Will Sam become a "deadbeat uncle"?
Washington has gone back to trying to agree on a "little deal" budget plan to save $2 trillion instead of $4 trillion over the next ten years.
My answer to that is, "Whatever."
But just keep this part in mind: There will be five more Congresses elected over the next ten years, and each and every of them can change the agreement in any way they choose - so can whoever is President.
What that means is, whatever the current Congress and the White House work out, it may bear no resemblance to what is in place in ten years, or even four.
The important thing is that the agreement will be worth something NOW, because Congress says it won't raise the debt ceiling unless there is an agreement in place.
And if Congress can't raise the debt ceiling, the government can't borrow the money it needs to pay its bills.
If you think this economy is bad now, wait 'til the word gets around the world that Uncle Sam has become a deadbeat, and the phrase "has the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States of America" is no longer the ultimate guarantee for borrowers around the world.
That's the bottom line, all that really matters in this argument.
If the rest of it - all the predictions and projections about what the state of the economy will be seven or eight years from now - sounds like mumbo jumbo, well, that's because that's just what it is.
