What can I say that hasn’t already been over-hyped ad nausea? This was a bad deal, one I suppose was necessitated by the alternative, a much worse deal, and I’m not referring to the “over the cliff” alternative. And the final insult was the load of crony capitalist corporate welfare tacked on. But whoever thinks the next showdown won’t be many times worse is not paying attention. We are dealing with a President who is totally committed not merely to win, but to break his opponents and force the financing of his notion of “cosmic fairness” on the next generation. He cannot be trusted to deal in good faith, has no intention of seriously reducing spending or the size and role of government, and his style of negotiating is not to negotiate at all. So what should be the Republican response to that for the crisis on the debt ceiling? The government cannot be managed from the House of Representatives. So go look up the definition of intransigence; I can’t think of a better strategy. This is going to get very ugly.
