It's The Logs That Are Missing

Belmont Club » The Same But Different: "The seizure is at one level the result of a system previously designed to produce a multi-attribute Pareto optimal solution suddenly forced into becoming a zero-sum game. The US political system is designed to resolve problems by horse trading, via buying factions off. But the lack of money has made meaningful horse trading impossible. The log rollers are still there; it’s the logs that are missing. For years the solution to the shortfall has been to merely print more and more. Lately this works less and less.

As those who are now reeling in shock over their new Obamacare premium notices can testify, what used to be a horse trading system has now become exactly zero sum. To pay for the uninsurable you must overcharge the insurable. While in the past it was possible to square the circle from some indefinite stash, a la Detroit, that has become impossible of late. This hard fact makes any possible compromise unstable because it is not supported by any cash flow. The challenge confronting any “deal” the Republicans and Obama can strike is who will pay for it. In particular who will pay for Obamacare, which has been promised to the Democratic base? Who will pay for increases the debt limit, which have likewise been promised to the Democratic base?

The answer of course is “someone”. But getting that someone to cough up will now be like pulling teeth. The brief panic caused by the temporary malfunction of the EBT system showed, as little else could, how nobody is in the mood to give up anything anymore while nobody feels like paying for anything either. That is the cage in which Obama and the Republican leadership now find themselves trapped."

Another RTWT from Wretchard.