Curmudgeon's Corner

Deal or No Deal?

Posted by Al Campbell on Nov. 14, 2011

U.S., Political, Taxes, Economy, Quality of Life

The vaunted Super Committee has until November 23^rd to reach a deal.  Will that happen or will there be no deal?

The odds have to be heavily weighted to no deal happening given the current state of affairs in that committee.  The cynic in me would say that this committee was created with the great hope that no deal would be the likely outcome.  This was a classic “kick the can down the road” move. 

We are already involved with 2012 campaigning and there are too many people who would benefit from a ‘no deal’ decision.  That doesn’t necessarily include “we the people” since there will be fallout that will impact each of us if the committee is unable to make a deal.

President Obama has likely been hoping for the ‘do nothing Congress’ he is talking up to continue to exist since that now seems to be a big part of his campaign theme.  Democrats have been spinning feverishly to lay the blame for no deal at the feet of Republicans who will not go along with a “revenue increase” (that most of us would call a tax increase). 

Republicans running for re-election will likely not want to anger the members of the many Tea Party groups across the country, and that would happen if there were to be tax increases as part of any deal.

The automatic cuts in the event this committee doesn’t reach a deal will include significant cuts to both the defense budget and to the Medicare program over the coming decade.  That will anger those who rely on Medicare as well as all those who benefit from a bigger defense budget, such as all the contractors in Wisconsin who do business with the Defense department.  Marinette, Oshkosh and Eau Claire are locales where those contractors have operations.

Given the problems that Republicans seem to be having (based on polling) finding someone other than Romney as their leading candidate, the race is certainly anything but already decided.  President Obama continues to reflect the kind of disapproval ratings that plagued Jimmy Carter, but generic polls still show him leading the various Republican candidates who might be staged against him, or by being within the margin of error in most of those comparison polls.

I am already tired of this campaign season.  This, coupled with our continuing season of recall elections, makes it feel as though there is no relief from perpetual politics.  I will really be fried by next November at this rate.