A Midsummer Nightmare Is Over

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe needless melodrama that had the nation and much of the world on edge came to an unsatisfying end Tuesday, with President Barack Obama signing legislation that would keep the United States solvent until 2013.  That's just a few hours before the nation would have gone into default.

Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats were happy with what finally went into the bill that passed through Congress, which was hammered out in a deal between the President, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), and Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada).  But that's why they call it a compromise, something that hasn't been seen much in Washington lately.  Here are the highlights:

• The debt ceiling would be raised to at least $2 trillion.
• No new taxes or revenue streams.
• A so-called Congressional "super committee" of six Democrats and six Republicans would have until Thanksgiving to come up with a bill that would cut another $1.5 trillion over the next decade.  If the committee doesn't come up with a bill, or if Congress rejects it before the end of the year, then spending cuts would automatically go into effect.  Everything from the military to Medicare and Social Security would go under the knife.

Stop us if you've heard this before, but . . . Both the Republicans and Democrats in Congress have earned the nation's scorn for the way they have acted during this drawn-out debate.  But the GOP and their Tea Party pals deserve special mention for mastering the art of being spoiled brats--name calling, pouting, and threatening to turn blue in the face--because it gets them what they want.  They succeeded in making Obama and the Democrats look like clueless parents from a 1950s TV sitcom.

The Democrats aren't off the hook, however.  As the House was voting on the debt bill Monday, who should show up but Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, interrupting her rehabilitation long enough to cast her vote to approve the ceiling.  Giffords may be on the mend after being shot outside a Tucson shopping mall last January.  But this was a cheap political stunt that detracted attention and made Giffords the story, not the vote itself.

Even with the debt ceiling raised, there's no guarantee that the United States won't lose its AAA bond rating, or that the economy will improve any time soon.  It won't bring people jobs or increase their purchasing power.  And the cost of education and infrastructure won't get any lower.

It would be nice to say that civility has returned to Washington, but that would be naive and old-fashioned.  Before you know it, it'll be election time once again, with the two parties resuming their childish ways--safe in the knowledge that by November 2012 voters will forget what happened in the Summer of '11 and reward the incumbents with another term.  Oh yes, and that pesky debt ceiling will need to be raised again.