Deal Or No Deal? Live Or Die?

Conservatives are complaining that we didn’t get near what campaigning Republicans promised in the deal cut with Democrats on the 2011 budget. They’re right. We didn’t. And now there’s talk of some tricks in counting the numbers that make it actually even less.

Well, they could have called their bluff and seen if Democrats would have allowed a partial government shutdown. Then we'd see how effective their shrieks of blame against Republicans would have been. Personally, I don't know. I know we would have lost in the past. But things may have changed. Part of the change would be from the proliferation of communications outlets. The bigger part would be from the unprecedented financial crisis that we face.

Short of that, we weren't going to get what we wanted without a Senate majority and the presidency. And, even if we get the majority and the presidency in 2012, we likely won't have a filibuster-proof Senate majority. But, the cost of not getting what we want may be a major financial disaster, which I frankly think is more likely than not. That sounds like extreme doom-saying. The problem is that it’s hard for me to imagine how we avert it.