Do you want fries with that Satan sandwich?

Take big bites.

There are many members of Congress who were getting ready to swallow the last-minute deal worked out to raise the debt ceiling and cut future deficits that so irked Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, who came up with that characterization. It was the best quote of the entire debt debate.

They say if nobody’s happy with a compromise, it must be a good one, and surely nobody is happy with this one. If it’s adopted — as appears likely — it will only be because legislators realized that Harry Reid had a point.

“But in the end, reasonable people were able to agree on this: The United States could not take the chance of defaulting on our debt, risking a United States financial collapse and a worldwide depression,” Reid said after the deal was announced.

To be sure, some people — here think of Tea Party caucus chairwoman Rep. Michelle Bachmann — were perfectly willing to risk a financial collapse and worldwide depression, mostly because they didn’t believe anything much would happen without a debt deal. For them, there was nothing to celebrate in the bargain hammered out by Republicans, Democrats and President Barack Obama.

For the rest of us — call it the reality-based community — stepping back from the brink was cause for relief. “It’s a fair compromise,” a Democratic aide said. Indeed, but there was plenty to dislike about it to go around. Consider:

For Republicans: Tea party types don’t like the deal because it doesn’t cut enough in government spending, and those cuts will happen in future budgets over the next decade. Entitlements — which everybody knows are the big budget busters — are protected from cuts in virtually all instances under this compromise.

Defense hawks will hate the cuts to defense spending, especially the provision that fully half of $1.5 trillion in automatic cuts that will happen if Congress can’t agree on an alternative will come from the Pentagon.

And the balanced budget amendment — a longtime Republican holy grail — may get a vote, but is almost certain not to pass. (It takes two-thirds vote in Congress to approve a constitutional amendment.)

Oh, and politically, while the compromise calls for three votes on staged debt ceiling increases and thus three chances to reprove Democrats and Obama for overspending — all three will be this year, avoiding a nasty debt-ceiling fight in 2012 as the president is campaigning for re-election.

For Democrats: Liberals and progressive types — and that includes “Satan sandwich” author Cleaver — hate the compromise because of the deep cuts in discretionary spending: $1.2 trillion now, and $1.5 trillion later. And while entitlements and welfare spending may be protected, many other government programs are not.

Moreover, taxes are nowhere to be found in this deal. That means oil company tax breaks continue, tax loopholes are still open and the George W. Bush tax cuts for more well-off Americans remain in place. Although Obama, Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pushed for “revenues” to be part of the package, Republicans refused.

It’s true that the bipartisan, bicameral “supercommittee” of 12 lawmakers will be able to consider taxes as part of the second round of deficit reduction, due by Thanksgiving. But with what we’ve just seen, what are the odds Republicans would ever approve a package that includes taxes? And if the supercommittee’s recommendations fail, automatic cuts go into effect.

“Nobody’s happy, which should tell you this is a good deal,” said the Democratic aide. Perhaps he’s right. But it sure doesn’t make that Satan sandwich go down any easier.

 

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/SteveSebelius or reach him at 387-5276 or SSebelius@ reviewjournal.com.