.@reppaulryan : Budget - A Cruel, Irresponsible and Dysfunctional Budget Deal

read more http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/20896-a-cruel-irresponsible-and-dysfunctional-budget-deal

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House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA) at a Congressional Budget Conference. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

The trouble with making "functional" government the great aspiration of the American experiment – as so many pundits and politicians now do – is that a smoothly operating Congress is not necessarily moral, humane or even economically smart.

It is important to remember this disconnect as we consider the budget deal announced late Tuesday by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Senate Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray, D-Washington.

"This agreement breaks through the recent dysfunction to prevent another government shutdown and roll back sequestration's cuts to defense and domestic investments in a balanced way," said Murray. "It's a good step in the right direction that can hopefully rebuild some trust and serve as a foundation for continued bipartisan work."

Ryan was equally self-congratulatory, declaring that – after a fall the saw a government shutdown, nasty wrangling over the historically uncontroversial task of raising the debt ceiling and general congressional dysfunction – he and Murray had achieved "a clear improvement on the status quo."

"This agreement makes sure that we don't have a government shutdown scenario in January," he added. "It makes sure we don't have another government shutdown scenario in October. It makes sure that we don't lurch from crisis to crisis."

Murray and Ryan are excited that they had stopped fighting for long enough to agree to $63 billion in "sequester relief" – as opposed to an actual end to sequestration – and $23 billion in net deficit reduction. They're also glad that they have set the discretionary spending level for fiscal year 2014 at $1.012 trillion, while setting the level at $1.014 trillion for fiscal year 2015. That apparently qualifies – in the eyes of the budget negotiators – as a sufficient alternative to lurching from crisis to crisis.

But the agreement does not address the crises that matter. "This plan won't create jobs, get the economy back on track, or meaningfully cut the deficit," explains Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon.

And that's not the worst of it.

What of the 1.3 million jobless Americans who – with a fully Dickensian twist – now stand to lose Federal unemployment benefits three days after Christmas?

The budget agreement does not look like a "step in the right direction" for them. And unless Democrats succeed in renewing benefits in a distinct piece of legislation that apparently must pass this week – as Congress is moving rapidly toward recess – many of the most economically vulnerable Americans will be "lurching from crisis to crisis" very soon.''