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Budget Deficit Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 07, 2011 13 Comments

Matt Lewis at The Daily Caller argues that taking a compromise deal allowed Republicans to avoid blame for the S&P downgrade (although David Axelrod and John Kerry are claiming otherwise) and any other negative consequences: In the few days since the debt ceiling was raised, the Dow has...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 07, 2011 22 Comments

Thanks to reader and blogger Voting Female for alerting me to the new hashtag #ObamaDownGradeExcuse. Considering how much fun readers had with #BeforeBlackPresidents, there should be some good tweets and comments coming. Here's my contribution: ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 06, 2011 21 Comments

Consider this just an ideas open thread. Keep it clean, children could be reading. I'll start:  There is a deep sadness at the loss of members of SEAL Team 6.  Every soldier is valuable and mourned, but this tragedy seems to be special. Updates:  This chart from Division...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 05, 2011 62 Comments

S&P has dropped the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+: The United States' credit rating was cut for the first time when Standard and  Poor's lowered it from triple-A to AA+, citing the country's looming deficit  burden and weak policy-making process. Standard and Poor's on Friday...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 03, 2011 4 Comments

An article titled With Debt Deal in Hand, When Does Geithner Quit? prompted this response from self-described liberal Prof. Dan Kennedy of Northeastern Univ. in Boston: ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 03, 2011 14 Comments

The debt deal "trigger" requires that one-half of the budget cuts come from the military if the "super committee" cannot reach agreement or if the Congress fails to pass the super committees proposal. The concept was that fear of military cuts would force Republicans to strike...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 02, 2011 3 Comments

Okay, yesterday, but the point is the same. Thanks to SoccerDad for the link to this tweet by James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal: ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 02, 2011 28 Comments

Pep Talk.  Pep Talk 2.  Pep Talk 3: The debt ceiling fight and "deal" were emotional, and many of you have been left feeling let down or betrayed.  Relations among people who agree on the goal but not the strategy have been strained. But keep things in perspective. Just months ago Obama...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 01, 2011 1 Comment

The House is expected to vote between 6:30-8:00 tonight. Everything will be okay. There will be a morning after.  Just hold your breath for a few trillion seconds and then come up for air. ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 01, 2011 12 Comments

One of the consistent media talking points is that the nation "should not have to go through this again," meaning the debate over raising the debt ceiling. I could not disagree more, and look forward to going through this -- or something like this -- when...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 01, 2011 23 Comments

I can't remember an issue on which I have been as conflicted as on the pending debt ceiling deal. No sugar coating.  It's not a good deal.  It does very little to solve the problem of our budget deficits and growing debt.  The law also leaves us...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 01, 2011 11 Comments

The interesting thing about this now-famous tweet is that the sentiment has widespread bipartisan support, although for different reasons: ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 01, 2011 31 Comments

Here it is. It's 74 pages.  We've heard various explanations of "the deal."  I have some views on the deal as explained, but I'd be interested in what readers find that may be at odds with what they're hearing or at odds with the Boehner PowerPoint. I...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 31, 2011 11 Comments

Thanks to Katie for helping out this afternoon with updates, as I was traveling. I've heard bits and pieces, and posted last night the tentative deal.  Apparently there will not be any vote tonight, which is a good thing to me because we should get to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 31, 2011 9 Comments

From the Powerline Prize competition (h/t Glenn Reynolds): ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 31, 2011 3 Comments

Thanks to reader Jeff for forwarding this link in response to the Drug Addict video I posted yesterday. I remember this video when it first surfaced, but it seems particularly timely to play it again: ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 30, 2011 20 Comments

Things seem, maybe, possibly heading towards some sort of debt ceiling deal negotiated by Mitch McConnell directly with the White House.  Harry Reid just took to the floor of the Senate to announce that the vote on cloture on his bill will be postponed from...

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