The Deficit Deals

Ezra Klein previews them:

The negotiators see deficit reduction as having three phases, connected to three forcing events. The first forcing event is the debt ceiling, and that will lead to the “downpayment” and the establishment of trigger policies that will require more deficit reduction later. That’s where we are now. The second forcing event is the December 2012 expiration of the Bush tax cuts. That’s when we’ll see the real showdown over revenues. The third forcing event will be in 2013 or 2014, and it’ll come from the deficit trigger, which will begin making automatic cuts about that time. That’s where we might see revenues unrelated to the Bush tax cuts and structural reforms to entitlements.