As I have been saying, the far end of ideologies lies nihilism.

They drove themselves to that point. As some point supply side bias economic policies become ‘inefficable’.

They couldn’t come up with enough spending cuts, in their own proposals to acheive their stated goals. Meanwhile, while Obama was offereing up cuts to Social Security and Medicare, the two Republican senators from Main, to say nothing of democrats in congress, were saying they couldn’t vote for cuts to those programs. Inefficable.

Politics is the art of manifesting the possible. This debt sealing showdown was inefficable – probably from the start.

Big Money was ready to fold, because they had much to loose if the markets tanked. That’s the hard place. And politicians like to be caught between a hard place and a soft place, one gives them traction the other gives them a place to go.

Then Obama dropped the bomb saying social security checks wouldn’t be going out without a debt sealing deal. That’s call a rock.

Politicians hate to be caught between a rock and a hard place. It took McConnell less than half an afternoon to punt on the issue. Voter’s not getting their social security checks (including all those teabaggers) and the Republicans holding out for the rich… it was political nihilism.

Finally, staring nihilism in the face, the end result of their political ideological stance, they folded, they got common sense.

But that’s not to say all the innocent people their ideological stance has delivered nihilism to in the mean time. All the unemployed, the hundreds of thousands who have died because they don’t have health insurance, etc…

Hopefully this week is an inflection point. With Murdock’s media empire threatened by its own excesses. With right wing economic academic thought admitting the failure of Chicago school economics, and with the Republican retreat in the face of its own nihilism.

Unfortunately, it’s like to be a gentle inflection point and I still think Obama wants to cut Social Security, which has a $3 trillion surplus, on behalf of his own retainers. So, it’s not the beginning of the end, but hopefully, at least, the end of the beginning.

I made graph:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=15G

this is federal income taxes (less social security taxes) as a share of GDP.

speaks for itself.

I also compared the FY 2000 budget to the FY11 budget:

The defense budget has nearly TRIPLED, rising from $350B to $950B.
Medicare/Medicaid has DOUBLED, from $400B to $900B.
The FICA surplus has gone from $70B to a deficit of $30B, a swing of $100B.
Welfare has DOUBLED from $200B to $500B.

Meanwhile, federal income taxes are $50B LESS than 2000:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=15B

It’s truly astounding that the Republicans refuse to cut defense spending or raise taxes.

We’re going to get as bad as Japan or Italy if this continues.