Looks like there is a deal.

[BigSkyBob]

Boehner is denying it. I don't see how anything that can get through the Senate can get through the House. Too many nutters.

Yes, the Senate is full of Senators exhibiting clinical denial concerning the fact that deficits and debt cannot continue to grow expodentially without some day of reckoning.

[BigSkyBob]

Boehner is denying it. I don't see how anything that can get through the Senate can get through the House. Too many nutters.

The centers of both parties.  GOP loses 60 votes in the House and gains 30 Democrats.  The Democrats lose 20 votes in the Senate and gain 15 Republicans.

The parties don't have close to enough centrists. Even in your example. House GOP has 240 members. Minus 60 would be 180. Plus 30 Dems would only be 210. The Senate Dems have 53 members if you count indies. Minus 20 is 33. Plus 15 is only 48. Fail.

Gerrymandering is what created this extremism. 

No, the financial arms race in which candidates spend ever increasing amount of time raising ever growing amounts of money has created a situation in which Democrats can't say "No!," to trial lawyers and labor unions, while Republican members are equally beholden to another series of financial contributors.

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[BigSkyBob]

Boehner is denying it. I don't see how anything that can get through the Senate can get through the House. Too many nutters.

Yes, the Senate is full of Senators exhibiting clinical denial concerning the fact that deficits and debt cannot continue to grow exponentially without some day of reckoning.

Yes.  But is it really today?

As I wrote numerous times before, it ends one of two ways, we choose austerity at a debt level that is manageable, or we can ride it out to the bitter end, Then,  austerity will be chosen for us, and, we will have a  crushing debt burden. The former option is orders of magnitude better, but,  it requires politicians to make hard choices today.

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Oh, after the Greek's bailout [de facto default?] it was inevitable that every nation's book were seriously reviewed.

[BigSkyBob]

The market is not reacting well to this. 

Then again, the fact that the ISM tanked last month was announced this morning. Even if we have a debt ceiling increase deal that ends uncertainty in the short run, in the long run we still have Obama as the steward of our economy. Ouch!