The House Republicans' notion of fiscal compromise leaves many of us feeling like we are trapped in Groundhog Day. Never mind that their guy got thumped-heck, never mind that both houses of Congress gained Democratic seats and the entire Republican party got thumped-in the end, like a boomerang, they return to their unholy trinity: tax favors for the rich, entitlement reduction for the rest of us, and a discredited scheme for severe debt reduction at the very moment we try to escape from a world-class, gold-plated, once-in-a lifetime recession.

Some of us are tired of having to do their thinking for them. Maybe someone can just give Boehner some oxygen. I believe their obsessive commitment to the fortunes of the rich represents such transparent pandering that I am left wondering if there is some organic cause. A new addition for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, perhaps? Someone look into it.

Whatever the root of their obstinacy and their baffling allegiance to poor, helpless multi-millionaires, it is both unseemly and unproductive. This country needs jobs and that means this country needs stimulus. Any responsible economist that doesn't work at the American Enterprise Institute knows that. Debt reduction, to the chagrin of the Tea Party, comes later.

Leaf Schumann

Deming