President Obama announces that an eleventh-hour debt deal has been reached

We all dismiss polls, so what's wrong with one more. Just consider it a little leaf floating by on the wind.

CNN poll shows 63% of Americans favor tax increase on the wealthy.

So the tea party gets to make a very clear decision: do they want to define themselves clearly as anti-majority on such a basic issue? So far, the answer is yes.

 

Agree +2

 

Thank you for posting that. If only those with that opinion would actually go out and vote. It's possible. Perhaps the insane obstructionism of the GOP/"tea party" crazies will get them off their duffs and into a voting booth.

 

not back then. they voted the republicans in for a reason. the democrats have finally started winning the message battle on this. republicans lost a lot of support because nationwide and locally they went after the same wedge issues. then paul ryan really sabotaged them, that's when the old people finally woke up.

someone on msnbc the other day made the point that the republicans are still staunchly agaisnt increases because they can't win primaries without that position.

 

To continue the previous point....further evidence that the supercommittee actually is "leveraged" in all the wrong ways.

Much, much more at the link. For example...

 

I think it would have been better if the Democrats chose the Republican members of the committee and the Republicans chose the Democratic members. Of course, whatever the committee decides, if it decides anything, will be ignored.

 

Beware of the military industrial complex....

-Dwight D Eisenhower

 

Patty Murray just won the "Wings of Liberty Award" for her "longtime support of the aerospace and defense industry".

I suspect this member of the super committee may not be too keen on defense cuts. What a shocker! Prepare to be screwed in the name of corporate profits and bombs.

 

Now excuse me while I depose the Shah, assassinate Lumumba and create a toehold in Indochina. Just need something to do, what with all this domestic social tranquility.

 

Batman was right! The problem with America and American politics is republicans.



House GOP Throws Out Entire Summer Of Debt Ceiling Negotiations In Less Than 10 Minutes

Last August, debt ceiling negotiations between House Republicans and Senate Democrats came to an end when President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act, a not-so-grand bargain that created a legislative super committee tasked with finding spending cuts to offset the debt ceiling increase. If the super committee failed, automatic cuts from the defense budget and discretionary spending levels would offset the cost.

The deal was an end to three tumultuous months of wrangling over the debt ceiling that brought the government to the brink of default and, thanks to the GOP’s intransigence on new tax revenues, led to the first credit downgrade in the nation’s history. House Republicans have repeatedly threatened to renege on the deal, and this morning, they made it official, adding an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that officially replaced spending cuts from the defense sequestration with cuts from the House reconciliation package.

In less than 10 minutes, the House officially unwound a budget deal that took an entire summer to craft, the New York Times’ Jonathan Weisman reports: Without discussion, the House just voted to scrap the defense sequester, 220-201. 21 Republicans voted no. Oh well, there goes that.

After rendering last year’s negotiations completely pointless, House Republicans are poised to pull the exact same charade this year. Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) “will insist that any increase in the debt limit be accompanied by spending ‘cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase,’” putting the economic recovery in jeopardy once again. Last year, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that the spending cuts Republicans required to raise the debt ceiling cost the economy 1.8 million jobs. And yet the GOP insists on recreating the same disastrous scenario all over again.

 

What a horrible shame.

 

The Republicans are all about austerity . . . except when it comes to military spending. They're spending more than what the Pentagon has asked for. When the Pentagon and White House came to an agreement on a proposed budget, the GOP accused the Generals who supported it of being liars. They're spending money on keeping operational ships and aircraft the wants to retire and on keeping open bases the military wants to close. The Pentagon has said that if they're prevented from making cuts in those areas, they're going to have to make cuts in other areas that will have more of a direct impact on our national security. In the wake of DADT being repealed, they injected language that prevent gay servicemen from having weddings or civil union ceremonies on military bases, even if it's legal in the state where the base is. It also allows for indefinite detention of terrorist suspects on US soil, including US citizens.

What's wrong with just giving the Pentagon what it asked for? They want to cut everything else but on this, they want to spend MORE than what was asked for or needed? Why.

Doesn't matter. Senate won't pass it and Obama has already said he'd veto it. Republicans don't care. They passed it anyway. They're looking for another fight. **** like this appeals to their base so they're happy to do it.

 

gee what a surprise. I'm interested in Major's take as he defended this inanity repeatedly saying "democrats have all the leverage".

 

This is the consequence of their Con ideology having been tried and basically failed for the last decade - you get irrational insane behavior based on a concotion of self-reinforcing denial and idiocy.

They have nothing to lose, and nothing to contribute; that they're still treated seriously is a discredit to the media and unfortunately enables their more base instincts.

 

These idiots can't learn from what is going on in Europe?

Austerity during a recession is economic suicide. But Republicans love to spend away a surplus.

 

Their ideology does not allow mere facts to intrude.

Sadly jt will probably take a lot more suffering and an awful lot of civil unrest both here and abroad until the hold of conservative billionaire talking points wanes.

We should all be cheering for the Greeks and the people in Wisconsin, along with the Occupy movement, of course.

 

The House passing this changes nothing, because it dies in the Senate. The Dems still have all the leverage. If they choose not to do anything, taxes go up and defense spending goes down. If there is no compromise, the harm to GOP interests is much more than the harm to the Dems interests. That gives the Dems the leverage.

And the next debt ceiling shouldn't hit until early 2013, so the GOP doesn't have any leverage over Obama by threatening his re-election there either.

 

What's happening in Europe is obviously a sneak preview of what's in store for our country if we do not balance our budget. Spending other people's money works only as long as your lenders are willing to give you money. Greece found out the hard way what happens when Germany and France get sick of funding Greece's excesses. You would think that the White House would observe what is happening in Europe and connect the dots -- unfortunately they have not. Politics and cowardice continues to win out over sound judgment and doing the right thing from a fiscal responsibility standpoint. What has sunk Europe? Liberal policies. Union labor + the folly of alternative energy + huge budget deficits + huge entitlement programs... all liberal priorities. Austerity is what is needed to bring things back to fiscal sanity (obviously you can't repay your debts when you continue to incur debt). When Tsipras and Hollande (two ultra liberals) were elected and rejected austerity is when the collapse accelerated and runs on the banks began. Even liberals should be able to recognize this pattern, although hilariously, some in this thread have gotten it backwards.

The United States economy under Obama is charting the same course as the Costa Concordia. Obama's record deficits have put our economy in a vulnerable position. We are now incapable of having interest rates rise, because our interest payments would crowd out investment and cripple our budget. Europe's weakness has artificially strengthened the dollar in the short term and delayed the Administration's goal of debasing the dollar. Obama would rather inflate our way out of debt than take on the problem head on and actually balance the budget. He has proven incapable of even passing a budget -- he can't build consensus -- he only campaigns and politicks. He is assaulting the way of life for seniors and the lower class with these policies, driving up the cost of gasoline and food while punishing savers with no interest rates. We are handing over control over our economy to our creditors - a true national security threat. Obama has continuously dodged his chance to lead on economic issues, as he continues to prioritize partisan goals over fiscal responsibility. Despite $5+ trillion of deficit spending, a $3 trillion dollar assist from the Federal Reserve in the form of stimulus, and years of 0% interest rates, the economy is still horrible. That tells you just how much of a disaster Obama's policies have been for our economy. Our nation must do what's right and replace this Administration before the damage becomes irreparable.

Obama's #1 goal during the debt ceiling talks last year was not to restore fiscal order, but rather to defer the problem until after the election. Hilariously, the government's estimates on deficit spending were understated, and it now appears as though we could breach the debt ceiling in October. This would be Obama's worst nightmare just days before the elections. It would serve him right.

 

Let me stop you here. You'd have to be either crazy or an idiot to actually have taken university-level economics class and believe the two situations are analogous. Europe is experiencing a demand slump and is hammered into a monetary union but has no corresponding political union to help treat it, and therefore idiots who think that 25% unemployment is preferable to 3% inflation are winning out. This isn't remotely similar to what the US' situation is.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you just haven't taken university-level economics classes.

That being assumed, why should we listen to you? It would be like me pontificating on electrical engineering or other **** that I know nothing about.

 

Wow. That was some pwnage right there.