And We Have a Deal....

Oh Joy.

IMO, there's absolutely no upside here at all except it mostly likely means the end of any major new spending initiative under President McCain or Obama. And maybe all this new spending will mean bringing the boys and girls home from Iraq sooner rather than later.

It all kind of reminds me of an episode of the West Wing:

BARTLET: Gentlemen, let's talk about what we're talking about. You're worried thatI'm going to announce I'm deploying 150,000 American soldiers three weeksbefore the election and suddenly your race is about my war.

Santos and Vinick glance at each other.

BARTLET: You can speak candidly.

SANTOS: It does change the nature of the election. But more importantly, a new President would have an easier time brokering a diplomatic solution.

BARTLET: If I thought we could wait until after election, we would wait.

VINICK: What's this going to cost?

BARTLET: It depends on how long we stay.

SANTOS: It doesn't matter. The first 100 days in office are the most productiveof the whole term and there's no way we can extricate ourselves from fromsomething like this in three months. It's not about the money. You're blowingany political capital we might have by forcing us to fight a war.

VINICK: Do we have an estimate?

BARTLET: First twelve months: 70 billion.

VINICK: I can say goodbye to my tax cut. Your education plan is certainly off thetable. What's a victory in this?

Life imitates art, imitating life....