The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing this morning on the various budget gimmicks that Congress is considering, including in a vote on the debt ceiling. As the Prospect previewed earlier this week, the chief proposals up for debate were the Corker-McCaskill CAP Act, which reduces government spending to an arbitrary 20.6 percent of GDP, and President Obama’s debt fail-safe trigger, which invokes certain spending cuts and tax increases if the debt-to-GDP ratio doesn’t start improving in 2014.

As we enter the weeks before Congress is finally forced to vote on whether or not to raise the debt ceiling, hopes of passing a clean bill – one that lets the U.S. add to its debt without attached riders to make it also cut spending – seem all but [vanished](http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_senates_debtceiling_wild_cards). Instead it’s [looking](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/will_the_white_house...) like the debt ceiling vote will either be accompanied by Sens.

Whether they realize it or not, pessimism about the economy has led a number of Americans to embrace a liberal critique of current plans for deficit reduction:

Disapproval of Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy has never been broader — at 57 percent of Americans — a warning sign as he begins to set his sights on re-election in 2012. And a similar percentage disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling the federal budget deficit, though more disapprove of the way Republicans in Congress are.

The GOP's nonsensical position on the debt ceiling has driven Matt Miller insane:

Well, debt limit mania has driven me to a similar frenzied state. If my wife came across my manuscript it would read, “The House Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt in the next decade yet the GOP is balking at raising the debt limit. The House Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt in the next decade yet the GOP is balking at raising the debt limit.” [...]

This, from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is still very wrong:

McConnell said the budget plan Senate Democrats presented Friday – calling for $10 billion in cuts – represented only one-sixth of the cuts outlined in a bill passed by House Republicans and backed by Senate GOP leaders. Earlier on the show, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) dismissed the GOP proposal as “reckless.” […]

“What’s reckless … is the $1.6 trillion deficit we’re running this year. What’s reckless is the $3 trillion we’ve added to our national debt,” McConnell said. “Our national debt is now the size of our economy. We’re beginning to look a lot like Greece.” [Emphasis mine]

To repeat a point, most Americans don't really understand the deficit and its relationship to the broader economy. Insofar that the deficit is a concern, it's as a proxy issue; Americans worry about the deficit when the economy is poor, and aren't too concerned when the economy is doing well. For example, here are the results from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll:

In the poll, eight in 10 respondents say they are concerned about the growing federal deficit and the national debt, but more than 60 percent — including key swing-voter groups — are concerned that major cuts from Congress could impact their lives and their families.

Kent Conrad wants to revisit health-care reform:

Unshackled by the need to get reelected, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) suggested Thursday that Democrats reopen the bitter healthcare debate, arguing that the reform law’s provisions could yield opportunities to cut the federal deficit. [...]

“The healthcare accounts, we’re spending one of every six dollars in this economy on healthcare. We’re heading to one of every three,” Conrad said. “There have to be further reform and savings in the healthcare accounts.”