Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Calling Speaker Boehner

Matt Yglesias catches up with where I was back in July 2011 asking Speaker Boehner to, you know, act like a guy that's third in line for the presidency and lead us out of this sequester/budget/fiscal fiasco. Yglesias also touches on the same thing I touched upon yesterday, poo pooing David Brooks thought that Obama can singularly change the terms debate around these fiscal issues.

Beyond my snarkiness about who got there first, I agree with Yglesias' assessment of the situation, the complete absence of leadership from Speaker Boehner, the gamble the GOP made in 2011 that didn't pay out, and the broad terms of what the deal would look like.

The most maddening part of watching politics these days is the common knowledge that we know how to fix these problems. The method isn't in question. The only question is if the more sensible people in the respective parties can reach and sell a compromise. Perhaps that's wishful thinking. For now, we can keep watching journalists strain to blame both sides, instead of accepting the reality of the situation.

4 comments:

  1. The most maddening part of watching politics these days is the common knowledge that we know how to fix these problems. The method isn't in question.

    We do? It's not? When did this consensus emerge?

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  2. We know we can't sustain our debt level in perpetuity and we know we need to reduce the cost of entitlements. From Simpson-Bowles to Yuval Levin's sketch of a plan to the thousands of other think tank studies and reports, we know how to get a handle on our debt while preserving Medicare and Social Security.

    The problem is not that the situation is beyond us to know how to fix, it's getting politicians to understand everybody is going to need to give so everyone can get.

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  3. We know we can't sustain our debt level in perpetuity and we know we need to reduce the cost of entitlements.

    Yes, we know that entitlements are a problem, knowing how to fix them is a different matter entirely. I strongly suspect that my plan to fix matters and your plan to do so are massively different.

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  4. I'd agree with that last statement. Not the least of which is my operating assumption that that Social Security and Medicare as currently constructed and being implemented should, to the greatest extent possible, be preserved. I would doubt you come with the same operating assumption, but I think mine is an assumption shared by the majority in Congress.

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