I’m really sick of how “the economy” is the stock market. It. Is. NOT. I also know that the constituents of unemployed and underemployed aren’t out there putting pressure on congress or the President.

There has already been the Gang of Six, the Bowles-Simpson Commission, the Gang of Eight, the Super Congress, and the Boehner-Obama negotiation. Even though all these previous bipartisan deficit reduction groups failed, President Obama is apparently not going to stop until he cuts Social Security. According to Politico, Obama is pushing for the formation of yet another bipartisan deficit group to work on cutting entitlements

This sounds like a fine outside-the-box strategy for scrounging up some extra cash to help reduce the deficit shore up social programs fix our crumbling infrastructure subsidize more tax cuts for the rich, but it completely overlooks the financial possibilities of naming rights.

One of the big reasons that deficit hysteria gripped Washington for years despite dozens of more pressing issues is that Pete Peterson has spent the GDP of a small country propping it up. According to Joshua Green, Peterson spent half a billion on this current deficit push and plans to spend a half billion more.

House Republicans really really really hate new taxes. This is one promise from the GOP I do believe. It seems almost everyone from their base, to their donors, to independent voters believe this. Despite a mountain of evidence the only people who don’t seem to believe this are a small circle of professional grand bargain promoters, the “both sides are always equally to blame” pundits, and President Obama.

Never mind the good news, the poor and needy must be punished for being poor and needy.

Basically all of our long term deficit discussions are based on the assumption of continued health care growth. If a few technologies that are already in development live up to their promise, our long term deficit would basically be eliminated. It is possible Washington is current obsessed with a problem that may not even really exist.

No bad idea supported by President Obama is ever permanently defeated, it is at best simply stopped temporarily. In a statement today about the sequestration cuts Obama wanted to make it clear that the proposed entitlements cuts that he has previously backed are still on the table.

There is a widely held view in Washington policy circles that the economy was golden in the Clinton years. We had strong growth, low unemployment, rising real wages, a soaring stock market and huge budget surpluses. According to this myth, George W. Bush ruined this Eden with his tax cuts for the rich and wars that he didn’t pay for. While there are plenty of bad things that can be said about George W. Bush, his tax cuts for the rich and his wars (whether paid for or not), this story of paradise lost badly flunks the reality test.

The push for a mythic $4 trillion package has been used to advocate for some idiotic policies and the adoption of a host of recent austerity measures. It is possible though that this goal has already been reached, yet almost no one in the media seems to acknowledge it.