While pundits across the political spectrum tout the debt deal as a win for work overtime attempting to pin the deal on the Tea Party…..

The Tea Party hardly set up the parameters for the debate, or we would not be facing this morning’s headline:

US borrowing tops 100% of GDP: Treasury

US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government’s debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday.

Treasury borrowing jumped Tuesday, the data showed, immediately after President Barack Obama signed into law an increase in the debt ceiling as the country’s spending commitments reached a breaking point and it threatened to default on its debt.

The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium

The only parameter set by the Tea Party was the fence put around them to avoid having to change business as usual in Washington

There wasn’t debate on this bill which was created in a closet, and passed using the same rubber hoses used to pass Obamacare – except this time, the GOP establishment was part of the dog pack

What’s hard to understand about Tea Party disappointment with the deal, given that it didn’t achieve the top Tea Party priority — that is, given that it did little to create real procedural or structural reform in the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars? What’s hard to understand about moderate and liberal Democrats liking business as usual?

A couple of things, this was not really the vehicle by which to produce that kind of change, especially with only one chamber of the House. For another, the majority of the Tea Party caucus voted for this with Emmanuel Cleaver on the Democratic side calling it a Satan sandwich. Democrats did not like the bill, they just feared the alternative more than the conservatives did.

And I really do not consider it business as usual. It is not business as usual to even make an issue of raising the debt ceiling. It is not business as usual to tie spending cuts to raising that debt ceiling.

I think the problem a lot of conservatives had is that they had unrealistic expectations to begin with. The truth is it will take a long time to turn this thing around. It will not happen in one vote on one bill.

J_Crater on August 3, 2011 at 11:01 PM

I just wanted to go off on a little mock screed about something you said: You think a Ruskie was not “too far off the truth”. Reagan thought of them as the “Evil Empire”! Now you’re siding with the enemy!! who called us “parasites”! See, I told you tea partiers are traitors!

The left is supposed to be able to understand “nuance”, that they have been trying to tell us conservatives for years that things are more complex than simple labels (as if no conservative took this into account), but for their invective they need easy labels to jump to and fro, easy implications, easy recognizable categories. What they don’t see is if they ever had any finer appreciation for subtlety, they’ve killed it with sloganizing everything, just to win the PR battle. Because a salesman has to sell himself.

It’s funny that Putin can call Americans “parasites” and for conservatives to find it not to far off the mark. It’s definitely not inexplicable, but it can be hard to follow sometimes. And especially to a side that has gotten used to bombast and slogans to make their “points”. And thinking that if it’s a point that takes subtlety, the conservatives must have missed it (definitionally).

That’s what the spin on this will be. We didn’t cripple the government, so we’re not happy.

Obama just borrowed 900 billion! Sounds like they’re going to throw a debt ceiling raising party!

Is Cohen so dense to believe that other countries aren’t completely more aware of the current monetary situation than the average American ? Putin was bashing Americans just the other day as “parasites,” and he isn’t too far off the truth.

This debt problem isn’t just a domestic problem. The continued running up of the debt and monetary tricks with the dollar is as bad for foreign relations as any “Ugly American” policy of the past.

SheetAnchor on August 3, 2011 at 7:45 PM
Yes, and there are a few very arrogant freshmen that think they have become much smarter since they arrived in DC.

Prosper? LOL

I bet we’d all be surprised who is REALLY behind the curtain:-)

CW on August 3, 2011 at 7:27 PM

If we are a bunch of terrorists…. when can we expect Obama to become a fiscal conservative? He always has the hots for a new terrorist movement!

What would we do without liberals and their RINO enablers?

Seriously????

The poll finds some paradoxes.

There are paradoxes in all the polls pertaining to this subject.

I have seen polls that said most people want a deal, most do not want a deal, most people want only tax hikes, most people want only spending cuts, most people want tax hikes and spending cuts, most people blame Obama, most people blame the Republicans..and on and on.

And then of course there is the fact that 53% of the Tea Party caucus voted for this bill. In fact more of them in the House voted for it than Democrats did.

I think people were just so completely disgusted with the process that they are completely turned off by anything that came out of it. If it turns out that the cuts are real and that they actually follow through with more cuts, people feel differently. But it will take time before they are ready to feel good about much of anything.

“US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic product after the government’s debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday.”

“The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.”

Time is working against us.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-aaa-rating-still-under-threat-204040123.html

So our so-called leaders negotiated a deal that is supported by 22% of the Tea Party that brought them to power and 26% of Republicans (in general)? But 58% of Dems support the deal?

And we are supposed to beat our chests and say “We won!” A Charlie Sheen type of “winning” indeed!

TheRightMan on August 3, 2011 at 7:34 PM

And how will the Tea Party freshmen that failed to hold the line explain their votes to the Tea Party citizens and supporters who worked tirelessly to elect them? Perhaps there will be primary opposition to these representatives.

Valerie Jarrett gets preferential points?

Only 22% of Tea Party supporters approve of the deal, compared with 26% of Republicans generally and 58% of Democrats.

You seriously can’t make stuff like this up.

So our so-called leaders negotiated a deal that is supported by 22% of the Tea Party that brought them to power and 26% of Republicans (in general)? But 58% of Dems support the deal?

And we are supposed to beat our chests and say “We won!” A Charlie Sheen type of “winning” indeed!

Diversity!

Frankly, I wouldn’t call those results paradoxical at all. What’s hard to understand about Tea Party disappointment with the deal, given that it didn’t achieve the top Tea Party priority — that is, given that it did little to create real procedural or structural reform in the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars? What’s hard to understand about moderate and liberal Democrats liking business as usual?

Nobody supports this deal. It is what it is until 2012 and O’s ass is kicked down the road instead of the proverbial cans.

http://paul.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=280

Can you hear the rock group Rare Earth, “I just want to celebrate!” sarc/

We need to blow up the tracks on this runaway Congressional spending train.