When good economics and good politics diverge, politics wins.

The Obama administration’s opening bid on Thursday in negotiations to avert a year-end fiscal crunch included a demand for new stimulus spending and authority to unilaterally raise the U.S. borrowing ceiling, a Republican congressional aide said.

The proposal, made by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to congressional Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, was seen as offering little the Republicans could agree to and was greeted with laughter, the aide said.

‘We can’t move any closer to them because they’re not even on our planet,’ the aide said. ‘It was not a serious proposal.’

Macro is still C+I+G and even if it doesn’t work and cannot work as economics, it is the only acceptable political answer. Where is “responsible government” then?