I guess it's how you choose to look at it. It might seem that things in Congress are pretty dismal.
"Congress returns this week to face a list of daunting challenges. The House is taking up immigration reform; the farm bill setting the nation’s agricultural policy remains in limbo; battles loom over the budget and the debt ceiling; the sequester cuts continue even though we remain mired in mass unemployment."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/08/the-morning-plum-the-problem-isnt-generic-washington-gridlock-its-the-house-gop/
Sargent rightly points out that the problem here is not generic 'gridlock' but the deliberate strategy of the GOP. However, why is the GOP obstructing everything, even simply tasks like passing a farm bill and passing the debt ceiling without further threats? They claim this is what we wanted when we voted last November.
“We’re going to continue to be very aggressive in serving as a check and balance against the Obama administration. That’s what the country said in November,” said Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), a conservative leader, referring to continued Republican control of the House. “We’re very far apart.”
So this is what the lesson of all the 'soul searching' the GOP was allegedly doing: just give us more of the same. The American people voted for impede and obstruct.
Republicans are again trying to play debt ceiling chicken demanding spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Obama didn't play it in January and I presume he won't start playing it now.
Meanwhile, if the GOP didn't have it in so much for the fact checkers they'd realize that the deficit has already come down a lot-probably too much.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/08/gop-threatens-debt-limit-showdown-as-deficit-continues-to-fall/
Both fiscal and monetary policy are tighter and more austere than they need to be. In monetary policy we have a 1% inflation rate and yet the Fed is concerned about tapering off. In fiscal policy we have a rapidly shrinking deficit yet we have the Kamikaze GOP demanding more spending cuts.
I like this coinage-the Kamikaze GOP. Yet they're not risking their lives but the life of our economy's. Hey our pain they hope will be their gain though it hasn't worked this way until now. Who said the GOP was constrained by logic-who cares about logic? it's just another liberal conspiracy.
Jared Bernstein suggests that we have apply the Hippocratic Oath to fiscal policy: just stop doing harm. Of course, Scott Sumner doesn't think they're doing any harm. The harm for him would be if Congress ended the sequester-as it would lead to tapering down Fed bond buying, presumably.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/05/sumner-continuing-to-push-monetary.html
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-fiscal-multiplier-sumner-vs-bernanke.html
"Congress returns this week to face a list of daunting challenges. The House is taking up immigration reform; the farm bill setting the nation’s agricultural policy remains in limbo; battles loom over the budget and the debt ceiling; the sequester cuts continue even though we remain mired in mass unemployment."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/08/the-morning-plum-the-problem-isnt-generic-washington-gridlock-its-the-house-gop/
Sargent rightly points out that the problem here is not generic 'gridlock' but the deliberate strategy of the GOP. However, why is the GOP obstructing everything, even simply tasks like passing a farm bill and passing the debt ceiling without further threats? They claim this is what we wanted when we voted last November.
“We’re going to continue to be very aggressive in serving as a check and balance against the Obama administration. That’s what the country said in November,” said Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), a conservative leader, referring to continued Republican control of the House. “We’re very far apart.”
So this is what the lesson of all the 'soul searching' the GOP was allegedly doing: just give us more of the same. The American people voted for impede and obstruct.
Republicans are again trying to play debt ceiling chicken demanding spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Obama didn't play it in January and I presume he won't start playing it now.
Meanwhile, if the GOP didn't have it in so much for the fact checkers they'd realize that the deficit has already come down a lot-probably too much.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/08/gop-threatens-debt-limit-showdown-as-deficit-continues-to-fall/
Both fiscal and monetary policy are tighter and more austere than they need to be. In monetary policy we have a 1% inflation rate and yet the Fed is concerned about tapering off. In fiscal policy we have a rapidly shrinking deficit yet we have the Kamikaze GOP demanding more spending cuts.
I like this coinage-the Kamikaze GOP. Yet they're not risking their lives but the life of our economy's. Hey our pain they hope will be their gain though it hasn't worked this way until now. Who said the GOP was constrained by logic-who cares about logic? it's just another liberal conspiracy.
Jared Bernstein suggests that we have apply the Hippocratic Oath to fiscal policy: just stop doing harm. Of course, Scott Sumner doesn't think they're doing any harm. The harm for him would be if Congress ended the sequester-as it would lead to tapering down Fed bond buying, presumably.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/05/sumner-continuing-to-push-monetary.html
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-fiscal-multiplier-sumner-vs-bernanke.html
No comments:
Post a Comment