Those who can do. Those who can’t form a supercommittee. Those who can’t produce a majority vote in a supercommittee sequester. Those who can’t even sequester are telling the world something profound about American inertia.
As Veronique points out below, the “automatic” sequestration cuts would over the course of ten years reduce US public debt by only $153 billion. Which boils down to about a month’s worth of the current federal deficit.
Yet even slashing a pimple’s worth of borrowing out of the great oozing mountain of pustules will prove too much for Washington.
Another downgrade is now inevitable. After that, all that’s holding the joint up is the dollar’s status as global currency. If the world were looking around for a reserve currency today, I doubt it would pick that of a $15 trillion sinkhole. This week’s failure will hasten the urge of the Chinese and others to arrange a post-dollar order. I wrote earlier this year about America’s inclination to do everything big. And so it goes even with imperial eclipse: We are inviting nothing so genteel as “decline” but rather a sudden convulsive collapse.
Forget the Supercommittee; the timidity of the GOP frontrunners is far more disturbing. In a sane polity, they would be competing over the abolition of departments, the rollback of regulatory tyranny, the shrinking of entitlements – not to mention flying commercial and making do with a mere 20-car motorcade. This close to the abyss, public discourse is nowhere near where it ought to be.
(Headline courtesy of Otto Harbach, whose “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” also seems oddly relevant to this week’s alleged “drama”.)
Your comments are an outrage Mark!
Commercial? Mingle with the serfs in steerage? Get real!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
TS Eliot
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"We are inviting nothing so genteel as “decline” but rather a sudden convulsive collapse."
That is what I fear the most and it seems like the average American citizen is basically incapable of doing anything about it, even if joined by other average American ctiizens. The political class is simply not listening to us. They are just going on their merry way over the cliff and dragging us with it.
"Forget the Supercommittee; the timidity of the GOP frontrunners is far more disturbing."
Thank you. I know Perry talked some game about cutting the Federal gov't, but honestly, I wanted to hear at least one of them really talk about putting their foot down on size and spending and reach. Real serious talk and never backing down. No, what I hear is a lot of "plans" that sound nice, but also sound like a lot of talk and that's about it. A whole lot of preparation and no H.
I think Americans should just forget the political process - it's obviously dead. We don't have one party that is serious about what is going on. They are like the captain of the Titanic - they basically caused the accident and now they are standing around bewildered about what to do now that the ship is starting to sink.
What Americans should be doing is hunkering down and preparing for the worst. Food/dry goods, things to barter with, and guns/ammo. That's all that's going to matter in the end.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOf course the political class is listening to us.
We're saying "Don't Raise Our Taxes!"
and we're also saying "Don't Cut Our Services"
And that's what we're getting
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRoyal "we"?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually, "we" *are* telling them that - if you mean a sizeable portion of the American electorate. That's why the politicians have any cover for their cowardly failure to confront the problem.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually, I think it's more like: cut government services (for the other guy) but not mine.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe supercommitte was an excuse to not do anything in August. And now it's accomplished its purpose, which was to delay any spending cuts until after the election. Whether the economy cooperates and postpones a collapse is an open question. Voters should raise hell about this, early and often.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis analysis is 100% spot on. Politicians are proving unable to address economic issues - will be interesting to see if Italy, now managed by technocrats does any better. If yes, then we may need to develop new economic governance systems that rely on technocrats to develop solutions and the public through referendums to say yes or no (thereby taking out the role of politicians who are often the least qualified on these matters in any case).
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseoooooooooor, we can elect some politicians with brains and courage, and hold them accountable to do the job we send them to do .... you know, like the Founding Fathers intended.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOr better yet, we can elect leaders who believe in reducing the scope of government and let free markets and free citizens manage their own affairs. Then our politicians don't have to be geniuses.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou do realize you are advocating fascism, right? If not, then I suggest you tear yourself away from the mirror and pick up some history books. Start with a guy named Albert Speer and see where that takes you.
[shaking my head]
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@Expat - well that was certainly predictable. "Our government is flawed and can't do anything right. Let's give it more power!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThose who can't do anything do nothing. And in the case of the Republican Congress, that's a good thing.
If Congress does nothing in 2012 (a safe bet, wouldn't you say?), the Bush tax cuts will expire, we'll go back to the Clinton tax rates, and our long-term deficit problem will be completely manageable.
Gridlock is good!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseClinton had more going for him than Obama does...
Reagan and his tax cuts were only 4 years in the rear view mirror when Clinton took office. The economy was still benefiting from the fruits of increased research and development. The computer boom was one example of this. We don't have that groundwork helping us out today.
Clinton also had Gingrich to present him with a balanced budget for Clinton to sign.
Unlike Clinton, Obama doesn't have Reagan's legacy to buttress the economy. And there is no will in the congress nor in the White House nor enough popular support to balance a budget. This grouping will crash the system before they will take the comparatively small steps needed to fix it.
I wish Steyn were wrong, but unless the laws of economics are suspended in the near future we are thoroughly screwed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"the Bush tax cuts will expire, we'll go back to the Clinton tax rates, and our long-term deficit problem will be completely manageable. "
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Um, really? I'd love to see the math on that.
Because letting the Bush tax cuts expire would raise (using silly static scoring) about $72 billion a year.
That isn't close to the deficit.
Epic fail.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's assuming that raising the taxes does not slow down the economy even further. In all likelihood, returning to the Clinton tax rates will cause total tax receipts to fall.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Completely manageble" was an overstatement on my part. But not by much. Charts here:
External Link
When you're in a hole, it's usually a good idea to stop digging.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat a silly graph! Today we are in a “hockey stick” of spending but we are going to make all sorts of cuts that will bring on fiscal sanity – it’s only just 5 years, 8 years, 10 years away. Even though we are “in a hole” now, our great POTUS is urging that the digging continue with a half trillion dollar “jobs bill”. Face it: There is no tax increase that can balance the budget because 150% of new revenue will turn into additional spending.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCBO projections assume (a) GDP growth of 3.6% per year; (b) that the Bush tax cuts will expire for *all* brackets, thereby raising taxes for nearly *all* Americans; (c) that the Alternative Minimum Tax threshold will lock in at the end of 2012 and never be raised; (d) that the annual Medicare "Doc Fix" will never happen again; and (e) that Obamacare will actually produce the savings that were jury-rigged into the CBO projections prior to its passage. The difference between CBO projections and any reasonable approximation of future reality is vast.
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