Why 11 Democratic Senators and not 50 (all of them, less the three on the Super Committee) signed this effort spearheaded by Jeff Merkley is beyond me, but if more sign on it could be a crucial factor in actually pivoting away from deficit talk and toward jobs.

The CBO is up with a report today showing that the stimulus is responsible for 2.9 million jobs – a show of strength for the $787 billion program.

The latest long term budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office assume that unemployment will be very high for years to come.

As the chart shows the interest to GDP ratio is currently at a crushing 1.3 percent, near the post World War II low. However this figure overstates the burden somewhat. Last year the Federal Reserve Board refunded almost $80 billion to the Treasury. This was interest earned on government bonds and other assets it now holds. That leaves a net interest burden of 0.8 percent of GDP, by far the lowest of the post World War II era.

The Congressional Budget Office is out with a new report about the projected long term solvency of Social Security. The report reaffirms the basic fact that it will be roughly 27 years until the Social Security Trust Fund is exhausted.

There is a chance, if the economy slows, that a $2.1 trillion debt ceiling increase won’t be large enough to take us past the 2012 election. Even if this deal passes, we may see a repeat of this debt ceiling fight right in the middle of the election season.

The Senate Dems are careful to lay out really the only objection, the only actual difference, between the Reid and Boehner bills: one raises the debt limit by $2.7 trillion up front, and the other only raises it by $1 trillion. That’s it. Boehner’s plan can’t pass the Senate and has drawn a veto threat. Reid’s plan can probably get a majority in the Senate, but might not be able to clear a filibuster. In the House, it would probably get a lot of Democratic support, but Boehner wouldn’t bring it to the floor in its current form.

The CBO report on John Boehner’s debt limit plan has really set back the effort and probably poisoned the entire enterprise among the more conservative members of his caucus.

For reasons known only to its publishers, the New York Times has chosen to assign reporters and editors to the budget/deficit negotiations who seem oblivious that the politicians they routinely quote are speaking gibberish, without any effort by the Times to explain it’s gibberish.

Before Democrats trotted out their “Republicans are sinking the economy” strategy yesterday, about the only elites willing to tell the truth about the effect of near-term spending cuts were Bill Gross and Ben Bernanke. In his now-regular press conference following the two-day FOMC meetings, Bernanke reiterated himself: