The Democratic Unemployment Act

How will President Obama and his party justify the spending cuts in the debt deal?

By David Weigel
Posted Monday, Aug. 1, 2011, at 11:18 AM ET

On Sunday, after he'd been schooled by leaders on the automatic cuts that could make a debt deal possible, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., talked to reporters. He was tight-lipped on the details but broadly optimistic about the bargain. There was one nagging question I wanted to ask: All the discretionary spending cuts in the plan—did they threaten to slow down growth, to drive up unemployment?