JPB
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 10:26 am
Boehner's reply --- stop cooperating.

Quote:
John Boehner had a message for House Republicans Wednesday morning: stick together or be left out.

The Ohio Republican privately urged his House colleagues not to waver from their position to keep tax rates frozen, calling it a “principled position.”

“It’s important that everyone in this room continue to be clear with our constituents about what that position is,” Boehner said in a closed meeting of the GOP Conference.

The words come as President Barack Obama takes to the road to sell Americans on his plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Boehner said his party should be “calling out the Democrats in Congress who are saying no to spending cuts, and saying we should go over the fiscal cliff.”

The message that Boehner wants his Republican colleagues to deliver: “We’re fighting for spending cuts. We’re fighting against increases in tax rates that destroy jobs. And we’re fighting for pro-growth tax reform and entitlement reform, the keys to economic growth.”

Boehner used a three-page slide show to prove his point, drawing on a recent poll by David Winston. The poll, displayed on blue pages and festooned by stars, displayed three statistics that bolstered the House Republican position on taxes: that tax rates shouldn’t go up on the rich, but the code should be reformed to eliminate loopholes and lower rates all while cutting spending.

Boehner also brushed back on Rep. Tom Cole’s (R-Okla.) private comments — reported by POLITICO — that Congress should vote to extend middle class tax cuts before talking about tax rates on the wealthy.

“I told Tom earlier in our conference meeting that I disagreed with him,” Boehner said to reporters after the meeting. “He’s a wonderful friend of mine, and great supporter of mine.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84321.html#ixzz2DXFZDQu1
cicerone imposter
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 10:37 am
@JPB,
Here comes the cliff~! Good; I hope this results in more conservatives losing their positions in congress. Can their rating go below zero?
RST
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 10:49 am
@cicerone imposter,
Obama talks to the American people.
GOP talks to an unelected lobbyist Grover Norquist.
One of the main reasons why Barack Obama is the President, while Mitt Romney is on google maps looking for directions to Kolob.
JPB
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 11:14 am
intra-party squabbling is a good thing, imo.

Quote:
Rep. Tom Cole, a five-term Oklahoma Republican, told others in his party Tuesday that even though he does not want to let the top federal income tax rate rise back to the Clinton-era level of 39.6 percent, his party should take that deal for the time being. He stood by that assessment Wednesday, telling reporters the GOP would be wise to act on his idea "soon."

Asked if his proposal would pass the House if it came up for a vote, Cole replied, "My opinion is yes." He said "a lot" of his GOP colleagues agree with his approach. Still, he noted his influence only goes so far. "I'm not the chief whip. I'm just a deputy whip."

Boehner, however, was not buying it.
More
cicerone imposter
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 11:36 am
@RST,
Mr. Green
0 Replies
 
cicerone imposter
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 11:38 am
@JPB,
That's not what's happening; Boehner has gone bonkers with "power" that he really doesn't have. He's going to stretch it for all it's worth - even at the expense of our country's economy. That's plain stupid!
JPB
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 11:54 am
@cicerone imposter,
I've always found him to be kind of slimy in a politically slimy way. I'm not sure why, exactly, but I have a really negative visceral reaction to him. I have a similar reaction to Nancy Pelosi, though. I don't see either of them as sincere to anything other than their own political future.
cicerone imposter
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 12:04 pm
@JPB,
I agree about both Boehner and Pelosi; they are scumballs of the worst kind, and can't be trusted to be there for this country. They use power as if it's their personal playthings. They think it's a game, and are unable to realize how it impacts real people.
cicerone imposter
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 12:08 pm
@cicerone imposter,
Looks like Obama is ready to negotiate on the top rates.

This guy has no backbone, and it will create more problems in the future. Republicans know Obama will bend when push comes to shove.

Rockhead
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 12:10 pm
@cicerone imposter,
there is an old saying where I come from, that "everything is for sale"

just because I'm willing to negotiate, doesn't mean I'm gonna give up the farm...

this is gonna be messy for the GOP no matter how it plays out.
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  2  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 12:10 pm
@cicerone imposter,
I'm not quite sure I understand all this. Republicans are bad because they won't compromise, and Obama is bad because he will?

I think you've got some confusion going on here.
cicerone imposter
 
  3  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 12:14 pm
@roger,
No. Conservatives are obstructionists; they don't know how to compromise.

What do you think Obama has been doing the past four years? Trying to negotiate with the conservatives with the least amount of legislation approved because of the obstructionist conservatives.

Tell me how many legislation the conservatives have compromised on during the past four years?

Quote:
This Congress could be least productive since 1947
By Susan Davis, USA TODAY Updated 8/15/2012 6:33 AM

Congress is on pace to make history with the least productive legislative year in the post World War II era.

By J. Scott Applewhite, AP

Just 61 bills have become law to date in 2012 out of 3,914 bills that have been introduced by lawmakers, or less than 2% of all proposed laws, according to a USA TODAY analysis of records since 1947 kept by the U.S. House Clerk's office.
In 2011, after Republicans took control of the U.S. House, Congress passed just 90 bills into law. The only other year in which Congress failed to pass at least 125 laws was 1995.
These statistics make the 112th Congress, covering 2011-12, the least productive two-year gathering on Capitol Hill since the end of World War II. Not even the 80th Congress, which President Truman called the "do-nothing Congress" in 1948, passed as few laws as the current one, records show.

H2O MAN
 
  -1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 01:52 pm
@cicerone imposter,


This country needs more obstructionists to block and offset Obama and his democrat destructionists.
parados
 
  2  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 01:55 pm
@H2O MAN,
Shouldn't you be down on the street corner waving your gun around and threatening people with Obama bumper stickers?
H2O MAN
 
  -1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 02:01 pm
@parados,
Shouldn't you be going down and working it like you do? Your pimp will be pissed if you give him a hand full of quarters again.
0 Replies
 
cicerone imposter
 
  1  
Reply Wed 28 Nov, 2012 07:58 pm
@H2O MAN,
You wish; even Norquist is looking at death in the near future. Good riddance!

0 Replies
 
JPB
 
  1  
Reply Thu 29 Nov, 2012 05:41 am
This is what the sane people in Washington are up against - absolute ideologues who provide lots and lots of money towards elections and the threat of primary "backlash" against anyone who doesn't toe their line.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/270017-conservative-activist-threatens-to-steer-donors-away-from-rnc
0 Replies
 
JPB
 
  1  
Reply Thu 29 Nov, 2012 07:59 am
I'm getting close to the level of disgust I had prior to the elections when I was ready to rail against any and all incumbents. This is NOT a ******* game and the whole in front of the camera vs back room wheeling and dealing makes me want to hurl.

Here's Politico's current take on the state of play

Quote:
Listen to top Democrats and Republicans talk on camera, and it sounds like they could not be further apart on a year-end tax-and-spending deal – a down payment on a $4 trillion grand bargain.

But behind the scenes, top officials who have been involved in the talks for many months say the contours of a deal – including the size of tax hikes and spending cuts it will likely contain — are starting to take shape.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=391D2852-991E-49C9-93C9-EAAB1A39B56D
H2O MAN
 
  0  
Reply Thu 29 Nov, 2012 09:19 am

Fiscal Cliff Baloney

By Neal Boortz

Do you think if Obama gets his way and taxes are raised on the filthy rich come January, that this will be enough to satisfy Dear Ruler? Hardly. Obama is already talking about “asking the wealthy to pay a little bit more” in addition to letting the Bush tax cuts expire. Here’s the quote from Dear Ruler:

“(A deal now) would give us more time next year to work together on a comprehensive plan to bring down our deficits, to streamline our tax system, to do it in a balanced way–including asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more.”

In other words: BOHICA! You ain’t seen nothing yet! Let’s raise taxes on the rich RIGHT NOW so that we can get to work on a plan next year to make the rich pay even MORE! If Republicans give in to tax increases on the wealthy in this fiscal cliff deal, then this is only the beginning of tax increases aimed squarely at the rich. And the situation will never change because, thanks to Obama’s outrageous spending levels, we will ALWAYS need to reduce our deficit during Obama’s second term. That isn’t going away and therefore, neither will his claims that the wealthy need to “pay a little more” or “pay their fair share.” Because as we know, tax increases on the rich only pays for Obama’s government spending for a measly eight days.

Two things to point out …

We’ve heard what Obama wants to do about revenues ad nauseum … where is his plan to really cut spending?

While Republicans have offered up some revenue in the form of reducing deductions, Democrats have taken entitlements off the table … so who is really holding the middle class hostage?

Democrats like John Larson say that Social Security is not responsible for our deficit and therefore should not be on the table. That may be true, but Social Security certainly IS responsible for a huge part, if not the bulk, of the unfunded liabilities of our country.

Unfunded liabilities? Right. You haven’t heard much about those, have you? Right now the conversation is about the deficit – how much more we spend every year than we take in – and our debt – now over $16 trillion dollars.

Now this debt is money we already owe. It is money that has already been borrowed. Interest is running on that money every day. This is money we ALREADY owe and will have to be paid back.

Unfunded liabilities? That’s the money we have promised in the future to Social Security and Medicare recipients, among others. It is money that we don’t have to pay quite yet, and so we haven’t borrowed the money to pay it. But this is money that we simply have no way of paying without confiscating huge sums of money from working Americans down the road --- or borrowing trillions upon trillions more. This is money that is going to have to be paid over and above the amounts we need to operate the legitimate functions of the federal government such as defense, our courts, etc.

What are we talking about here? Right now we’re at $86 TRILLION and counting. This $16 trillion national debt they talk about? That’s chump change compared to what we REALLY owe. Here … click here and read all about it for yourself.

These phonies – from both sides of the aisle – in Washington are going through this dog and pony show over our deficit and debt … but you won’t hear them say squat about the real problem … the $86 trillion PLUS our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay.

What’s unfortunate is that we are so hyper-focused on this fiscal cliff nonsense, yet basically ignoring the real problems facing us … thanks to Democrats taking entitlements off the table and Obama not really offering anything tangible in terms of real spending cuts. I just don’t have any faith that these people in Washington are really willing to tackle the true issues that could collapse this country. The fiscal cliff will not cause us to collapse .. that will come much later .. but it will come if we do nothing to stop it.
0 Replies
 
revelette
 
  1  
Reply Thu 29 Nov, 2012 09:39 am
@JPB,
Obama might be able to make deals with Boehner but he won't be able to with McConnell who is up for re-election soon in KY where Obama lost badly.

Quote:
Democrats, for their part, privately say McConnell is using his opposition to Obama as a way to boost his own 2014 reelection efforts. McConnell has already made clear how serious he is about that race, hiring Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s campaign manager, building an aggressive operation back home and holding a fundraiser on Nov. 7, the day after the elections.

“It was clear the day after the election that Mitch McConnell is already in full reelection mode and his campaign strategy is to run against the president,” a Democratic aide said. “Nothing has changed.”


Quote:
Still, headed into a 2014 election for a sixth term, McConnell certainly sees the benefit in continuing his role as a chief antagonist of the Obama administration, especially given the president’s poor performance in the Bluegrass State. Even in the May Democratic primary there, 42 percent of voters pulled the lever for “uncommitted” rather than voting for Obama.

McConnell will almost certainly be a top target for the White House and the Democratic leadership in Washington during this cycle. Several unions and pro-Democratic groups already have operatives on the ground in Kentucky looking to dig up dirt on McConnell, according to Democratic sources.

Yet this is a threat McConnell’s team is prepared for.

“It means we’re going to hang Barack Obama around the neck of every Democrat who tries to run against Sen. McConnell,” Jesse Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager, told POLITICO. “He and his agenda are just very, very unpopular in this state. That is something we’re going to pin on any Democrat who wants to step up to the plate.”

While Benton and McConnell aides say the political tactics won’t interfere with the budget deal, Democrats are skeptical that the GOP leader will be able to come to the middle and reach an accord with the president.

“[McConnell] sold his soul to the tea party here to try to stave off a primary,” Dan Logsdon, chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, said Wednesday. “I don’t know how you go to those folks and say, ‘Look, I cut a deal with this man who I told you isn’t worthy to work with.’ He’s really put himself in a tough spot back here.”


source

Perhaps we will get lucky and enough republicans senators will break ranks with McConnell and enough democrat senators will back cuts as well as tax hikes.







 

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