Quote:
Originally Posted by seattleflamer
Let's look at it beginning of this debate to each side's endgame and the final result:
The President insisted that the focus be on a combination of revenue/tax increases, spending cuts and that a debt ceiling limit that went beyond the next election.
The Republicans focused on spending cuts and capping any increase of the debt ceiling on a dollar for dollar reduction in spending--cut, cap and balance.
Now fast forward to day. The Democrats have no revenue increases, and are arguing over how much and the length of the amortization of the spending cuts will be.
There are no political winners in this but (yes my favourite word) from a policy perspective, the Republicans have clearly won the debate on where we are taking this country going forward.
What is scary is the Tea Party doesn't even know how to celebrate a victory or know when they have won. They have changed DC for the worse imho.
That is not the somewhere in the middle from that metric. But I get what you are saying that it is subjective.
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The Tea party wanted a balanced budget. They argue that if you just shrink government to the 2004 levels of spending there is enough tax dollars to pay the bills. They also wanted Obama care trashed and an amendment to the Constitution that forces the government to have a balanced budget. Instead Obama care is alive and well and there is just going to be an up or down vote on the constutional amendment in the Senate.
What the Democrats got was the largest debt ceiling in US history. They still have the Bush tax cuts coming off the table next year which is a tax increase. The Democrats also got enough money to not have to revisit the debt ceiling before the next election. They got a deal which has no real spending cuts because none of them start right away and they really have no say in future budgets. Whoever is in Congress in 2 years will decide what they are going to spend and going to cut. Probably they won't even consider this Congress' spending plan.
This is what Ron Paul had to say about the deal:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-bl...t-is-not-a-cut