[americanophile]

Unfortunately there will be no serious movement on the deficit, i.e., entitlement reform, until this president is gone and we have a Republican majority in the Senate. At this stage we're simply trying to minimize the damage to the country. It does us no good as a nation to default, or politically to shut down the government. Boehner is doing okay with what he has, and we can't afford to take a kamikaze stand on an issue we can't win, and which may doom our chances in 2012. In reality of course, we're just kicking the can down the road once again, but we haven't too many other options - we just don't have the numbers.

[Lancey Howard]

At this stage we're simply trying to minimize the damage to the country.

Precisely correct.