Excellent read and yes, we have been spoiled teenagers.... ALL OF US.
Closer to the brink of what?
I say we put such a bill on the floor of the Seante and see if that's true.
For folks not paying attention, the Dim strategy all along has been to avoid a vote in the Senate that is not "bipartisan".
There are at least 15 Dim Senators up for election in 2012 from Red or Swing states. They know that if they vote for cuts without taxes their base will abandon them. They also know that if they vote for taxes without Republicans, the middle will abandon them.
Their ONLY hope is a "bipartisan deal".
Those Senate Democrats is what this fight is all about in Washington.
The Grand Compromise of 1986 is going to collapse.
Under the terms of that compromise, the GOP could have its low taxes, and the Democrats could print and borrow to spend as much as they wanted.
Both parties are guilty, it's unclear which one is worse.
The Republicans under Bush caved first, and agreed to massive increases in spending, on unconstitutional programs like NCLB and Medicare Part D.
Republican tax policy became so incoherent that people here were actually arguing for lower tax rates BECAUSE THEN THE GOVERNMENT COULD SPEND MORE.
In 1978-1986, it was plausible that lower taxes would "starve the beast" and force government to shrink.
Howard Jarvis grew up with hard money, as did I. We did not realize that the Congress and the Fed could expand the money supply without limit as they have done since 1986.
The Jarvis-Stockman hypothesis that constraining taxes could limit government has been decisively disproven by events in the real world.
It is necessary now to focus directly on spending, and not taxes.
And the "free" spending of 1986-2008 is (still) enormously popular, and attacking it is going to be quite risky.
At the end of the day, it's not taxes OR spending that's the problem. It's that we don't have constitutional money.
Until we have real money again, our problems are insolvable.
Article quotes another source giving credit to Obama, without saying one way or another. Therefore the author is part of the problem.
As for the opening lines - it’s going to take brains and determination to survive this catastrophe, neither of which this nation produces in signficant quantities.