Is Reid's Debt Deal as Good as It Gets?

Harry Reid has produced $2.7 trillion in cuts without tax increases, presumably with a hike in the debt ceiling of about $2.5 trillion — enough to take us past the election. Barring something “unexpected,” of course.

If Boehner takes this — and he should, if only for operational reasons — it puts the GOP in a very good position for 2012. A House-Senate deal also pulls the rug out from under the President’s attempt at triangulation. There’s no room for a third point off of a straight line.

Will the President sign it?

It does meet his inflexible demand for a “big deal” to take us into 2013. It does not meet his insistence for tax increases. If he signs it, Obama will prove once and for all that he’s been the major impediment to a deal — although he’ll certainly demand credit, anyway. If he doesn’t sign it, he tanks what’s left of the economy.

Not a bad weekend’s work, Mr. Speaker.

So unless Reid has booby-trapped this thing somehow, then the House should approve it and await the President’s signature.