The budget deal that President Obama will soon be signing is in fact so old-fashioned that the Republicans are apologizing for it, claiming that either 1) they’re going to get their pound of flesh before raising the debt ceiling next year (probably sometime in March, depending on Uncle Sam’s cash flow) or 2) they’re just clearing the decks so they can pound the shit out of Obamacare 24/7 until the big showdown next November.*
The first threat is ridiculous. They’ll certainly try to make good on the second, but if the Administration gets a break (which it scarcely deserves), the latest court challenges to the ACA will fail and whole system will be reasonably functional, and (most important) the economy will be creeping back to “normal,” which we haven’t seen for a good five years now.
The Republicans are posturing because, for the time being, the Tea Party spirit, if not their gay apparel, has largely disappeared. People worry about the deficit when times are hard. Times are no longer hard, at least for the middle class. If you’re actually poor, it’s a different matter, but poor folks aren’t the ones walking around in three-corner hats.
What Democrats and Republicans agreed to was an old-fashioned budget—a little pinched in places, particularly with regard to the long-term unemployed—but recognizable. Republicans were so desperate to deal that they even swallowed tax increases, which is something that (of course) they said they would never do. They’re afraid that if people actually look at this “business as usual” budget they’ll think it’s a complete repudiation of all the Tea Party movement has stood for, which of course it is.
The president is no doubt happy to buy the support of both “defense” Republicans and the Defense Department itself by blowing past the (minimal) limitations sequestration was putting on defense spending. The military, enduring maximal anguish at the prospect of the sequestration, now only has to endure moderate anguish over the prospect of having to deal with level funding instead of the constantly escalating budgets they’ve grown accustomed to.
*And what’s the deal with that kid in pajamas? I mean, what is this, health care for homos?
