It seems to me that with every passing week there is more and more Stupid in the world.  Maybe it’s always been there and I just haven’t seen it, but it seems that the Blob of ignorance and irrationality grows larger and sucks the intellect out of more people each day.  Stupid, of course, reached its zenith this week when our elected representatives voted for a “compromise” deficit-reduction bill that the President immediately signed into law.  This bill can only be called a “compromise” if you define that word to mean that Progressives give up everything and Right Wing Radicals take everything.

Yes, our government finally was able to pass an increase in the debt limit, so the U.S. will avoid immediate default on its debt.  But there wasn’t much movement in terms of actual bipartisan policymaking.  The Democrats pretty much in toto caved to the Grover Norquist-led entrenchment of the far Right on taxes—there will be No New Ones, especially on the wealthy.

There are no revenue increases in this first round of deficit reduction, and if the second round’s special committee fails to agree on enough deficit reduction, the automatic cuts that will be triggered by the bill will leave tax policy untouched as well.  The deal that was enacted is a complete capitulation by the Democrats.  There are no tax increases as part of the initial trillion-dollar package.  That package is all spending cuts, which was always the Right’s position.  And there can be no increases in the second stage unless the special committee agrees on them.  If you believe that has any chance of happening, let me talk to you about some swampland I have for sale in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

It’s particularly notable that the deal is all spending cuts when public opinion clearly wanted a mix of tax increases and spending cuts.  A 18-20 July CNN/ORC International poll showed that almost two-thirds of respondents preferred a deal with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.  But, as has become de rigueur in Washington, our representatives have decided to do what will line their own and their corporate backers’ pockets; the good of the country be damned.

As if the bill itself weren’t enough to induce a life-threatening case of nausea, in the midst of the debate, we had the honor of seeing Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) take the floor in the Senate and say the U.S. should cut Social Security to pay for the fight against Islamist extremists—

“So, bottom line, we can’t protect these entitlements and also have the national defense we need to protect us in a dangerous world while we’re at war with Islamist extremists who attacked us on 9/11 and will be for a long time to come.”

Quite frankly, at this point I’m much more worried about all the Stupid in Washington than I am about Islamic extremists.

On Sunday, President Obama waved his white handkerchief of surrender and agreed to a dastardly deal ruthlessly pushed by the loopiest of the tea party extremists; a deal that

• Asks for no increase in revenues
• Slashes nearly $1 trillion from national programs upon which ordinary Americans depend
• Puts Social Security and Medicare at risk
• Promises to make our depressed economy, and even the deficit, worse.

The President cravenly conceded to the demands by the corporate owners of government that those fortunate few at the very top of our economy should have to make no sacrifice whatsoever; the entire burden should be placed on the backs of the poor and the middle class.  Tax-dodging corporations, hedge-fund profiteers and the richest 1 percent of our nation’s plutocratic elite are allowed by this sorry deal to retain every dime of their subsidies, tax breaks and other federal giveaways.

The Obama administration offered this defense of the President’s capitulation, in Gene Sperling’s words, quoted by CNN: “You want to make it hard for them just to walk away and wash their hands.  You want them to say, if nothing happens, there will be a very tough degree of pain that will take place.”  If Obama wanted the Republicans to bear “pain” or to pay attention to a “reform or else” situation, it would seem to me he should have ensured tax increases were included in the “or else” part.  It is certainly not going to be easier to negotiate with the Republicans when the do-nothing alternative continues the mind set of a spending cuts-only approach.

The good news, though, is that Obama has reassured us that he will “fight for us”—next time.  As our Champion of Hope signed his abject capitulation into law on Tuesday, he said that stage two the deficit reduction process will be better.  The pampered and privileged few, he insisted, will also have to “chip in,” reassuring all who will be harmed by this week’s deal that he’ll be “fighting for” fundamental principles of fairness in the next one.

I think I’d rather Obama just sat the next round out; I’m not sure how much more of his fighting for me I can take.