Paul Krugman: The President Surrenders to Republicans

[Better Believe It]

The President Surrenders
By PAUL KRUGMAN
July 31, 2011

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

.... there are the reported terms of the deal, which amount to an abject surrender on the part of the president. First, there will be big spending cuts, with no increase in revenue. Then a panel will make recommendations for further deficit reduction — and if these recommendations aren’t accepted, there will be more spending cuts.

Republicans will surely be emboldened by the way Mr. Obama keeps folding in the face of their threats. He surrendered last December, extending all the Bush tax cuts; he surrendered in the spring when they threatened to shut down the government; and he has now surrendered on a grand scale to raw extortion over the debt ceiling. Maybe it’s just me, but I see a pattern here.

It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away. And the damage isn’t over: there will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will.

Read the full article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/opinion/the-president-surrenders-on-debt-ceiling.html?hp

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. No! No! It's a glorious victory! Just look at what we won.....well...just don't look at we lost..

..anyway..it's something to add to the The List...whatever it is.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[jannyk]

3. That's fucking funny!

:rofl:

[slay]

4. It's a pattern

and one i will not vote to continue in 2012. might as well have a republican as Obama the fake Dem.

[Better Believe It]

5. Kick