Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists and the Accidental President December 13-15, 2013 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)26. No, the Budget Deal Isn't a "Compromise" (NOT AN EQUITABLE ONE, ANYWAY) By Patrick Caldwell
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/budget-deal-is-not-compromise-murray-ryan
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) were noticeably pleased with themselves when they announced their new budget deal at a press conference Tuesday evening. The 15-minute session was filled with compliments and bipartisan kumbayas for reaching such a sensible accord. "From the the outset," Ryan said, "we knew that if we forced each other to compromise a core principle we would get nowhere. That is why we decided to focus on where the common ground is." Murray backed that up, stressing that the two found success because they ditched ideological rigidity in favor of accommodation. "We have broken through the partisanship and the gridlock," Murray said, "and reached a bipartisan budget compromise that will prevent a government shutdown in January."
Compromise, compromise, compromise. It was the word of the day. Even President Barack Obama joined in on the hosannas. "This agreement doesnt include everything Id likeand I know many Republicans feel the same way," he said in a statement shortly after the deal was announced. "That's the nature of compromise."
Who doesn't like an agreement where each side gives a little to get something in return? That's the basic concept of negotiation that we all learn in kindergarten. The only trouble is our political class has a distorted sense of what constitutes a "compromise." The Washington Compromise lacks any relation to the actual policies being discussed. It's just a grade-school level formula you can plug into any scenario. Find the midpoint between two competing plans and you've found the centrist goal. The trouble is, not every starting point is created equally. It's a simplistic vision of politics, akin to the critics who think all political disagreements can be boiled down to winners and losers, or the persistent Green Lantern notion of presidential power that Obama could accomplish anything if he would just lead already.
According to Washington wisdom, the new budget meets the platonic ideal of a compromise since it slices everything neatly down the middle. Ryan's initial budget accepted sequestration's caps on military and domestic spending, which allocated $967 billion for 2014. Murray's budget ignored sequestration and slotted $1.058 trillion for 2014. The compromise? $1.012 trillion. In other words, the two elected officials and their staffs spent the past month figuring out how to add their numbers together and divide by two. Rather than discerning whether the country would be better off if either domestic programs or military spending were spared sequester's ax, the Ryan and Murray split it right down the middle. Fifty percent of the new spending goes to the military, 50 percent to domestic programs. Murray and Ryan used a similar logic for the revenue offsets included in the budget. Ryan got $6 billion in savings from federal employee pensions, so Murray had to get an equal $6 billion in revenue from military pensions...Sequestration was written to be unpalatable to both Democrats and Republicans, yet the vast majority of those cuts are here to stay. The new budget deal only replaces one-third of sequestration's cuts for 2014 and 2015. So much for compromise.
MORE DETAIL AT LINK
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) were noticeably pleased with themselves when they announced their new budget deal at a press conference Tuesday evening. The 15-minute session was filled with compliments and bipartisan kumbayas for reaching such a sensible accord. "From the the outset," Ryan said, "we knew that if we forced each other to compromise a core principle we would get nowhere. That is why we decided to focus on where the common ground is." Murray backed that up, stressing that the two found success because they ditched ideological rigidity in favor of accommodation. "We have broken through the partisanship and the gridlock," Murray said, "and reached a bipartisan budget compromise that will prevent a government shutdown in January."
Compromise, compromise, compromise. It was the word of the day. Even President Barack Obama joined in on the hosannas. "This agreement doesnt include everything Id likeand I know many Republicans feel the same way," he said in a statement shortly after the deal was announced. "That's the nature of compromise."
Who doesn't like an agreement where each side gives a little to get something in return? That's the basic concept of negotiation that we all learn in kindergarten. The only trouble is our political class has a distorted sense of what constitutes a "compromise." The Washington Compromise lacks any relation to the actual policies being discussed. It's just a grade-school level formula you can plug into any scenario. Find the midpoint between two competing plans and you've found the centrist goal. The trouble is, not every starting point is created equally. It's a simplistic vision of politics, akin to the critics who think all political disagreements can be boiled down to winners and losers, or the persistent Green Lantern notion of presidential power that Obama could accomplish anything if he would just lead already.
According to Washington wisdom, the new budget meets the platonic ideal of a compromise since it slices everything neatly down the middle. Ryan's initial budget accepted sequestration's caps on military and domestic spending, which allocated $967 billion for 2014. Murray's budget ignored sequestration and slotted $1.058 trillion for 2014. The compromise? $1.012 trillion. In other words, the two elected officials and their staffs spent the past month figuring out how to add their numbers together and divide by two. Rather than discerning whether the country would be better off if either domestic programs or military spending were spared sequester's ax, the Ryan and Murray split it right down the middle. Fifty percent of the new spending goes to the military, 50 percent to domestic programs. Murray and Ryan used a similar logic for the revenue offsets included in the budget. Ryan got $6 billion in savings from federal employee pensions, so Murray had to get an equal $6 billion in revenue from military pensions...Sequestration was written to be unpalatable to both Democrats and Republicans, yet the vast majority of those cuts are here to stay. The new budget deal only replaces one-third of sequestration's cuts for 2014 and 2015. So much for compromise.
MORE DETAIL AT LINK
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
65 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
Five simple steps to financial freedom for women BY [i] Suzanne McGee and Alice Finn [/i]
Demeter
Dec 2013
#5
Hmmm. Jesuits... ¿Has the IMF also gone neo-Franciscan? ... A few recent snippets:
Ghost Dog
Dec 2013
#15
The New Advocates of Inequality want to take us back to the middle of the 19th century
Ghost Dog
Dec 2013
#45
Dent, Faber, Celente, Maloney, Rogers – What Do They Say Is Coming In 2014?
DemReadingDU
Dec 2013
#16
End of US quantitative easing at the beginning of 2014 at the latest (LEAP/E2020 May 2013)
Ghost Dog
Dec 2013
#29
No, the Budget Deal Isn't a "Compromise" (NOT AN EQUITABLE ONE, ANYWAY) By Patrick Caldwell
Demeter
Dec 2013
#26