Fiscal Cliff, part II coming to Washington in a few months

I cleaned out the trunk of my car a few days ago and found an old Wall Street Journal dated July 7, 2011. I glanced at it and noticed an article about deficit reduction talks. I read the same phrases used in the article as we all heard over the past few days.  Senator McConnell, the “architect” of the soon to be H.R. 8 bill passed last night in the House of Representatives, talked about doing a small deal, with a larger debt reduction bill later. President Obama talked about politicians putting their dogma aside. The quotes went on and on.

It made me believe that our Washington elite just recycle their speeches. It’s certainly easier than writing new ones.

In any instance, the real battle has begun. We are officially unable to borrow more money as the debt ceiling was magically reached on December 31st, while the Treasury department will use smoke and mirrors accounting to delay the “real” ceiling until February or March, about a month after Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary will have resigned and laughing all the way to the bank. He will blame the new Secretary for the debt ceiling debacle as it will be on his watch, not Geithner’s.

The idea of the Faustian bargain struck in the passing of H.R. 8 last night, that included over $60 billion of special interest tax breaks, the equivalent of pork barrel spending, was to provide the standard tax reductions for the public, but put off the enforced budget cuts for two months. It maybe Speaker John Boehner’s swan song as he is up for his “leadership” election on January 3rd, and actually voted Yes on this bill.

I think that many representatives knew that the bill would easily pass, so although were for it, they still voted No as the record would reflect a No vote, while the representative would quietly be happy with the bill’s passage. It’s all gamesmanship, to help create a better reelection campaign in two years.

The voting record is fact; the reasons for voting certain ways are unknown until the representative explains it when they have a historical perspective. It’s a tactic used to line up “reelect me” speaking points during the next election cycle.

So we’ll see what happens. The Republicans and Democrats will be at each other’s throats for the combined budget cut arguments and raising the debt ceiling. The Republicans will cave again as they blinked first. They’ll almost certainly blink again.

As President Obama knows that the Republicans will cave in, he’ll get both a higher budget ceiling and minimal cuts in spending. In reality, deficit spending will increase.

What else is new? As I’ve said before during my campaign, you will never get a term limits amendment passed, but you can and should eliminate congressional pensions if they don’t voluntarily leave after eight years (twelve for senators) of feeding at the public trough.

The spending binge will continue. The end is in sight.