Courtesy of Mish.
Today, I sing in glorious praise of unhappiness. Lest you think I lost my mind, first consider an Op-Ed in The Hill by life-long friend David Wise. He writes on Ending the Budget Wars.
For the second time in two years the U.S. has stepped back from the precipice of default.
In January, absent agreement to the contrary, a second sequestration will go in effect and on February 7, 2014 the nation would face yet another debt ceiling crisis. The inability of the so-called supercommittee to reach a compromise when given a similar task in 2011 is enough reason for pessimism.
A long-term solution requires that no one come into the talks with preconditions and that everything be on the table. One sign that a successful accord has been reached is that no one walk away from the table completely happy. It is necessary. The time has come.
Common and Uncommon Ground
I am not in complete agreement with everything my life-long friend says. For starters, I disagree with his stance that a default would have been catastrophic.
That’s a moot point however, and cannot be proven either way because the precipice was essentially an illusion. We may have been on the edge, but there was approximately a zero percent chance of falling off.
Those small differences aside, I wholeheartedly agree with the three key ideas in Wise’s article.
- We need to fix the budget problem
- Everything should be on the table
- No one should walk away completely happy
Compromise Misery Needed
In regards to point number 3, Wise did not go far enough. I propose what’s needed is for Democrats and Republicans alike to both walk away from the table, not only unhappy, but downright miserable. Here are my proposals for mutual misery.
Democrat Misery
- Huge reductions in entitlement spending
- End collective bargaining of public unions
- Scrap Davis Bacon and all prevailing wage laws
- Increase Social Security Retirement Age
- Food Stamp Reform along the lines I suggested in Treasury Secretary Pleads for Higher Taxes, More Government Spending, Big Farm Bill, No Cuts in Food Stamps
- Stop disability fraud&
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