhower, says the President, just now breaking into regular programming on tv to make this announcement: The Congress and President are seeking balanced books. Have to ask wealthiest americans and corporations to pay more. Have to cut entitlements. Most important to get out your yellow highlighter: second part of agreement: By Nov, bipartisan committes formed right now will...

Should President Obama stop allowing himself to be ‘made a fool of’ and present Republicans with a ‘fait accompli’ on the U.S. debt ceiling? For Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, Matthias Ruch argues that Republicans have only one goal – to defeat Obama – so he implores the president to stop playing the ‘fool’ and resort to the 14th Amendment of the...