The Sky Is Falling

Tim "Chicken Little" Geithner made the rounds today to proclaim that there must be an agreement on the debt ceiling by next week.  Lately, Timmy has been the "bad cop" to Obama's "conciliatory and compromise-seeking good cop."  Timmy Little insists we are doomed...DOOMED...unless we do something quickly.

Timmy says that "failure is not an option."  Presumably, upon uttering those words, Timmy's pants got a little tighter.  Other than that, I fail to see any effect.  Failure may not be an "option" (though it is) but it certainly becoming a well-recognized result of the Obama administration's economic plans.  Perhaps we are getting a little too accustomed to failure.

In a surprise turn, Timmy suggests that next week is the deadline, because Congress will need time to draft the legislation.  Amazing.  Is it possible that the Democrats have learned from prior mistakes and actually see the wisdom in not crafting hurried legislation out the door?  Or have they switched and believe that it's better to hasten the decision-making process so they have more time to alter a deal made under duress?  Here's an idea: stop following leaders who politicize everything and can't look far enough down the road before it's too late.  Suddenly this issue is all about eating peas, sticking it to fat-cat jet plane owners and best-selling authors instead of asking Harry Reid where the damn budget has been for the past 2 years.

Finally, Timbo adds this:

Geithner also said that any deal to cut deficits would have to be good for U.S. economic growth and would have to include some increased tax burden for the wealthy.

"The president has proposed some very sensible tax reforms that would eliminate loopholes and ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a modest additional share of the burden,"

 First - why exactly?  Oh, right, because this is a crisis that can be turned into a political opportunity to redistribute wealth.  To be clear, Obama wants the people who already pay the most in taxes to pay more so that the people who pay nothing can continue to receive the same amount of entitlements that they currently do.  I am interested in which economists not named Paul Krugman believe that increasing taxes during a recession and economic growth are not mutually exclusive.  At one point in time, even Obama claimed that raising taxes during a recession was a bad idea and would not help the economy. 

Once again, when can we get some adults in there?