What we ceded.

[nwhiker]

So, it's signed, the US isn't going to default, and hey! Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid didn't get cut! I see my Oboma fellating pals spinning this as a major victory for Obama (if you are into hagiography, check this out.) The Thugs are just trying to save face! Obama won! Rilly!

Right.

The thing is, the deal could certainly have been much much worse in many ways. That's one way of looking at things.

Then there is another: we -yet again, see health care reform and tax cuts for the wealthy linked to unemployment- ceded parameters of the debate. We let the hostage takers (read: the Thugs) set the terms of what is acceptable and what is not.

Namely, spending cuts vs tax revenues.

The current plan is entirely cuts. 100%. There is no closing of loopholes, not a whiff of a tax increase on the rich. It's all cuts, all the way.

Let me repeat that: in face of what could have been a major economic catastrophe, we -Obama, mainly, since he's the Master Capitulator in the White House- we couldn't even manage to push them into closing the teeniest little loophole.

In the process, we ceded the terms of the debate, probably forever: problems, even ones that could have far reaching, global, dire consequences, can only be solved with spending cuts.

We're removed tax increases as part of the solution.

And this, this is not good.