Times Square drop of the ball

[hi_im_god]

the good news is that begining jan 1st through the magic of perception what was once voting for a major tax increase suddenly becomes supporting a reduction in your taxes.

and with the benefit of not having to run for re-election as supporters of a tax increase, the new congress will resolve this shortly after jan 4th.

the only real story coming out of all this is that there was a chance for some of the spending reductions republicans wanted in the offers made two weeks ago. by rejecting those as "not enough" they'll wind up voting for a bill that has virtually none.

i don't think that's good for the country and wish we could start to deal with some of the structural problems while the solutions are manageble. but when republicans steadily overplay a poor hand (as they've done since november) it's almost impossible to see how that's going to happen.