@slkshock7,
On Wednesday, I wrote about what I see as a possible solution to the debt ceiling situation. "Cut, Cap and Bal." was a phrase being tossed out by some Repubs.
Cut spending, Cap the deficit at a % of GDP and work towards a constitutional amendment to Balance future budgets.
The sentiment here seemed to be that the Dems, Repubs and Tea Party leaders have painted themselves into different corners of a room.
I certainly never meant that I support the ideas. What I meant to say was that this kind of rhetoric might get us over the debt ceiling crisis.
I was reading today an article by Jonathon Adler at Bloomberg. There is a guy named David Walker. He was comptroller general under both Bush and Obama. He, no longer in government, is quietly serving as the invisible go between between the various players, trying to de-link the debt issue from all of the other stuff.
His proposals, which seem to be gaining some traction, include some immediate Cuts a the 2012-2013 fiscal year budget (beginning in Oct, 2011) - which all parties have probably agreed to be low hanging fruit. That would be followed by another $100Bn or so in cuts that parties have agreed to in principle but not in detail, along with a pledge to keep the 2o12-13 and beyond budgets at a % of GDP.
Finally, Walker is working on a "fail-safe" notion. If the deficit climbs over the % of GDP, there will be automatic triggers to cut spending and there would also be "revenue surcharges." That is a delightful euphemism for tax increases.
I said before that there is a dim light bulb going off in the heads of politicians that this debt ceiling limit thing is kind of like running with scissors.
The White House, today, upped the ante a bit by saying that the deadline is not August 2nd but more like July 22nd due to some logistical stuff. The House was scheduled to be on vacation that week and a Repub plan to introduce a balanced budget amendment to the constitution was scheduled for later that same week.
