Congress accomplished very little with its puny budget deal except to make Wall Street nervous.
The deal keeps the government open for two years, but provides for only a slight — very slight — drop in the nation’s annual budget deficit. Remember, this country now owes more than $17 trillion, much of it to people who aren’t necessarily our friends.
The budget announcement that came from Washington on Tuesday night should have been delayed until April 1 because the $22.5 billion in total savings has to be someone’s idea of an April Fool’s joke.
The real problem for Wall Street, however, is that Washington will not have another government-close cliff hanger — and that makes it a little easier for the Federal Reserve to taper its disastrous Quantitative Easing program.
So stock prices dropped sharply yesterday, with the Dow Jones industrial index down $129.60, to 15843.53. Interest rates rose sharply, with the 10-year government bond within 0.15 basis points of 3 percent.
Tricks like this budget deal are meant to deceive the public. But they don’t help the country. Congress needs to take serious action against the deficit.