When you have 3,000 page bills, your legislators are voting on stuff they haven’t got a clue what’s in them. Often, those bills are actually unwritten at the time of passage, and you only find out what’s in there when it emerges afterwards. Republicans get suckered, because the ratchet effect on government is that whatever you think you’ve passed, once it goes downstairs to the permanent bureaucracy beavering away in the basement, the whole thing is like some giant, toxic, killer mushroom growing there in the basement, and it turns into something way beyond whatever some twerp of a rhino, reach across the aisle Senator thinks he signed onto.
The likely outcome of debt-ceiling negotiations.
Update: Stacy McCain and Smitty also have some interesting takes on our latest plunge into the theatre of the politically absurd.
Update II: You gotta love the last half of this headline at The Hill: “Progress seen in debt talks, but outrage from Dems over lack of tax hikes”. I swear, they’re like bandits who’ve successfully robbed trains for years and then get pissed off when the railroad goes bankrupt.
The Democrats and Obama are screwed, and know it. Their only option at this point is to PREVENT a budget from being passed, so they can loot the treasury for their backers as much as possible through the Executive in the time they have left.
ReplyDeleteThe Democratic Party should refine their image. I suggest starting with a name change. How about:
ReplyDeleteThe Thiefocrat Party. Or the Demomugger Party. Something more in keeping with their style.
Linked to at:
ReplyDeleteThe Debt Of A Salesman