…where debt increase talks stop, nobody knows. 

Until the rise of the Tea Partys, nothing political had surprised me in years.  It was obvious prior to the election that Obama would be a disaster to liberty-lovers, but that McCain was a RINO statist was equally evident.  

Obama proved to be worse than expected.  But unexpected isn’t the same as surprising.  But the eruption of Tea Partys all across the country?

Surprise!  And a nice surprise, which is unprecedented in politics in my lifetime.

And since then, things have gotten less and less predictable.  A week ago Obama was warning that without more borrowing he couldn’t guarantee Grandma would see another Social Security checks.

Is that serious?  He sure acted like it was serious, way back last week.   And the Senate took it seriously enough to throw together a short-term bi-partisan plan.  Harry Reid carried this Grandma-saving proposal to the President…

…who rejected it.

  I have no idea how this will turn out.  The Republican establishment has been tougher than expected.  Rubios and Wests to the side, the GOP probably still doesn’t fear the Tea Partys enough to stand up to Beltway peer pressure.

So my expectation is a debt increase that carries Obama past the next election cycle.  There will be claims of tremendous spending cuts.  These “cuts” will be increases in spending, but less than what the Fed had wanted.  Thus, “cut”.

They’ll also “balance” future spending by making ridiculously optimistic assumptions about economic growth and tax revenue. 

There will be new tax and regulatory burdens.  Since these will stunt the economy the actual government revenue will be less that what was planned for.  

Those are my expectations.  I hope to be surprised.  But don’t expect to be, prior to good news come next November.