Washington Fails Us Again

[Boom_70]

The crack committee has failed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/us/politics/deficit-deal-fell-apart-after-seeming-agreement.html?_r=1&hp

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Let's see. Once again, one side ******* about the deficit, then when offered a plan that would reduce it even more, but would require the wealthy to pay more in taxes, it's a no go.

Yep, sounds about right.

 

[trifectarich]

Incredibly inept people.

 

[Boom_70]

Let's see. Once again, one side ******* about the deficit, then when offered a plan that would reduce it even more, but would require the wealthy to pay more in taxes, it's a no go.

Yep, sounds about right.

I think there is enough blame to go around on both sides.

 

[YankeeFan]

Predictable.

Congress punts. Committee fails. Obama is silent.

The "cuts" which aren't scheduled to kick in until 2013 -- conveniently after the next election -- will never happen.

 

[Boom_70]

And the can gets kicked down the road again.

 

[deskslave]

Let's see. Once again, one side ******* about the deficit, then when offered a plan that would reduce it even more, but would require the wealthy to pay more in taxes, it's a no go.

Yep, sounds about right.

I think there is enough blame to go around on both sides.

No. This bipartisan equivalency bull**** is just that. This is about one side digging in its heels and refusing to accede to reality. Although Democrats are not blameless, that the solution must include tax increases is obvious to anyone with more than three functioning brain cells. This is not a 50/50 situation, and it never has been.

 

[Starman]

Let's see. Once again, one side ******* about the deficit, then when offered a plan that would reduce it even more, but would require the wealthy to pay more in taxes, it's a no go.

Yep, sounds about right.

I think there is enough blame to go around on both sides.

No. This bipartisan equivalency bull**** is just that. This is about one side digging in its heels and refusing to accede to reality. Although Democrats are not blameless, that the solution must include tax increases is obvious to anyone with more than three functioning brain cells. This is not a 50/50 situation, and it never has been.

But to say it's both parties' fault sounds so... so.... "fair and balanced."

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Please note: All this means is that no REPLACEMENT deficit reduction has been proposed to substitute for the 1.2 trillion in budget cuts which will automatically come into effect in 2013. It's only after Congress gets rid of the defense half of the cuts and then enacts further tax cuts by extending the Bush tax cuts forever -- as will happen like clockwork next year -- that it's fair to say it failed.
But why even pretend anyone cares about the deficit? Given their choice of losing Medicare and Social Security benefits or the deficit, Americans are going to say, deficit forever! At this point, if Martians invaded Kansas, the Republicans would oppose tax increases to pay for interplanetary war.

 

[Boom_70]

Let's see. Once again, one side ******* about the deficit, then when offered a plan that would reduce it even more, but would require the wealthy to pay more in taxes, it's a no go.

Yep, sounds about right.

I think there is enough blame to go around on both sides.

No. This bipartisan equivalency bull**** is just that. This is about one side digging in its heels and refusing to accede to reality. Although Democrats are not blameless, that the solution must include tax increases is obvious to anyone with more than three functioning brain cells. This is not a 50/50 situation, and it never has been.

The committee is split 50 - 50 right?

I think the Simpson / Bowles recommendations were the best way to go.
Obama should have got behind them.

 

[User 11148]

This development is "news" in the sense that the next full moon will be on Dec. 10 is news. As soon as they announced the makeup of the committee -- equal parts political matter and anti-matter -- it should have been obvious to anyone with three functioning brain cells that no agreement would be reached.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

To reiterate. The political party that enacts the Simpson-Bowles recommendations will lose the next election in a landslide that'd make McGovern and Mondale feel better. Every public opinion poll, and there have been hundreds, show that overwhelming majorities not only oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare, but do so with almost violent anger. The only budget proposals to gain majority support are cutting foreign aid (picayune) and increasing taxes on rich people, which in a country ruled by rich people is impossible.

 

[micropolitan guy]

There will be a tax increase, when the Republicans let the one-year cut in SSI taxes - you know, a tax cut that actually did put some money in the average Joe's pocket every paycheck - expire.

It will protect the Bush tax cuts for its very rich friends, however, and push for cuts in SSI and Medicare benefits, two more programs that also actually benefit the average taxpayer.

 

[TigerVols]

I wonder how many of the Nordquist pledge-signers, who are using this as a club to destroy the American way of life, are also divorced?

Because last I checked, your wedding vows are a pledge to stay married forever.

 

[YankeeFan]

This bipartisan equivalency bull**** is just that.

Liberals objecting to moral equivalency. That's rich.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The simplest way for Obama to get re-elected is simply to state he will veto any cuts in SS or Medicare for as long as he is President. He won't do it, because all Democrats have a suicide impulse, but that's how to do it. Make the other party handle this hand grenade. And by all means, let the Republicans vote for a tax increase. As we have seen in Europe, the only way to impose "austerity" opposed by the public is by cooperation between major political parties.

 

[Boom_70]

The simplest way for Obama to get re-elected is simply to state he will veto any cuts in SS or Medicare for as long as he is President. He won't do it, because all Democrats have a suicide impulse, but that's how to do it. Make the other party handle this hand grenade. And by all means, let the Republicans vote for a tax increase. As we have seen in Europe, the only way to impose "austerity" opposed by the public is by cooperation between major political parties.

Last time around he got elected by saying he was going to close down Gitmo and insure that Justice Department would abide by the Constitution.

 

[TigerVols]

The simplest way for Obama to get re-elected is simply to state he will veto any cuts in SS or Medicare for as long as he is President. He won't do it, because all Democrats have a suicide impulse, but that's how to do it. Make the other party handle this hand grenade. And by all means, let the Republicans vote for a tax increase. As we have seen in Europe, the only way to impose "austerity" opposed by the public is by cooperation between major political parties.

Last time around he got elected by saying he was going to close down Gitmo and insure that Justice Department would abide by the Constitution.

Yeah, that's why he got elected.

****er is such a typical politician all he did was ignore the only two promises he made. No wonder the GOP's individual candidates -- not a lifelong politician among them -- are all leading Obama by a landslide in head-to-head polls.

 

[YankeeFan]

The simplest way for Obama to get re-elected is simply to state he will veto any cuts in SS or Medicare for as long as he is President. He won't do it, because all Democrats have a suicide impulse, but that's how to do it. Make the other party handle this hand grenade. And by all means, let the Republicans vote for a tax increase. As we have seen in Europe, the only way to impose "austerity" opposed by the public is by cooperation between major political parties.

Last time around he got elected by saying he was going to close down Gitmo and insure that Justice Department would abide by the Constitution.

Yeah, that's why he got elected.

****er is such a typical politician all he did was ignore the only two promises he made. No wonder the GOP's individual candidates -- not a lifelong politician among them -- are all leading Obama by a landslide in head-to-head polls.

This is great: http://tv.breitbart.com/thrill-is-gone-matthews-turns-on-obama-i-hear-stories-that-you-would-not-believe/

Chris Matthews looses his mind talking about Obabma.

"What's he going to do in his second term." "He hasn't told us." "Give us our marching orders."

 

[deskslave]

This bipartisan equivalency bull**** is just that.

Liberals objecting to moral equivalency. That's rich.

Look! Over here! A shiny thing!

Fail.

This is not about "moral equivalency." This is about one side trying to wriggle out of the share of blame it deserves by claiming that everyone deserves to be blamed equally. They don't. End of story.