That’s the message you should see whenever they say “We’re going to punt this problem until after the next election.” It means they are going to do something the voters really hate, and so they hope to be able to make you forget what they did by the time another two years passes. It means Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, are a bunch of spineless cowards for whom holding elected office (serving themselves) is more important that serving the voters. Americans: if you let them get away with this yet again, you get what you deserve. Wake up and smell the cow dung that’s being flung at you.

From Bloomberg’s Angela Greiling Keane:

    Republicans might accept a “mini” deal with the Obama administration on raising the debt limit, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican leader, said yesterday on “Fox News Sunday.”

    The idea may delay politically difficult decisions if it’s structured to postpone action on a larger package of spending cuts or revenue increases until after the 2012 election cycle, an analyst said.

Clearly communicating Republicans’ willingness to set the bar for success ever lower:

    Cornyn said that while Republicans would prefer a long-term settlement, they would accept a shorter-term agreement if that’s all they could get done.

Thank you sir, and may we have another? We sure don’t want to take a stand on anything so radical as principle, now do we?

After all, there’s another election coming up…IN SIXTEEN MONTHS. This leaves an eight month window for doing anything controversial, because anything done after that might be remembered by the voters. If that’s how these craven bastards are going to behave, then we should close Congress for the remainder of the session after the eight-month “actually get things done” window has expired, so that our “elected representatives” can’t be pressured into doing anything difficult.

Public policy as theater. I am so disgusted; I feel nauseous. If you see a man walking down the street throwing up, that’s me.

This is why I’ve been saying the bus is undeniably going over the cliff. The die is cast. With people like these in charge, we are freaking doomed. This is what passes for “leadership” in 21st-century America. Americans: you are on your own. No help is coming. Make provisions for your own survival; you’re sailing on the Titanic, and the people driving the boat think it’s unsinkable.