Democrats Need to Bite the Bullet

Well, it looks like we may have avoided economic Armageddon. Earlier today, House and Senate GOP leaders negotiated a deal with President Obama to raise the debt ceiling through 2012 and cut approximately $3 trillion of spending from the federal budget. Predictably, House Democrats are furious that the deal includes no new revenues and many are threatening to vote against it: one of the more colorful descriptions of the deal came from Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, who called it "a sugar-coated Satan sandwich." Some Democratic analysts have predicted that this anger over what they see as capitulation from President Obama will lead to only 50-80 Democratic votes for the plan, which would leave House Speaker John Boehner in the unenviable position of pushing it through his own caucus (something he's had a bit of trouble with of late). Still, as much as it hurts, the deal could still be a win for Democrats, and more importantly it is a desperately-needed win for the country.

Emanuel Cleaver finds your lack of revenues disturbing.

Eleven Minutes to Midnight

The clock in Washington is ticking, and we still don't have an agreement to raise the debt ceiling. After weeks of on-again-off-again negotiations that have run into every possible roadblock (Eric Cantor, the Tea Party, Eric Cantor, Democratic mutiny and Eric Cantor, to name a few), it still looked like President Obama and Speaker Boehner would have a deal soon—at least, it did until this afternoon, when the Speaker told President Obama that he was withdrawing from negotiations. Two very angry press conferences ensued and here we are: 11 days away from a default on the full faith and credit of the United States and no deal in sight. To be perfectly honest, you can start to panic now.

Yes, you can call this Angry Obama.

Washington: Where Doing Your Job Might Get You Impeached

In less than a month, the United States of America—the most powerful nation in the history of the world and a leader in global affairs for over a century—will default on its debt, a catastrophe that will likely send the domestic (and possibly global) economy into a full-scale meltdown. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that the country has until August 2nd to strike a deal to raise the debt ceiling and avoid this fiscal nightmare, and President Obama has gone on record saying that he wants a deal to be cut by July 22nd so that the legislation can safely make its way through Congress. With less than 3 weeks to go until crossing that red line, Congress still seems incapable of solving this problem, even if it wanted to. To make matters worse, if President Obama tries to take the situation into his own hands, he may just get impeached for his troubles.

Any chance TurboTax messed up his calculations with this number, too?

Whose Fault is it, Anyway?

“Gridlock” does not even come close to describing the atmosphere in the U.S. Senate these days. “Obstructionism” comes closer, but that implies that the lack of action on simple measures is the fault of one party or the other. Behind the constant back and forth between Senate Republicans and Democrats about how it’s the other party’s fault, it is clear that there is something very wrong with the Senate today.

The Senate in olden times, or something