"Total insanity"

I see David Brooks has left the policy arena and now entered the field of professional comedy--or, as Slate's Matthew Yglesias (who beat me to the post) frames it, "total insanity."

Brooks proposes that Congress pursue a really neat, super-duper-Gestalt kind of fiscal agreement next year, and "If a Grand Bargain is not reached by Dec. 15, 2013, then there would be automatic defense and entitlement cuts and automatic tax increases."

Again? Another year of arrested congressional development, culminating inevitably in yet another year-end reprieve from whatever dreaded adult consequences were threatened?--from which at any rate average Americans would suffer, and not the pols?

Well, it was worth a chuckle.

Comments

[Robert Lipscomb]

I am confounded as to why one aspect of the budget deficit negotiations goes unacknowldged anywhere. Obama's initial proposal is a hge concession - and no, not the medicare part.

For 32 years, it has been an article of faith that proposing to increase taxes, especially by a Democrat, is political suicide. Yet, there stands Obama proposing a $1.2 trillion increase in taxes and combines it with a a $0.4 tillion cut in expenditures - primarily in Medicare.

So, according to beltway orthodoxy, Obama has put his head on the chopping block. Go ask George H. W. Bush about that. Now, according to beltway orthodoxy, proposing a $1.2 trillion tax increase is NOTHING.

Of course, the pundits are partially correct. Obama is not risking much - now - because he ran and won his campaign on this issue.

The takeaway is that Reaganism is dead. Now, when Grover Norquist threatens anyone on this issue he reminds us of no one as much as Neville Chamberlain.

[Turgidson]

^ I think that's right. I also think that the GOP's ability to have it both ways has finally ended. They can't be the party of endless tax cuts AND the party of OH NO THE DEFICIT at the same time forever before even innumerate low-info voters start to go "hey....wait a minute!" And now their backs are against the wall and they can't let go of even a modest tax cut to the wealthy. Their true priorities, while obvious to the political junkies for decades, are in fuller relief than ever right now.

Also, David Brooks, as is his intellectually bankrupt custom, is trying to oh-so-reasonably propose something that exponentially strengthens the GOP's negotiating hand over the longer term. He knows, though he can't say it out loud, that the GOP earned the privilege of getting rolled in these negotiations on November 6. But he can't let that happen without doing his part to help them weasel out of it. David Brooks - once more smearing some lipstick and rouge on the GOP pig and expecting applause for his level-headedness. He can cram it up his ass.

[Chris Andersen]

How about we just put aside this puerile dreaming of "grand bargains" and just legislate?

[Peter G]

That was pretty amazing. Brooks outlines a desirable strategy for restoring the fortunes of the Republicans without ever considering for a nanosecond why the Democrats would hand them this gift. All they really want is to be well liked but can offer no reason why anyone should.

[Peter G]

Any boy scouts in the audience might remember this little ditty

Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Mutilated monkey meat
Hairy pickled piggy feet
French fried eyeballs floating in some kerosene
And me without a spoon.

Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Scab sandwich, puss on top
Vulture vomit, camel snot
Deep dish boogers soaking in a bowl of fat
And me without a spoon.

Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Parrot eyeballs dipped in glue
Petrified porpoise puss
Flaming ear wax bobbing in a bowl of barf
And me without a spoon.

Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Dessicated dinosaur dung
Percollated pelican poop
Tortoise turd balls with the little flies inside
And me without a spoon.

Oddly enough it is the recipe for creating a fiscal cliff meal that the other guy has to eat. And remember, only add to the stew what you would yourself enjoy eating. Do not forget to double dog dare yourself.

[Janicket]

Great stuff, Peter G. The version I learned as a child, lo! these many years ago:

Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Mutilated monkey meat
Perforated piggies' feet
A one-quart jar of all-purpose porpoise pus
Floating in my lemonade
And me without my spoon

Ah, the classics! Subject to regional variations but in essence always enduring.

[Maribeth]

Pittsburgh PA version:
Great big globs of greasy grimey gopher guts
Mutilated monkey meat
Little dirty birdie feet
Piles and piles of prehistoric porpoise pus
And me without my spoon
But I brought my straw! :)

[Peter G]

All wonderful recipes. If however your stomach is a little queasy let the other guy make the stew and eat it. Frankly I do not understand Brook's logic. Why the hell bother to create a still more repugnant recipe or fiscal cliff stew that's worse than the meal before you. To buy time you don't need but they do?