The White House and Congress have traded short-term political gain for $858 billion in long-term pain.
They agreed to keep the Bush tax cuts in place for two more years, extend unemployment benefits and give wage-earners a one-year break in Social Security tax rates. Something for everybody. In the best spirit of the season, they put it all on the credit card.
Republicans and Democrats who fought 22 months ago over one big-ticket attempt to reverse the recession — President Obama’s economic stimulus plan — found common cause this time. They bought into something not yet paid for.
Such bipartisanship should be encouraging, especially in times that discourage bipartisanship. But in order to celebrate this compromise, we would have to suspend our fears about the deficit, that seemingly bottomless pit that awaits not too far down the road. We would have to conveniently forget the grave warnings, uttered across the political spectrum, about the state of the budget.
Sorry. We can’t do it.
So we are disappointed that three-fourths of the state’s congressional delegation endorsed this dubious deal.
To read the complete editorial, visit www.idahostatesman.com.