Free at Last, Free at Last!

At long last, the votes have been counted, and it's all over but the shouting.  The debt limit has been raised, burdened by an attachment that purports to address the debt itself.  I must admit that I was wrong. I was betting the voting wouldn't happen until the very last minute Monday night.  They managed to milk the situation until noon on Tuesday, the sadistic bastards! This has come to be par for the course in Washington. And, as soon as the votes are counted, both sides claim victory and smile and make nice and call each other "friends" and assure the American people that all the angst was necessary and just proves the system works, blah, blah, blah. Actually there was only one losing side - the side of the American people. And, the politicians just don't care.

They don't apologize for their ham-handed political theater. Oh, no.  Instead they promise to put us through the same thing in 2013, when the debt ceiling will need to be raised again.  They are counting on the fact that the American voters have short attention spans and even shorter memories.  They may be very surprised, come the next election.  At least, I hope they are.

And, now, we are to have a "Super Committee" to advise us on reducing spending.  Don't we already have one of those? You know, the one President Obama appointed. The one that came back containing Alan Simpson's dream of destroying Social Security?  Oh, that's right.  That committee had only six members. The new one will have twelve, six from the Senate and six from the House.  An equal number of Republicans and Democrats who are doomed to create a Mexican standoff from the first day.  And, there won't be anyone to break the stalemate. Does anybody think this will end well?

Does anybody else wish Hillary would run again? I'd like to see a re-match. How about you?

Stay tuned.