Another day, another fiscal blueprint. With the August 2 deadline for raising the US debt ceiling days away, Democrats and Republicans continue to talk past each other. New plans are flying thick and fast. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives just passed a bill to “cut, cap, and balance” the budget – a scheme that the Democratic-controlled Senate is certain to reject, as everybody knows. And the so-called Gang of Six senators, three from each party, sprang back to life with another “grand bargain” to cut public borrowing by about $4,000bn over 10 years.
日子一天天過，新的財政藍圖一天天出臺。距離美國提高債務上限的截止日期（8月2日）已沒有幾天，民主黨與共和黨議員卻仍在各說各話。各種新方案滿天飛。共和黨控制的眾議院剛剛通過了一項旨在“削減、限制和平衡”預算的法案——眾所周知，民主黨主宰的參議院必定會拒絕“放行”。此外，由兩黨各出三名議員組成的所謂“六人幫”(Gang of Six)再出新招，提出了又一筆“大交易”，以在十年內將公共債務削減約4萬億美元。