Debt Ceiling...a week or two late

I wish that I had the energy to write about last week's debt ceiling debate, but I would just make myself angry and have to take a while to simmer down. Short version:

1) The fact that we have a debt ceiling is asinine
2) Republicans made a stink about raising it is preposterous
3) Tying it to future spending cuts would be the same as insisting that any hikes in import taxes be attached to decreases in prescription drug benefits - the two have NOTHING to do with each other
4) The fact that Democrats even engaged in the discussion is embarrassing
5) Their "solution" to this "crisis" is weak-willed, short sighted and pushes the problems further down the road. That's right, even when they manufacture a crisis, they can't solve it right
6) There are no more than a handful of members of Congress who will ever willingly tell someone bad news.

On the plus side, putting the Defense budget on the table as a place in need of cutting is a major step. (And let's be honest...only in Washington DC can you give something exactly as much money next year as you do this year and call it a "cut". In fact, you can give it more next year than this year and still call it a cut.) You can't have a reasonable budget discussion that doesn't address the major expenditures, and that is one of them that has often been considered off limits. So, at least that was something of a positive development...not unlike the changes to the Social Security formula a handful of years ago - not that it was a major change, but it set the precedent that at least we could maybe make some changes. Now, about Medicare...

But really, it was just one big fight over who could be more wrong. I think the Republicans won that fight, but not because the Democrats didn't put up a strong effort of their own.

Anyway, we seem to be past that speed bump (until it comes up again in...oh...six months or so) and back to focusing on the fact that the economy is in complete shambles. Wait, you mean that massive government intervention didn't fix the economy? Wow, we are definitely gonna have to re-write the Economics text books now.