Posted by
Bill Crawford on Friday, December 10, 2010 10:36:04 AM
After Obama got done lamenting both ends of the political spectrum in announcing his deal, his Congressional Caucus got together and showed some gratitude. "F**k the President", I believe was the headline.
Trying to understand where they are coming from is easy- once you realize that these people are diehard Keynesians. They are supplicants of the theories of aggregate demand. Government needs to prime the pump and keep spending. When the recovery starts, we can worry about the deficit. Europe is ten steps closer to hell on this than we are, they realize they need to worry about things now and are willing to suffer riots in the streets to take the first steps. After Obama spent the last couple of eco conferences trying to convince them to spend more, they stopped listening to him.
Well, it's not enough. We need to seize more from the dead. We need to get at least an extra 10% from the rich. Because, you see, they can afford it. You can talk about capital formation with these people until you are blue in the face, and get nowhere. That is why the timing of the deal was so significant- Obama is as willfully ignorant as the Congressional leadership on economics, but somebody convinced him that not making a deal right damned now had capital formation consequences.
And for this, we may well get yet another extension on unemployment benefits. While I think that 99 weeks is just insane, I have some holiday sympathy. Nobody is hiring now, and getting these people through December and the worst of winter has an urgency to it. But they want another thirteen months! They want to get them through the holidays NEXT year, too.
I will not lament this from a deficit reduction viewpoint. Extending unemployment is another way of guaranteeing higher unemployment. If you can't find something in your field, the temptation to hold out becomes greater. It delays making hard decisions.
There are aspects of it I would entertain. Creating career education stipends, in lieu of extended benfits would be one. Not being able to move because your mortgage is underwater and extending benefits to those who could show proof of that would be another. But just handing out cash for another year? When a decent part of it is an unfunded State mandate? Give me a break.
But I digress. There are thousands out there now, speculating on how all this is the first shot in Obama's 2012 campaign. I don't think he is that far together. I've never seen anybody turn on his base like this and survive the long run.
His saving grace is that there isn't a primary challenger out there who doesn't know the challenge would probably kill whoever won, in the general election. That is except for one. But she has already announced that Secretary of State is the last entry in her resume.
Or is it? Remember what I told you about what it takes to put down the undead Clintons. The grave needs to be checked every day.