Obama comes out the winner, if only because the debt ceiling is now off the table until after the next election.
For all the screaming and gnashing of teeth and referring to smaller government types as terrorists, the compromise bill is nothing of the sort - the Republicans caved. There will be NO substantive cuts in either discretionary or entitlement spending over the next ten years.
For anyone who sees it otherwise, I have a simple bet: At the end of 2010, federal debt held by the public was $9,395,411,000,000 and GDP was $14,755,000,000,000. This is a debt-to-gdp ratio of 63.7%. (We'll only consider debt held by the public.) I am willing to wager $100 that the debt held by the public exceeds 60% of gdp at the end of 2020, the particulars to be worked out later.
Like George Kennedy says of Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, "Nothin'. He beat you with a hand full of nothin'." The Republicans folded and lost to a hand full of nothin'.
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