Debt Deal Signed, Sealed and Delivered

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “House Passes Deal to Raise Debt Cap and Defuse Crisis,” describes the new debt deal compromise and its passage in the House of Representatives by a 269-to-161 vote. Democrats delayed voting, and the bill seemed stuck at 20 votes short with two minutes to go when Representative Gabrielle Giffords, recovered from an assassination attempt, appeared on the floor to vote for it. To thunderous applause, she seemed to “melt away” the rancor of the past weeks and give a renewed sense of hope.

Somehow, some way, our nation has pulled through once again. The institutions founded so many years ago, derided as dysfunctional over the past few weeks, nevertheless delivered. The deal provides for $2.1 trillion in spending cuts, a raise of the debt ceiling through the next election, and the creation of a joint select committee of 12 bipartisan members of the House and Senate, evenly split, to determine further deficit reductions. If the select committee is unable to agree, automatic triggers will cause painful cuts for both parties, to Medicare for the Democrats, and to the security budget for Republicans.

As the saying goes, democracy is the worst form of government, except for every other one. While the public initially might deride the “sausage making,” in the end, the sausage was completed.