Whatever seriousness politicians took in trying to address the federal deficit appears to have vanished. This Hill article makes the case that the deficit hawks in Congress have been shunted aside in favor of a "don't rock the boat" strategy that is supposed to bring the GOP victory in November's mid terms. House Republicans who used to talk about the trillions in spending cuts they would enact are now struggling to come up with even a token fiscal reform to attach to legislation raising Washington's debt limit. Congress passed a two-year budget including $1.1 trillion of spending this year alone, compared to the $967 billion favored by some conservatives. Tax reform, to simplify the code, raise revenue and lower some rates, appeared to die last week. On Thursday, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) left the Senate for China, while on Friday President Obama signed a farm bill that includes more subsidies for wealthy farmers than he wanted. Tough talk on cutting the deficit is so...(Read Full Post)