Neither party is candid with the voters when it comes to the real issues. Obama is reacting to the GOP hatred of him and cannot be seen as giving away the store without some give from the GOP. I believe that Obama and Boehner understand what needs to be done. Otherwise, why would we have repeated undetailed discussions of the Grand Bargain? It always breaks down when the Boehner goes back to the House and cannot deliver a sufficient number of GOP votes to pass with Democratic support. And we don't learn what the details are.
Hopefully we will as we enter the Debt Ceiling Raise debate. This is a two stage process and I hope, now that we have $600 billion in hand, we can get another $600 billion from tax reform and $1.2 trillion of spending cuts. Then we will be over half way toward where we need to be.
The substance of the Economist article that the US is starting to look more like Europe is (i) a lack of candor of politicians in educating voters and (ii) kicking the can down the road rather than dealing with the real problems. Both sides need to agree on what spending cuts are coming because both sides need to convince the voters that such cuts are necessary.
Ohio is cutting reading tudors for 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders that is proven to make a long term difference in preventing drop outs because they are spending more money on health care. We need to spend money on helping people of all age groups not just the elderly.
Comments from John Boehner after the earlier and the most recent negotiations call into question Obama's tactics (and even his negotiating skills). Admittedly Boehner is not a wholly objective source, but the comments are telling nonetheless. See today's WSJ (or RedStateVT) for details. Also revealing was Mitch McConnell's question to Biden: "Doesn't anybody down here know how to cut a deal?"
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