The "americans voted for the status quo" thing has become a pretty standard trope on winger websites. basso, as usual, is just recycling party-mandated talking points.
So he went from a vast majority to a significant majority, Oh noes! Reminds me of election night when one of the fox news anchors said something along those lines and followed it up with "I hope this teaches the president a lesson.".
agreed... we need to cut DoD spending regardless... thats the thing that irks me about the repubs right now.. they keep talking about cutting spending yet they wont touch the DoD.. Fiscal Cliff here we come!! but i hope they work something out.
Obama threatens a veto. I think that's great. He's got nothing to lose. Let's go over the damn thing in GOP-stamped barrel.
Pretty draconian cuts to services and research as well. I think about one in ten grant-funded scientific in the laboratories in the US would suddenly have the plug pulled. Things like equipment money and grad. student salaries: gone on Jan. 1. You will understand my bias since Mrs. B-Bob's job is funded via NIH money.
I understand. Even the DoD cuts I support will have ugly ramifications in the short term. But I don't want Obama to cave on getting some progress made. For some odd (and unjustified) reason...I'm feeling rather optimistic he won't.
For better or worse, Obama has the all the cards. Nevertheless, he has been offering bargains of various caliber with the intent to compromise on a solution, ostensibly because he would rather avoid the cliff if at all possible. If the GOP does not want to negotiate regardless of these facts, I'd say that's their fault. You may feel otherwise. No skin off my back. I would, however, mention that polls seem to indicate a majority of folks feel as I do (EDIT - see Sam's post below), not that such will mean much to you.
Cheer up commodore mcbasso - if there's one thing Republicans actually did win recently, it's ownership of the fiscal cliff temper tantrum and the negative fallout therefrom in the eyes of the american people.
If the cliff really takes us into a new recession (or a renewed recession, let's say), then I truly believe Boehner will go down as a sort of incompetent politician, a man in way over his head. Whether or not any of us think that's fair, the evidence is compelling. Obama is moving on his numbers, while Boehner is now flailing around with this "plan B" game. It could be, with the radical elements behind him, he is in a no-win situation.
Given the merry band of idiots he nominally leads, and the fact they are resoundingly unpopular outside of their regional power bases and just got pantsed in November (and only hold any power at all due to gerrymandering...) he's between a rock and a hard place and a pile of dogpoop. There's not really a good outcome for him, there's only bad outcomes for the country which he can help try to avert. Thus far he's not. Unsurprising of course given that he's already gone the way of using debt default as a play-toy to use.
Ace of Spades on the House votes today http://minx.cc/?post=335840 I tend to agree. Not going to happen I know, but if a journalist were to ask Obama why he's unwilling to extend current tax rates for non-millionaires, what should his response be?
