Dirty Secret Lurks in the Struggle Over a ‘Grand Bargain’
By JACKIE CALMES, NYT
WASHINGTON — The long-sought bipartisan “grand bargain” on the nation’s fiscal future is not going to happen this year, and probably not for the rest of President Obama’s term. There is the simple, familiar reason. And then there is the dirty secret.
The simple reason is evident in the all-but-moribund budget negotiations in Congress, where Republicans and Democrats agreed that they would not even try for a long-term deal to reduce the growth of debt in an aging nation. Republicans oppose further tax increases on the rich, as Democrats demand, so Democrats will not support major changes to Medicare and Social Security, as Republicans insist.
But the dirty secret — a phrase used independently, and privately, by people in both parties — is that neither side wants to take the actions it demands of the other to achieve a breakthrough.
That is, many Republicans are no more interested in voting to reduce Medicare and Social Security benefits than Democrats are, lest they threaten their party’s big advantage among the older voters who dominate the electorate in midterm contests like those in 2014.
(More here.)
WASHINGTON — The long-sought bipartisan “grand bargain” on the nation’s fiscal future is not going to happen this year, and probably not for the rest of President Obama’s term. There is the simple, familiar reason. And then there is the dirty secret.
The simple reason is evident in the all-but-moribund budget negotiations in Congress, where Republicans and Democrats agreed that they would not even try for a long-term deal to reduce the growth of debt in an aging nation. Republicans oppose further tax increases on the rich, as Democrats demand, so Democrats will not support major changes to Medicare and Social Security, as Republicans insist.
But the dirty secret — a phrase used independently, and privately, by people in both parties — is that neither side wants to take the actions it demands of the other to achieve a breakthrough.
That is, many Republicans are no more interested in voting to reduce Medicare and Social Security benefits than Democrats are, lest they threaten their party’s big advantage among the older voters who dominate the electorate in midterm contests like those in 2014.
(More here.)
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