When a game of chicken ends in a collision, whom do you blame? The driver you liked the least, of course.
And so it is in Washington. The game is played periodically and the division has always been about spending. Those who want to raise spending the most stand opposed to those who want to raise spending the least. This time there is a new twist. One side does not want to raise spending at all. Previously, the battle has been about votes. This time it’s about the survival of the nation.
Not that the impasse is some sort of crucial tipping point. It’s not. But we are facing sovereign insolvency and are governed by a president who seems to like it that way. This is not a case where compromise is honorable. But unfortunately, compromise is a necessary expedient. In the final analysis, it is still about votes. Obama and Reid are the problems du jour and they cannot be replaced without votes. For better or worse, such are the workings of a democracy.
The debt limit will be raised, but only by a fraction of what the President wants.
RANDOM THOTS 