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Subscribe to RSS“Maine's Republican senators will vote against the House Republican 2012 budget authored by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, with Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe in opposition to the House GOP-proposed Medicare changes,” the Portland Press Herald reports.
“House and Senate leaders are setting themselves up to fail,” Roll Call writes. “Senate Democrats have long been planning for this week’s political show vote designed to defeat the House Republican budget plan, and now the House GOP has its own show planned — a stand-alone debt ceiling vote as soon as next week with the express purpose of killing it.”
“House Republicans will hold a symbolic vote next week to pressure Democrats into accepting deep spending cuts in exchange for lifting the $14.3 trillion debt limit,” The Hill reports. “The move, announced Tuesday in a closed-door conference meeting, is designed to show President Obama and Senate Democrats that Congress will not unconditionally grant the government more borrowing authority.”
Vice President Biden stopped at a stakeout in the Capitol last night after more than two hours of deficit reduction talks, NBC’s Libby Leist reports. Biden told reporters that White House, Republican and Democratic negotiators are making progress towards agreeing on a large number of cuts. "I think we're in a position where we'll be able to get to well above a trillion dollars pretty quickly in terms of what would be a downpayment on the process," he said. Biden added, "Everybody knows that at the end of the day, we're going to have to make some really tough decisions on some of the big ticket items"
Biden said he told Republicans that "revenues" are going to have to be part of the deal and when asked if they accepted that he joked, "Republicans love it, they just love it"
He ended by saying he couldn’t reveal any more details. "The bottom line is the best way to test it is, in my view being around here all these years, we've been having serious meetings about the most critical issue facing the country economically and everybody's still talking to one another and they're not talking much to you." The group included Sens. Kyl, Inouye, Baucus and House members Cantor, Van Hollen, and Clyburn.
How about this fact? “With Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) and his wife filing for divorce last week, The Oregonian reports that every lawmaker who has represented Oregon's 5th congressional district has divorced while in office,” PoliticalWire writes.
Is Grover Norquist the biggest obstacle standing in the way of a bipartisan compromise on the nation’s long-term debt? Bloomberg writes, per PoliticalWire: "There may be enough congressional Republicans enthralled with Norquist, a small-government advocate who has spent the last quarter-century pressing lawmakers to sign a pledge never to raise taxes, to kill any comprehensive, bipartisan deal to rein in the $14.3 trillion national debt, say current and former members of Congress." And: Norquist "says he has secured written pledges from 40 of the 47 Republicans in the Senate and 233 of 240 party members in the House."
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After the results in yesterdays NY-26, that's not going to be a hard fight. The GOP needs to rethink those deep cuts to social entitlement programs or their going to give back all the seats won in 2010.
Could America finally be awakening from our collective slumber and apparent ignorance regarding the real intentions of the GOP, Tea Party, and their corporate backers? Am I kidding myself that it could possibly be true that the near hypnotic allure of Fox News could be losing some luster?
As I sit here watching the returns and various pundit analyses regarding the NY 26 race, I am encouraged that even in such a historically secure GOP stronghold, the Democratic candidate won with a margin of about 5%. She was outspent (undoubtedly with support from the likes of the Koch brothers) by something like 4 to 1 yet still managed to win in a district where Republicans outnumber Democrats by some 30,000. It gives me renewed hope that America may finally be shedding our blinders, pulling out our ear plugs, and actually looking at where the parties really stand and who they are really fighting for.
I used to be a rather active poster here, but I gradually came to realize that there was really no point in my continuing to engage in debates here since nobody seemed to actually be interested in discussing the issues. Rather that intelligently discussing the various opposing views in a rational and civil manner, it seemed to always degenerate into the defensive use of the talking points as spewed by the echo chambers on BOTH sides of the aisle. At that point, things would typically move to the personal attacks and hyperbole that leads nowhere and simply muddles the arguments and further delays the necessary discussions that NEED to take place if any of the pressing issues we face are ever to be resolved.
I decided to once again participate here in the hope that we might possibly be able to once again engage in reasonable, rational, and civil discourse on the issues we face. Part of the reason I was encouraged enough to start posting again is the fact that the most recent Arbitron rankings were released recently and show that Rush suffered a 33% decline in listenership and Hanity suffered a 30% decline. Could it be that even those that have fed off the hate machine for the last decade are FINALLY waking up to the realization that you have been brainwashed for over a decade to vote AGAINST your own interests?
For those that still want to go nuts defending those that engage in the racial baiting, hate mongering, and trash talking, please just ignore my post and move along to the next flame thread. For the rest of you, I am interested in a reasoned discussion with people that feel they can actually defend and support THEIR opinion (not one fed to you by the media) in a sane, civil, and courteous manner. Please be willing to state WHY you feel a particular way and not just passionately scream your opinion. If you cannot rationalize WHY you hold your opinion, you are not up to the challenge I present here and I will politely decline to continue any discussion on that ground.
I am sick and tired of what I perceive to be the incessant and repeated attacks on the middle class, our civil liberties, and the traditional values that made America great. Until we once again value the contributions of the middle class and the workers that comprise it, we will never again attain our old levels of wealth and prosperity as a nation. Despite the objections of the GOP, we provided LOANS (not a bailout) to GM and Chrysler. Now that both have paid back the loans with interest and GM is hiring back 4,000 workers, where are those on the right that were clamoring to shutter the plants and idle even more workers in the feeder industries? It sickens me to see the GOP willing to sacrifice what makes America great in their pursuit of the almighty corporate contribution. Because they want so badly to castrate the unions, the GOP wanted to close the last remaining manufacturing base we have left in this country. They should be ashamed of themselves.
I am interested in an America where ALL can be prosperous, not just the top 2% and those in the Fortune 500. The corporate puppeteers that control the strings of the likes of Roger Ailes, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, etc., are laughing all the way to the bank. They have no problem whatsoever wiping the soles of their $3,000 Gucci loafers on the backs of the American middle class as they walk in to the country club to celebrate the continuation of the Bush tax cuts. They also could care less if they lose a special election or two or even control of either house in the short term. They want nothing less than to decimate the working middle class and eliminate any possible barrier to their complete corporate and big money control of our government.
I have no problem with people making money for their hard work. The problem is, the people at the top are NOT the ones doing the work. These are the people that have reaped the benefit of the largest rape of the US treasury in our nation’s history and have spent the last 8 years enjoying tax cuts. Where are all the jobs for all the trillions we gave in tax breaks that the GOP is willing to decimate Medicare to fund?
We need to stop attacking the unions and the people that work for a living and stop trying to bleed them dry to continue the fantasy that we do not have a revenue problem. You thought you could finance your continued luxurious ways of life by trashing Medicare and you thought we were so brain washed and brain dead from the repeated drumming of Fox News that we would not really see what you were REALLY trying to do?
Last year at this time, I had absolutely no hope that this country was ever going to pull our collective head out of the clouds and get back to the days when we were willing and ABLE to conduct a CIVIL debate over important issues. Now that the influence of the likes of Rush, Sean, Beck, and Roger Ailes may be waning, is there actually hope? Perhaps NY 26 fired the opening salvo in the election cycle that marks the return to sanity in the American political discussion. NY 26 clearly made a statement that will make the GOP sit up and take notice. Since Boehner (in his infinite wisdom) forced all but 4 House Republicans to vote for the Ryan plan, maybe NY 26 is the harbinger of what to expect in 2012. We can only hope that we can restore sanity to the Congress and get people in office that care more about jobs and the economy than whether we need (yet another) ban on abortion funding.
Boehner and the entire freshman Republican caucus campaigned on and ran numerous campaign spots screeching to President Obama “where are the jobs?” Once they were in control, they forgot all about jobs and the economy and only have time to debate and vote on preserving big oil’s tax breaks, extending tax cuts to the rich, killing Medicare as we know it, gutting any and every important government program for those most in need during this economic downturn, and further limiting abortion rights. While I totally respect and understand that these are all core issues for the GOP, you would think they could have actually put off SOME of these pressing issues for their corporate owners just long enough to do something to stimulate the economy and actually address the budget issues we face.
I am eager to see just how the spin will be played on the right to show how this one election is not a harbinger of things to come in 2012. I can’t wait to see how twisted they get as they desperately try to make their arguments that the Ryan plan was not responsible for this outcome. lol
Disgusted - what a great post - I think you have hit the nail on the head. Too many times I've read here where one side tears at the other side with out offering any new or constructive ideas. As you mentioned the "Silent Majority" is starting to awaken and is realizing what is at stake. A wise supervisor of mine years ago said "Criticism for the sake of criticism is useless unless there is something constructive to it". It seems that the GOP has strayed from the "compassionate conservatism" to "shock and awe" and the American populace will not take it.
Disgusted- this is a great post. And, even thogh I, too, get down in the mud too often, I have to agree with you sentiments regarding that "us versus them" that goes on way too much on here. Thought I'd reply to this post instead of the one on First Thoughts, as it gets way too crowded too fast on that one.
Our country is for sale to the highest bidders. Or are we too late- has it already been sold?
Disgusted-Wow. What a refreshing point of view on civil discourse. I have a feeling we will enjoy your brand of blogging going forward. Bravo.
“House and Senate leaders are setting themselves up to fail,”
and the tax payers will pick up the tab for their failures. these are grown ups we elected........clearly, the people don't want ryan's budget but with their hand tied to bags of money they've received, republicans will never give up until their masters are happy.
Disgusted in PA--Great thoughts! I still have hopes we are not simply voices in the desert being heard by no one.
I can't believe that Savannah Gutherie would rake Steve Israel over the coals because the Democrats ran a campaign ad that was (a) accurate, (b) insightful and (c) seemingly very effective.
The truth hurts, Savannah.
As Israel pointed out, the Republicans took over the House via mega-million dollars worth of advertising and campaigning based on a pack of lies (most notably their "death panels" bogus charge).
Gutherie's "Do you mean that just because they did it, it's OK if you do it?" argument attempts to diminish the positions of both sides as merely two clumps of the same mud being slung.
It's a bogus argument - and one which reinforces a strategy in political dialog that is a danger to our country's political process.
The way it works is: (a) One side offers an outrageously false attack on its opponent. (b) The opponent defends itself by replying in kind. (c) The mass media declares the back & forth as a "food fight" thereby (d) marginalizing the defensive argument as no better than the outrageous attack.
It would be far better if Savannah and her media brothers & sisters analyzed each statement at face-value.
In the case of Wheelchair ad (which I'd compare to Lyndon Johnson's mushroom cloud and Hilary Clinton's 3 am phone call) - it puts forth a visual metaphor which accurately depicts both the motive and expected outcome of Cong. Ryan's stated policy. If it proves overly harsh (or, as in the case of the Clinton ad, the public doesn't totally buy it), the voters will render their verdict on election day.
While I tend to be an "accentuate the positive" advocate when it comes to political ads, I feel that the Wheelchair ad has been a long time coming and that there are times when the bully on the street makes life unbearable, you have to buckle your chin-strap and hit back hard. This is one of those times. Maybe the Dems would still control the House if they had done this a year or so ago.
Pointed out to me yesterday on another blog (Chrysler pay-off) was a lack of getting the message right by Democrats. To paraphrase it, "Democrats should be emphasizing the effectiveness of Keynesian economics and not emphasize credit for signing the TARP loans."
I think this has some merit.
This ship is sinking fast, women and children will placed in the life boats first.
Snowe and Collins are proof that not ALL Republicans are bad for our country. Maine voters should be proud of their Republican senators.