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The President Surrenders Again: A Smashing Tea Party Victory?

August 01
06:39 2011
Andrew Leonard writes about Obama’s debt ceiling deal:

In the end, President Obama had to admit surrender. He tried to put a bold face on it, but there’s no other way to interpret his remarks to the nation announcing that Congressional leaders had cut a deal to raise the debt ceiling.
The details of the deal are stark: at least $2.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next two years, a two-stage approach to raising the debt ceiling, and a new committee to recommend further cuts to entitlement programs, along with huge automatic spending cuts if Congress fails to institute that plan. As described, the deal is a major victory for Republicans that will further embolden them over the next 18 months, and may mortally wound Obama’s chances of reelection.
The president told the nation that after ten years the United States would have “the lowest level of annual domestic spending since Dwight Eisenhower was President.” He said this as if it was something to be proud of. The truth is, we are a far different nation today than we were in the 1950s. We have millions more citizens, and are undergoing a major demographic shift as the Baby Boomer generation ages. With health care costs continuing to rise, the squeeze will be on. People will suffer.

You can feel the utter despair oozing out of Leonard’s assessment of the deal. He wraps up with:

All in all, the weekend’s events represent a smashing victory for the Tea Party and a crushing defeat for Democrats — and more of the same coming down the pike. But at least Congress will be able to recess on time next week. The deal — and the damage — is done. 

I remember the harsh reaction from “progressives” last December when Obama caved in to the Bush tax cuts, but I don’t remember such feelings of hopelessness coming from the left as I am seeing tonight. 

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