What's So Grand About the Obama Debt Ceiling Plan?

Donna Brazile—former head of the Democratic National Committee and ardent supporter of President Barack Obama—has said it best:

"What's so grand about cutting the social safety net, eliminating children's health programs, firing teachers and firefighters?” she tweeted on Thursday. "That's cowardly." 

When news broke about a possible deal between House Speaker John Boehner and the president that allegedly included changes and cuts to Medicare and Social Security without any increases in “revenues” (read taxes), the Democrats, according to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) went “volcanic,” according to a Los Angeles Times report.

No kidding. Why wouldn’t they? Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi staked her comeback to the speakership on promises that there would be no cuts to Medicare.

Other Democrats promised the same about Social Security. One thing Democrats do know is how many seniors vote. Without them, they lose elections—as well as the powerful electoral swing state of Florida.  (Remember the hanging chads of the Al Gore/Bush W. election)?

Not just Democrats are worried. Members of the Tea Party worry about “grand bargains,” too. They smell a replay out of the health care handbook.

They recall the “crisis” that came out of nowhere. Followed by months of dire predictions, a must-have deadline, the anonymous leaks, the nonstop alarms from cable and Internet news, the fundraising by both sides (known as the shakedowns in political circles) and then the last minute “grand deal” of over 2,000 pages in legislative legal speak that no one read or even understood—except the lobbyists.

And then, biggest stealth giveaway of all: the more than 1,000 “exemptions” to that health care bill. These favored large and small companies (read political donors) and even an entire state—Maine—which was exempted because its Republican senator provided a crucial vote for the final bill.

In short, the health care “grand bargain” of Obama’s first year remains the guidebook for the current debt ceiling “grand bargain” this year.

The script goes as follows:

• Imminent crisis (out of nowhere).
• Vitriolic debate.
• Leaks from anonymous sources.
• Fundraising off the divide.
• Forced deadlines.
• Cliffhanging and breathless news conferences.
• Loads of small print in a very large legal/legislative document that is passed at the last minute.
• Hidden details that appall everyone except the lobbyists.

Watch for the most egregious betrayals to be hidden in the footnotes of the last-minute bargain. Just as Big Pharma and the insurance industry won giant concessions in the small print of the health care bill, so too will there be huge hidden winners in the small print of the “grand bargain” of the debt-ceiling bill.

Also, look for the results to be called “unprecedented.”

That is why Speaker Boehner is smiling and sending all his House members home for the weekend. The deal is done.

And that is why Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski described her colleagues’ reactions to the proposed “grand bargain” as “volcanic.”

Other Democratic political analysts are warning of a “tax free” holiday for major multinationals that will be hidden in the last-minute add-ons to the debt ceiling deal.

As Matt Taibbi recently fumed in Rolling Stone magazine, “Where’s the uproar?

“We’re seriously talking about defaulting on our debt, and cutting Medicare and Social Security, so that Google can keep paying its current 2.4 percent effective tax rate and GE, a company that received a $140 billion bailout en route to worldwide 2010 profits of $14 billion, can not only keep paying no taxes at all, but receive a $3.2 billion tax credit from the federal government. And nobody appears to give a [s--t]. What the hell is wrong with people? Have we all lost our minds?”

A sane observer might ask why there is no Alternative Minimum Tax applied to multinationals. It applies to everyone else. Why a tax-free holiday? Aren’t we all supposed to share the pain?

There is one way to derail this second “grand bargain.”

Both the Tea Party and the Pelosi Democrats need to hold hands and withhold their votes. Obama and Boehner need 218 votes to pass their bill. 

Pelosi and the Tea Party control at least that many. Should they stand pat, they both win for their constituencies, and live to fight another day.

Too frightening a prospect for the Establishment.