Alternative Visions - The Coming Deal Ceiling Deal 2.0 - 10/16/13

Dr. Jack Rasmus focuses on the latest debt ceiling-government shutdown negotiations in Washington, and his prediction of the past weeks that a deal would be reached. That deal appears will occur today, October 16, 2013—at least the first phase. The real negotiations now begin, Rasmus predicts, involving trading off major spending cuts targeting social security and medicare—plus more corporate tax cuts in the pending ‘Tax Code Overhaul’ bill moving through the US House—for a still longer term debt ceiling and government budget agreement that will all occur early next year.  Dr. Rasmus explains how Obamacare was never a real issue in the negotiations, and how the real strategy was deficit cuts for debt ceiling. Also explained is how the current settlement is a repeat of the August 2011 debt ceiling 1.0 agreement, cutting spending by $1 trillion, and the 2012 fiscal cliff settlement cutting spending by another $1.2 trillion (the sequester) along with $4 trillion in permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts.  It represents what Dr. Rasmus calls the ‘Well Orchestrated Dance’ (2.0) between the two wings of the ruling capitalist party. (see Dr. Rasmus’s blog, jackrasmus.com, for prior articles on the fiscal cliff of December 2012 and debt ceiling 1.0 deal of August 2011).