It appears that our elected officials have managed to agree that it is a good thing if the government keeps functioning and that it would be a bad thing if the entire world economy were to melt down. You have to give them credit.​​

"We successfully secured equal increases in funding defense and non-defense priorities," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. "We have extended the solvency of Social Security Disability Insurance and protected millions of seniors from a significant increase in their Medicare Part B premiums and deductibles next year. Most importantly, we have affirmed that the full faith and credit of the United States is non-negotiable and inviolable."
​In other words—we've managed to keep the crazies at bay for a couple of years, and none of this will come up again to make the presidential candidates uncomfortable, and please don't stab us all, Dr. Bennie (The Blade) Carson. All American politicians now exist under the threat that Dr. Bennie The Blade will show up and slaughter them all. This is such a great election.

...

​If there were a substantial Democratic equivalent to this, there might be an equal amount of hell raised over the deal's finagling with the Social Security disability trust fund, which has been a target for conservative mendacity and vandalism for almost 30 years. (See, again, the story of Marcus Stephens.) I get a little nervous when I hear Nancy Pelosi talk about "extending the solvency" of the trust fund, because that's exactly the phrase Republicans use when they're talking about privatizing Social Security as a whole. And, while I understand the urgency of getting this deal done, it's hard for me to see the "reforms" of this aspect of Social Security as anything more than a sign that the whole program might be open for business at some later date, particularly if the flying monkeys in the House push new Speaker Paul Ryan in the direction in which Ryan has been dying to go for his entire public career. This is worth keeping an eye on.

And it's important to remember that the SSDI trust fund is still facing a shortfall because the Republicans, who have wanted to wreck the program almost from jump, refused to countenance the president's proposal to replenish the fund by increasing the contribution to it provided by the payroll tax that finances Social Security generally.

...

In other words, according to Luke Russert, this deal helps the Republicans to avoid committing suicide by killing the nation's economy. (The latter consideration does not appear to have entered Russert's mind.) And the Democrats get to avoid being blamed for some other consequences of Republican hooliganism, so everybody wins. The story is not that the nation's economic policy continues to be driven by the fear that a claque of conservative loons will burn the economy down. The story is…both sides! Winning!

All around the country, the parents of handicapped children on SSDI are terrified. They are waiting for letters in the mail that they dare not open. In Washington, though, there's a "deal" that might even pass the Congress. So it's all good.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a39193/budget-deal-celebrations/