Never thought I'd see the day, much less that it would be the 42nd anniversary of the first Moon landing, but nothing better symbolizes the effects of current DC debt/deficit negotiations than ending Americas space program on this of all days. For those unaware, Obama and Boehner are reportedly making great progress on a deal that, despite being touted as an alternative, is actually just another version of <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/60355190/Conrad-Budget-Executive-Summary">this</a>. It's best summarized thus:

Cut everything, including personal and corporate income taxes, whose ceiling would fall from 38% and 35% to 29%. The plan claims that last part "would find net tax relief of approximately $1.5 trillion" AND "provide $1 trillion in additional revenue". That's right, folks, we're going to simultaneously cut AND RAISE taxes, by $1.5 trillion and $1 trillion respectively, to end the deficit. Oh, and the AMT will finally be abolished completely, along with the $1.7 trillion in revenue it would otherwise provide. It's the old Alice in Wonderland approach to deficit reduction: "We'll grow our way out of debt" (which the plan warmly embraces by expecting tax cuts to cause an economic boom like they DIDN'T in 2001, increasing total tax revenue by taxing much more income at a reduced rate). Yet even in that mathematically and logically challenged environment, simultaneously claiming a trillion and a half dollars in tax "relief" AND a tax "revenue" rise of a trillion more is contradictory. Whether or not the percentage of income paid changes, corporations and ACTUAL will either pay less OR more total dollars, not BOTH.

However, this allows both sides to save face as long as no one looks at the numbers; Obama and Democrats can truthfully say they got Republicans to concede on removing tax loopholes, and Republicans can just as truthfully say they made massive spending cuts, not only without a tax hike, but with a five percent tax CUT tacked on for good measure. The deficit will be largely unaffected despite required projected debt reductions that will be manipulated until met because, though represented as the plans GOAL, they're really just the MEANS of achieving tax and spending cuts. Congress and the White House will know the score even if no else does: Obama will once again accept all GOP demands, plus a few even the most radical Republicans never sought, let alone expected. In exchange he will get nothing--except the blame next year when this dogs dinner of a "deal" (read: capitulation) worsens the very problem it purports to solve (think "Obamacare" ). The GOP will run out the clock on the last year of his presidency and, honestly, it'll be a small loss.

I took Obama over Hillary because I didn't want another Republican Lite "Democrat" like Bill, proposing and enacting Republican policy as fast as humanly possible. Obama has just been two servings of Republican Lite; once again, he seeks to sell out the left who elected him to gain conservative approval he'll never get, while declaring a short term victory so hollow it will ultimately lower his approval rating by double digits. That was bad enough when he was in the high sixties after election, but now that he's in the high forties it will cost him re-election. Given the <a href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/07/20/7119867-first-thoughts-disconnect">large public majority who supports spending cuts, tax loophole closure and modest tax increases</a>, and the <a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/07/abc-news-poll-advantage-on-aiding-the-middle-class-helps-keep-obamas-approval-afloat.html">majority who sees the GOP as the tool of a selfish Wall Street</a>, perhaps that's only right. Even tax hating, spending crazed ideologues like Grover Norquist recognize reality enough to accept <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/out-from-under-the-anti-tax-pledge/2011/07/20/gIQAoudbQI_story.html">some form of tax hike</a>, but Obama's offering a tax cut that will exacerbate the debt and please no one but those dedicated to his political demise. As when healthy majorities supported universal healthcare and elected Obama on his promise to provide it, the public says it has HIS back, but is increasingly angry he doesn't have theirs. The Clintons "third way" has reduced Democrats to the moderate wing of the Republican Party, thus eliminating any alternative to it and incidentally forcing a GOP that positions itself right of Dems VERY far right.

Well. Massive giveaways of much needed federal revenue didn't end the Depression when Hoover proposed it as "trickle down economics". When Bush 41 called it "voodoo economics" fifty years later it still didn't work, merely turned a trillion dollar federal debt into four trillion (i.e. our debt increased 300% in a decade). It STILL didn't work when his son proposed it to "stimulate" what had until then been the longest strongest economic boom in US history. Even if Republican House and Senate leaders "grudingly accept" Obamas current proposals it will continue its unbroken record of not working against either the decade long recession it caused or our crippling deficits. We'll get a capitulation that cuts spending and taxes while paying lip service to debt reduction it CAN'T accomplish.

Our debt IS too high already, but this "deal" won't change that. One major accounting firm had already downgraded the nations credit solely based on the SIZE of debt even before another recently did so based on fears we'd default on that debt by not raising its limit. If we don't raise the debt ceiling our credit tanks, but if our debt continues rising our credit also tanks; this "deal" will solve the former problem by ignoring the latter, and thus not really "solve" any problem. We've finally realized charging VISA for the rent and cable bill won't work anymore, so we're cutting off the cable to let us quit our job and spend more time playing the lottery--while we keep charging the rent. The only justice is that by yet again giving the Republicans everything in exchange for nothing Obama would ensure his defeat next year, and that the billions hoarded by GOP underwriters will be worthless when the economy and nation collapse. "Best" of all, the disturbing number of people (even among those I know) eager to see America become Somalia will have to cancel their dance on our grave when China takes our place and reminds them what a REAL merciless jackbooted empire is like. In the interim Americas leaders--ALL of them, it seems--will continue indulging the fantasy we're just one tax cut from utopia even when the public knows from experience how ludicrous that is. It will break us; America's not dead, but we're about to go into what's known in sports as "rebuilding mode". Here's hoping Americas next generation of leaders are a lot wiser than this one and can restore our greatness and leadership. When a China lacking the concept of "a kinder and gentler nation" assumes our dominant global position, they'll have to do just that (and for the first time in two centuries the rest of the world won't be able to let America and/or Britain do all the heavy lifting).