Congress

So we’re sipping glasses of red wine (Margerum “M5″ Rhone Blend) late on a recent school night at West Hollywood’s Basix, one of those bistro-ish cafes that exude an understated and casual hipness, the type of place where it’s hard to tell if you’re sharing your heat lamp with a table of successful screenwriters or struggling realtors – or struggling screenwriters turned successful realtors.

Comprehensive immigration reform is dead. For the foreseeable future, there is no chance that Congress will pass a grand bargain on immigration reform like the one that fell apart in 2007 including a mass amnesty or path to citizenship for most illegal immigrants already in the U.S. Nor is there any chance that the Dream Act, which would provide citizenship for many illegal immigrants as long as they attended college or served in the U.S. military, will be enacted into law. The Democrats could not pass the unpopular Dream Act even when they controlled both houses of Congress last December.

In his recent it’s-time-to-get-serious-on-the-budget speech, President Obama introduced his idea for a debt fail-safe to, in his own words, “hold Washington — and to hold me — accountable and make sure that the debt burden continues to decline.” While budget trigger mechanisms

Neither Congress nor the Obama administration can do anything to lower gas prices. Still, that’s no excuse for the kind of nothing that politicians are engaging in now -- barking about drilling for more oil in U.S. lands, or claiming that the oil markets are run by speculators.

What if all of the familiar sides in the current debate about the economy -- left, right and center -- fail to provide convincing plans? Sadly, it is easy to make the case that they do.

Four major positions are represented in the debate: supply-side conservatives, fiscal conservatives, neoliberals and progressives. The last three -- fiscal conservatives, neoliberals and progressives -- make valid and important points. But none has a persuasive vision of how to promote long-term American growth and equity.

During the cold war, conspiracy theorists would sometimes suggest that the American and Soviet militaries were secretly in cahoots. Each needed its civilian overlords to keep the money flowing, and to make that happen, each needed the other to appear menacing. "Hey Vasily, we've got a difficult budget vote coming up. Would you mind sending a sub into the Persian Gulf?" "No worries, Rick, and we're super-pumped about your big war game next spring." Or something like that.

They did it! They kept the government open! Tourists can still see the pandas. Hooray!

The White House is trying to spin this as another in a growing list of across-the-aisle joint successes. Like the budget busting tax deal in December, where policymakers of both stripes came together in agreeing to borrow close to $1 trillion from their kids to cut taxes for every taxpayer they could find.

Please. Heralding this as a success is like cheering me on at the office for handing in my taxi receipts. Late.

Every spring, the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based advocacy group, announces Tax Freedom Day: the date by which the average employed American will have earned enough income to pay off his or her taxes for the year. This year, that day will be April 12.

It's rare that those of us concerned about the nation's fiscal course come bearing good news. The federal debt, after all, is as high as it has ever been in the post-1945 period and is growing uncontrollably. Under our best projections, the debt will grow from nearly 65% of gross domestic product today to over 90% by the end of the decade — a level that experts have warned could have dangerous economic consequences.

Republicans like to claim that Democrats are the "European" party: the party that wants a big welfare state, believes in international law, and doesn't think America is an exceptional nation. But I've noticed a certain Europeanification of the GOP of late, as regard to Muslims. For years, Republicans have explained that their brand of patriotism has nothing to do with blood and soil.