A bad deal, a bad photo

Photo source: AP

Paul Ryan, Patty Murray a few billion apart.

“In a move sure to infuriate Democrats, the House-Senate negotiators have all but settled on slicing billions of dollars from federal employees retirement plans.”

Republicans will agree to cut benefits for government employees. They’ll agree to increase user fees, which are regressive.  But they won’t raise taxes on hedge fund managers or close tax loopholes.  Republicans are winning at shrinking government: the sequester.

Conservatives’ wet dream.

As Brendan Williams says, “we lose again.”

Looks like Murray is gonna agree to a terrible deal. Perhaps there’s no other option: the sequester is bad too — though at least it cuts military spending.

Terrible photo, BTW. It shows Ryan looking young, handsome, and confident.   Murray looks, well, not so good. (Normally I wouldn’t post an AP photo on this website, but one of the points of this article is to analyze the photo — fair use.  And I shrank it.)