"Requires baseline to be current law, making it impossible for Joint Committee to raise taxes"

From Speaker Boehner's powerpoint.

http://www.speaker.gov/UploadedFiles/3-7-31-11-Debt-Framework-Boehner.pdf

:puke:

Kill this deal now.

"implements spending caps to restrain future spending;"

"Would cut & cap discretionary spending immediately,"

"As in House-passed bill, framework imposes spending caps that
would set clear limits on future spending & serve as barrier
against gov’t expansion while economy grows"

Taxes will go up at the end of next year by a hefty amount.

There are spending reductions.

And, the probably implausible claim is that there'll be spending caps until the economy grows to fit the budget

It sounds, well, so '90s. Is there a new Green Day release soon? Maybe a newly discovered set of studio recordings, long thought lost, by Nirvana?

Then again, in the '90s the economy had to grow to cover a couple hundred billion dollars. Now it has to grow to cover a trillion. Instead of 4 years, we might well have to wait 20. These day's the country seems to think that even contemplating dinner plans for late Thursday is unreasonbly -term planning (it is Monday morning, after all) while trying to decide whether to have blueberry or regular maple syrup on the short stack of buckwheat pancakes already locked in for breakfast on November 19, 2020 is completely rational. After all, plans for later this week might actually happen, there's a chance we'll be held to them; but decisions about breakfast in November 2020 are ultimately meaningless. What's amusing--bemusing?--is when people like Krugman do the equivalent of lamenting over the incredible health effects the 2020 breakfast decision will have on our health by 2012 and is taken seriously by those who say they're experts in cause and effect.

Some of the other bits are drivel--the balanced budget amendment bogeyman that might not pass Congress but wouldn't get ratified (also tres '90s). (I know I've always been terrified of non-ratified Constitutional amendments. They fall into the printer, jam it, and then you have to dismantle the printer to get the jam removed.) The mechanism used for budget reductions is a responsibility-ducking kludge and likely to be of scant effect, making it the child of the '00s, however.

Seems like as valid a claim as, "The President can unilaterally increase borrowing because it's already been implied."

Air is fairly cheap. Sound reasoning seems rather rare.

provision will lead to cuts to SS and Medicare. On CNN.

She says that this provision will lead to cuts to SS and Medicare.

If she's not making that distinction, she needs to.

I have this feeling he's making it sound better than it is to the tea partiers for their support. Remember, they probably won't read it before they vote.

ROFL:

The only problem? Ezra Klein tweets that he doesn't think the presentation is completely accurate: "Boehner's powerpoint misstates the deal to his members. 1) The baseline is not specified in the bill, and does not prevent taxes. 2) Boehner suggests that deficit reduction or BBA has to pass for Prez to get second debt increase. Not so. McConnell mechanism."

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/07/31/how_boehner_is_selling_the_debt_deal.html


Boehner's powerpoint misstates the deal to his members. 1) The baseline is not specified in the bill, and does not prevent taxes. <1/2>

http://twitter.com/#!/ezraklein/status/97844094906273792

THAT'S what happens when you believe Republican LIARS.

OOOOOOPS.