Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell have reached an agreement to reopen the government and avert a US
default on its debt by extending the government's authority to borrow into next
year. Since the first rumors surfaced of the agreement, the Dow Jones has surged
200 points.
Congress still has to act, which should press alarm bells,
but most people seem to believe that it will, including Warren Buffet, speaking
to CNN's Poppy Harlow. He also said "the first thing that should be done
after it passes is for both sides to say 'we will not use the debt limit as a
weapon any more'. In fact," he continued, "we should get rid of it
entirely." He added that it was wrong to put the American people through
unnecessary worry as Congress has been doing lately. "It almost becomes a
game...it's beneath the level of our Congress" he said. When Poppy asked
him if this, being a short term deal, would harm business, he said it wouldn't
if both parties promised not to use the debt ceiling, which was as much as he
was prepared to say on that subject.
He didn’t need to say that only one side has been using the
debt ceiling as a weapon. So for now a global crisis is close to being
averted one more time. Most importantly, Obama's line in the sand wasn't
breached. This deal has conceded nothing to Republicans. They played a dirty
game for the second time, gambled and lost for the second time. Will Congress change, will it learn its lesson? Not likely.
The Press Secretary, speaking at a press conference at the White House, when
asked if the agreement reached in the Senate was a win for the President, a
vindication, replied that there were no winners, stressing the point that Obama
didn’t stand his ground as a strategy in a game that he hoped to win.
There was a winner, though. Sanity. Sanity came out on top.
And the biggest loser? A Tea Party that didn’t
after all manage to herald in a new world order or spark off any great social
movement of change other than that of stirring up scorn for a Speaker
who let them get out of control; inflaming anger against Congress that has blocked
progress for almost 5 years; and nurturing repugnance for themselves as a party and for
the individuals like Ted Cruz whose hearts are filled with a lust for power, whose
heads are filled with sawdust it appears, but who are well and truly whipped.
