(Image via DownWithTyranny)

The most striking feature about the debt ceiling negotiations/agreement was how both parties firmly committed to a prolonged age of austerity. Democrats, in particular, seem to have abandoned the notion that there’s anything the government can do to help stimulate the weak economy (even though the much-derided stimulus bill saved or created 3 million jobs). I examined the embrace of austerity politics in a new Nation article, “The Rise of the Austerity Hawk Democrats.”

Needless to say, I don’t think this trend bodes well for President Obama, the Democratic Party or the country going forward. Now that the debt deal is over, Obama is promising to return his focus to jobs. Let’s hope he keeps it there and can actually do something to ease the nation’s jobs crisis.