Last Call

As I have been predicting, the news at this late hour is that both sides in the shutdown showdown have -- surprise! -- come to a deal in theory and will sign a three day extension costing Dems another $2 billion in cuts while they iron out all the details.

Democrats and Republicans narrowly averted a partial shutdown of the federal government Friday night, agreeing on a budget deal and a short-term funding extension little more than an hour before the clock struck midnight and time ran out. 

The new funding extension, which cuts spending by $2 billion, will last through next Thursday.

"The government will be open for business," President Barack Obama said.

"In the final hours before our government would have been forced to shut down, leaders in both parties reached an agreement that will allow our small businesses to get the loans they need, our families to get the mortgages they applied for, and hundreds of thousands of Americans to show up at work and take home their paychecks on time."

Negotiators capped days of frantic closed-door talks and public recriminations by agreeing on a framework for a package of $38.5 billion in spending cuts covering the rest of the fiscal year, which expires September 30.

Republicans, bolstered by their capture of the House of Representatives in last November's midterm elections, had initially pushed for $61 billion in cuts.

And actually that's a lie.  Republicans in the House Appropriations committee initially pushed for $32 billion in cuts.  That was their opening bid.  They got $38.5 billion...more than their initial offer.

As I have said time and time again, a GOP deal at this point is a 100% win for them.  Take the victory and move on to the debt ceiling battle, where they can bleed unlimited concessions from the Democrats over the next several months.  The Dems may have saved Planned Parenthood funding for now, but as long as the GOP controls the House, they can simply go through all this again, only with the debt ceiling and FY12 fights, they can ask for much higher stakes playing their "bad cop, insane cop" game.  We're already up to the Village cheering Paul Ryan on for destroying Medicare and Medicaid, and disappointed he's not going to do the same to Social Security.

Do you think Obama's going to be able to hold the line, even with our help?  So far the Dems have done nothing but cave on the economic front.

We'll see what the details are next week, but the GOP now knows it can hold the country hostage and get concession after concession from Democrats.

And the concessions they are going to get may end up costing working class Americans nearly everything.