Let's not get sidetracked onto Bush bashing. He was a terrible president. It fries me when I see that pompous toad Karl
Rove on TV attacking Tea Party candidates.
Back to the present. We see large european countries like Italy and Spain facing big increases in their borrowing costs. These are not jokes like Greece. These are real countries with big economies.
People can't imagine it happening here. Maybe it doesn't. It's not like investors have a lot of places to stash their money. T-bonds staged a massive rally during the debt ceiling debate, when we were being told constantly that we faced disaster. But why tempt fate? If our borrowing costs went up dramatically, our debt service would sink our budget. And poduce a depression at the same time. Scary.
The debt ceiling deal doesn't decrease our spending at all. It increases it by some 7 trillion. The only bright spot is it would have increased by 10 trillion. Our debt will be way higher than they are predicting. For one thing, they are ludicrously predicting 3% GDP growth. Plug in <1% and see what those numbers do.
The only way out of this mess is to cap spending. Reallocate from discretionary, ie government departments, to social security and medicare. Enact meaningful reforms that will apply to young adults when they reach retirement age. Until then, we have no choice but to cut the rest of government to save these programs. Obama, Pelosi et al are in willful denial about what will happen. Maybe they want the entire eocnomy to go bust so they can try to reorg it along socialist lines. That's really the only rational explanation for their actions. Tht and some of the most craven, vile political calculations imaginable.
Make no mistakes. This fight is just beginning. This deal solved nothing.
