August 1, 2011

Obama's Big Payback to Wall Street

The Worst Deal in American History?

By MIKE WHITNEY

Is Obama's debt ceiling agreement the worst deal in US history?

Probably. But not for the reasons that are presently being discussed in the media. What makes the deal such an unmitigated disaster is that it strips congress of its Constitutional authority to control the nation's purse-strings. That authority will be handed over to a bipartisan committee that will decide how to slash $1.5 trillion from the budget in order to reduce the deficits. But, since the committee will be evenly comprised of Republicans and Democrats, there's bound to be disagreement about what programs should be cut. This is all by design, because if the committee is unable to decide where the cutbacks should be, then the decision will be made for them via an "enforcement mechanism" that will require across-the-board spending cuts.

Pretty sinister, eh? It's is a backdoor way of repealing Congress's primary authority while making austerity the default position of the US Government. Whenever in doubt, "Cut spending". Naturally, the GOP refused any agreement that would involve new taxes.


http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney0801201...