provided by Atrios - "And This Play Is (almost) Over Just In Time For August. Presumably a shark will kill a white woman to celebrate."

Sorry white women, but that's funny. I would have added "blonde" if it were my line.

Open Thread.

Tired of reading bullet points and opinions as to what's in the budget deal? Here's the Congressional link to the text of of the 74 page bill.

Medicare isn't mentioned until page 51. All it says is: [More...]

Remember throwing things at your computer will not actually hit him.

Now that the Beltway is satiated with their Debt Ceiling Follies, consider this:

Stocks on Wall Street briefly followed European and Asian financial markets higher Monday, but any relief over the last-minute agreement on a framework in Washington to raise the United States debt limit was short-lived. After a short burst that put the three main Wall Street indexes up more than 1 percent, they turned negative as the reality of the challenges ahead for the recovery caught up with investors.

The dip coincided with the release of new data that showed American manufacturing growing more slowly. [. . .] “Now that the debt-ceiling deal, assuming it passes, has averted an imminent catastrophe, attention can return to the underlying state of the economy,” said Nigel Gault, the IHS Global Insight chief United States economist. “The news there isn’t good.”

(Emphasis supplied.) Which explains why we are cutting government spending of course. Insanity from the VSP.

Speaking for me only

Ezra Klein presents the White House talking point that the defense spending triggered spending cuts are a real stick in the mini-Catfood Commission bargaining:

What it includes instead are massive cuts to the defense budget. If Congress doesn’t pass a second round of deficit reduction, the trigger cuts $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Fully half of that comes from defense spending. And note that I didn’t say “security spending.” The Pentagon takes the full hit if the trigger goes off. [. . .] Whether you think the trigger will work depends on whether you think the GOP would permit that level of cuts to defense.

Ezra rightly dismisses the WH spin that revenue increases are in fact on the table. They aren't. (Ezra makes the more plausible case that the Bush tax cuts expiring is the real revenue trigger.) That said, cutting defense spending via an automatic trigger is meaningless when you consider the Congress can reverse those automatic cuts through separate legislation. Which they almost certainly would. Indeed, they could easily use President Obama's own words:

White House sez:

BIPARTISAN DEBT DEAL: A WIN FOR THE ECONOMY AND BUDGET DISCIPLINE The debt deal announced today is a victory for bipartisan compromise, for the economy and for the American people.

Incredible. Smells like something allright.

I'm tuning out the budget crisis for the remainder of the evening. On to Breaking Bad, Big Brother and the Next Food Network Challenge.

For those of you following other events in the world, and believe it or not, there are some, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's a done deal with Congressional leadership, says Obama.

The "bipartisan" deal will be unveiled tomorrow, in all it's glory (not.) You can still make your voice heard. Harry Reid says:

"To pass this settlement, we'll need the support of Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate. There is no way either party, in either chamber, can do this alone."

What did Boehner tell Republicans tonight?

“There is nothing in this framework that violates our principles," Boehner told House Republicans. "It’s all spending cuts."

Here's the slideshow of Boehner's presentation.

What did Obama say?

Despite what some in my own party have argued, I believe that we have to make some modest adjustments to programs like Medicare, to make sure they are still around for future generations."

You can watch Obama's statement here. The full text of his comments are here. [More...]

Nancy Pelosi says the Dems are withholding judgment and may or may not support the deal.

From the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (via the WSJ):

"Seeing a Democratic president take taxing the rich off the table and instead push a deal that will lead to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefit cuts is like entering a bizarre parallel universe--one with horrific consequences for middle-class families.

Via the National Journal: Boehner is holding out for less defense cuts, and Dems are claiming they want to protect Medicare and Social Security: [More...]

It appears that we are winding our way to inevitable defeat in the Debt Ceiling Debacle. The loss was guaranteed in December, and the President and Democrats in Congress basically have no choice but to capitulate. Not raising the debt ceiling would be catastrophic.

The hope was that immediate spending cuts would be minimized. There is no reporting on that crucial aspect of the deal nor on who is expected to vote for the debt ceiling deal (is it going to pass with GOP support or Dem support?) More . . .

Reid says he has a deal:

Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, has tentatively signed off on the budget deal being negotiated with top Republicans by the White House, moving Congress closer to taking up a measure that could pass both the House and Senate with bipartisan support and be signed by President Obama, averting a fiscal calamity.

Not clear where the votes come from in the House. Especially when you consider:

The negotiators appeared to be having a hard time defining what kind of cuts would occur at the end of the year if Congress failed to act on the committee’s recommendations.

If they have not figured that out, how do they have a "deal?"

Via daily kos, Rep. Raul Grijalva says:

This deal trades peoples’ livelihoods for the votes of a few unappeasable right-wing radicals, and I will not support it. Progressives have been organizing for months to oppose any scheme that cuts Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, and it now seems clear that even these bedrock pillars of the American success story are on the chopping block. Even if this deal were not as bad as it is, this would be enough for me to fight against its passage.