Back to the Impossible

The Senate passed a budget.  The House passed a budget.  Normally, in a conference committee, the budgets are reconciled through a process of compromise with the end result being a budget that is in the middle. (Thus the name of this blog.)

However, we see in the news today that the House will not raise revenues, the Senate will not address entitlements until revenues can be included in the outcome and we will not have a grand bargain.

Meanwhile, the pressure to have grand bargain is waning as the fiscal deficit for 2013 will be 4.1% of GDP with further declines in store from the combination of 1% inflation and 2.0% economic growth.  Throw in a little spending cuts as the sequester does and pretty soon the debt to GDP ratio will be stable  and there will be no support from the less educated for addressing anything to do with Social Security, Medicare and Defense spending.

The window is fast closing on the opportunity for a Grand Bargain that will help the country with the generational challenge it faces in 10 to 30 years.  Addressing it later will involve much more costly changes than addressing it today.

Once again, I am depressed that a conference committee cannot function as it ought to and the reasons come back to the Tea Party's hatred of compromise.

So even though I should vote for some GOP candidates in next week's local election (they do stand for what I believe in more than the Democratic candidates do), I will vote a straight Democratic ticket to send a message that no one who matters will hear.