by Smitty
In this sense, we mean:
Progressive flooding is the additional flooding of spaces which were not previously assumed to be damaged. Such additional flooding may occur through openings or pipes as indicated. . .
Ezra, the Juice Box Mafioso and Senate Democrat Briefer, outdoes himself in today’s exercise in Not Getting It. Or maybe he does, and just phones in today’s attempt to flog the Republican wing of the sinking ship’s bridge.
Klein offers up two paragraphs of context for his point, that the GOP has a ‘dual trigger nightmare’, before touching on the Blame Bush theme in para 3. Para 4 gives us:
So now there are two triggers. One is an extremely progressive spending trigger worth $1.2 trillion that goes off on January 1, 2013. The other is an extremely progressive tax trigger worth $3.8 trillion that goes off on…January 1, 2013. If you count reduced interest payments, the two policies alone would reduce future deficits by about $6 trillion. That’s far more than anything the supercommittee came close to discussing. It’s distributed far more progressively than anything the Democrats have even considered proposing. And all that needs to happen for it to pass is, well, nothing.
Congress has been doing nothing like its job since 2008, Ezra. It’s not even worth worrying whether the ship of state has been on the current course as a diabolical plot or due to incompetence: she’s stacked up on a sea mount and sinking. The Stupor Committee was dead on arrival this Spring; the only real improvement is that we can now chuck the corpses overboard an allusion to The Camp of the Saints. Further along:
So the GOP is not without options. But the Democrats are in the driver’s seat. Gridlock means a deficit deal that they could never have imagined getting any other way. Basic negotiating theory would suggest that whatever the Republicans offer them must somehow be better even than that. And yet, that’s not how either party is acting. Republicans don’t seem particularly worried about the triggers and Democrats don’t seem particularly interested in pressing their advantage. At least for now.
Basic negotiating theory would be predicated on having something to negotiate about. The stock market is capsizing, the economy is parked on the sea bottom, and you want to discuss the finer points of negotiation? Congresscritters have eleven more months before the next election. Look for them to be more worried about stock scandals and inflating their rubber duckies.
You want to know what Congress is going to do about tax reform, Ezra? No more than it already has. The Constitution, that ancient document you don’t think anyone understands, has performed its essential task of slowing tyranny, with a restraining order in 2010. And we’re less than a year from another round of help arriving. With some more exceptional, patriotic American effort, we can (a) remove you and your ilk to a safer distance from the controls and (b) set about doing useful damage control. Eventually, we’ll float ‘er again and get back on our proper course toward liberty.
But thanks, Ezra. It’s always a source of an inspirational pep talk to peer into your twisted little mind. You always seem to be the guy who thinks himself too smart, knowing all of these Important People, and standing too close to the problem. In short, Ezra, your column might be better titled ‘Wankbook’.
Update: welcome, Instapundit readers!
