Serious about the deficit? You can't be serious!

So the Democrats and the Republicans in Washington DC have a deal. The Democrats get to extend unemployment benefits. The Republicans get to keep the tax break for very rich people. All of this is in order to preserve tax breaks for the middle class.

All of this coming a week or so after the the blue ribbon deficit commission provided guidelines for cutting the deficit. In a stroke, the politicians have rejected any action on the commission's proposals and simultaneously increased the deficit by as much as the commission sought to reduce it for the first few years.

Yet they say that the very fact that the commission gave everybody the stark news means that people will see that soon, real soon, we need to do something.

Right. Sure. You betcha.