Despite the White House's talking points and the mainstream media's mindless parroting of these talking points, the deal to raise the debt ceiling was not a compromise in any meaningful sense of the word. When one side gets nearly everything they want, we have a capitulation rather than a compromise. But setting that aside, what exactly is wrong with the deal? As many economists have pointed out, the deal will do considerable damage to an already weak American economy. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the deal virtually guarantees that the Republican Party will continue to hold the economy hostage to get their way.

Jobsanger provides one of the best concise summaries of how this deal will damage the economy I have yet seen:

It will hurt job creation efforts and will extend the recession being felt by all but the richest Americans -- and it doesn't ask the rich or the corporations to share in the sacrifices that the bill will impose on working, poor, and elderly Americans.

There is a good reason that American presidents are fond of saying that our country does not negotiate with terrorists. We know that once one caves to terrorist demands, one is sure to encounter more of the same. Having managed to extort nearly everything they wanted from the president, the Republican Party has been emboldened to resort to similar hostage taking in the future. They have been surprisingly open about this.

We are witnessing a historic moment here, a moment where ideology triumphed over sound economic policy. The lessons of Hoover's approach to the Great Depression have been forgotten, and we are determined to pay the price for repeating his mistakes.

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