Hume: Congressional Brinksmanship Not Pretty, But Effective

Last week’s budget deal soured many on the political process – that it takes pushing things to the brink to make progress. But such brinkmanship produces results.

On Tuesday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, senior political analyst Brit Hume observed this might be the only way to achieve results.

“Many Americans were dismayed at the brinksmanship displayed at the narrowly averted government shutdown that was headed off by last week’s budget deal,” Hume said. “They will doubtless be dismayed again at the prospect of another such showdown over raising the debt limit. But such deadlines are actually proving a blessing. They’re forcing agreements that would not have occurred without them.”

Hume alluded to the extension of the Bush tax cuts late last year as one example of achieving an ends, and said that was the case with this budget deal that a Democratic majority squandered two years to act.

“Remember last December with only days to go before a major tax increase that would hit nearly every American – the president finally agreed to leave all the Bush tax rates in effect,” Hume said. “Mr. Obama and congressional Democrats had had two years to address the issue, but nothing got done until it absolutely had to.  In this latest instance, the president and his party in Congress did not want any spending cuts in the budget for the rest of this year. Only the specter of a government shutdown without uncertain political consequences resulted in a round of cuts in which both sides gave ground.”

The real fight according to Hume lies ahead with the FY2012 budget, which the sides already have seemed to have staked out their positions.

“In the much larger struggle to come over next year’s budget, Democrats will try to raise taxes, cut defense and protect nearly everything else,” he said. “Republicans will try to do just the opposite. Their differences spring from strongly held beliefs and neither side will yield if they avoid it. But the prospect of the breach of the debt limit and subsequent default will mean that they cannot avoid it. Something big may at last be done about spending and debt.”

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