This is no way to govern.

[Swede Atlanta]

10. Completely agree....

First of all the House has yet to vote on this "deal" and, after a night of boozing it up, I suspect many of the most rabid members of the Teabagger thuggery may be more than happy to "tempt" the tiger by refusing to vote yes. I hope not but it would not surprise me at all.

Second, those of us that are wage earners (not getting our income from capital gains, etc.) will have an additional 2% taken out of each paycheck. Granted this was a temporary reduction in order to spur consumption but it nevertheless will result in less income in the pockets of the majority of consumers.

I haven't seen any analysis but I seriously doubt the additional revenue, had the threshold be set at $250K versus $400K, would have really made much of a difference.

The real problem we have is this is just the beginning of the hostage taking. The next fights will come over spending cuts with the GOP fully intending to gut SS, Medicare, Medicaid, Education, etc. as much as possible in order to save the investment the financial services and arms dealers have made in buying Congress.

I fully expect Obama will once again accommodate them and we will see real benefits to the social safety net and real investment in education and infrastructure fall with little to no reductions for the military-industrial complex.

Then the debt ceiling will hit. The GOP likes to tell the American people they won't agree to raising the debt ceiling unless spending is cut (never any discussion about raising revenues) despite the fact the debt ceiling has nothing to do with FUTURE spending but is needed to borrow to fund PAST spending. If they want to hold the line on spending then do it with respect to FUTURE spending but don't raise the cost of borrowing for the country by playing games with the debt ceiling.

I am not optimistic. I think many in the GOP, egged on by the tea baggers, see demographics changing and do understand their party is in free fall. Given that I don't think they much care if they take the country down with them. They are that full of hate and loathing for this country and its people. The only things they care about are their own personal finances and the well-being of their corporate suitors.