What – no crisis?

It’s a little gift from our Representatives in Washington. It appears we are not going to have another budget crisis.

I know we all remember fondly how much fun that was last October.

“If there’s unconditional surrender by Republicans he’ll (Obama) sit down and talk to them,” Boehner had said.

“We’re not going to pay ransom for America paying it’s bills,” Obama countered.

Oh how we miss those days!

But the current budget negotiations are going well enough, that Congress may finally pass a comprehensive budget for the first time since 2009.

It won’t be the “Grand Bargain” of tax increases in exchange for social security cuts – but a small bargain that keeps some existing spending cuts and raises a little more revenue without raising taxes.

I know. You were hoping for the Grand Bargain. But it turns out neither side wants it. The Democrats, who you’d think would want tax increases, actually don’t – because it would mean cutting back on the hugely popular mortgage deduction. And Republicans, who you’d think would want social security cuts, are not about to tick off older voters.

There’s another reason there won’t be another budget crisis. What’s changed? I think part of it is that Republicans don’t feel they need a budget crisis to force an end to Obamacare anymore. They expect it will fall apart on it’s own.

In fact, Newt Gingrich predicts the collapse will come right before the 2014 election, as more insurers send out scary letters saying you can’t keep your existing insurance policy.

“When people realize that the number of people who may get a letter next October is 93 million, I wonder how that will affect their vote in November,” said Gingrich.

By the way, he’s relying on numbers that some of the policy wonks consider exaggerated. But even if the real number is a tenth of that, we’re talking 9.3 million scary letters from insurance companies.

It’s not as thrilling as an all-out budget crisis. But it’s enough for a pretty entertaining off-year election.