One of the stupidest, most nauseating episodes in American politics has, mercifully, ended for now. On a brand-new page in the playbook, crazoid R's succeeded in tying a routine debt deal to the Tea Party wish-list, and threatened a disastrous federal default unless they got their way. Obama and the D's blinked, and agreed, in the short run, to big spending cuts with no new revenue in exchange for no more of this horseshit until after the next election.
And it is total horseshit! Please remember who brought you these road-apples.
Just one example of the iniquity in this deal: The R's will cure our "spending problem" by making post-grad Stafford Loan recipients start repaying their student loans immediately (like right-the-fuck now, while still unemployed and working to get that MBA or that PhD). Collecting that student loan interest immediately is obviously much more important than trying to squeeze another tax nickel from multi-millionaires.