Kabuki

When no other topic suggests itself, I dip into politics. Brace yourself; I'll keep it short.

The recent budget showdown was a loss in that right-wing extremists defined the debate, but a victory in that they got less than they demanded. The cuts that passed yesterday are unlikely to measurably affect the economy or my business, so there’s nothing more to say about that here. It sucks to be poor and powerless.

Bigger battles loom.

I just passed my 54th birthday. I’ll be eligible for Medicare in 4,015 days unless the Republicans realize their dream of ending the Great Society for everyone born in 1957 or later. I don’t think that they really have the power to sell my shot at retirement for more millionaire tax cuts, but since they drew a line that runs right through me I’m acutely interested in how it turns out. But the 2012 budget is still months away and both parties are just making opening gambits, so enough on that.

Raising the debt ceiling is the next crisis. This political kabuki will turn into seppuku if the Republicans let the US default on its debt, as their wingnuts would like. All economists agree that doing so would provoke an epic economic debacle, so that certainly concerns Curio City – and everybody else.

I predict that they will lay down a list of outrageous demands, and that Obama will accede to half of them at the 11th hour. You read it first in Curious Business.