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Subscribe to RSSSen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate leadership. returned to the Capitol this afternoon and briefly described President Obama's meeting today with congressional leaders.
He told reporters that Obama walked back what White House spokesman Jay Carney said earlier in the day about a potential willingness for a short-term budget deal.
Durbin said, "[Obama] made it clear he has not changed his position" -- which is a debt-ceiling increase that lasts through 2012.
(Carney also clarified his statement: "The president does not support a short-term extension of the debt limit, period. The only exception to that is in the event that both sides reach a deal on a long-term extension of the debt limit plus significant deficit reduction, and we needed a very short-term extension (like a few days) to allow a bit of extra time for a bill to work its way through the legislative process.".)
Durbin also said the substance of the bipartisan Gang of Six plan will not be incorporated into the Reid-McConnell legislation.
"We are now down to 12 days; its not practical," Durbin said, adding there is no legislative language and it's not scored by the Congressional Budget Office.
Durbin said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is open to making a "reference" to the Gang of Six in the legislation.
Finally, Durbin pointed the finger at the House and said Senate Democrats are waiting on them. "We're hoping that Mr. Boehner will come up with his approach, whatever it is."
Reid spoke to reporters afterward, echoing Durbin: "I want to hear what the speaker has to say."
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Maybe Contessa Brewer can get an interview and ask them if they have economic degrees.
Oh my. I almost feel sorry for poor Contessa. So ignorant. So sad.
"Durbin pointed the finger at the House and said Senate Democrats are waiting on them. "We're hoping that Mr. Boehner will come up with his approach, whatever it is." "
What cynicism. The House passed a bill to increase the debt limit just yesterday. It's the Senate and Harry Reid that has not acted on it, or presented one of their own. Nice try at shifting the blame.
How about getting a plan passed by the Senate Harry Reid, so then a 'joint conference committee' can reconcile the plans and get this thing taken care of.
Instead, Harry Reid is doing what he always does with a bill passed by the Republican House - he ignores it.
The Republicans should just say - "We passed a plan, now it's your turn".
"Roy" please, the republican plan was a joke and pure theater. It never had any serious chance of passing and they knew it. Shoot, I could have written something on toilet paper and passed it in the house as long as it didn't didn't include any revenue increases...
So wasn't it just last week Obama said he would not accept a short term solution?
Tell all you Obama Cheerleaders out there [and we know there are many] is this a flip, or a flop?
Save me Obi Wan, you are our only hope!
"Boehner's approach, whatever it is?" So he went to bed before the Cut, Cap and balance bill passed the house?
Spanky,
When your as old as Harry Reid, you need your sleep to fight the senility.
Spanky got to be first.
Again.
I smell a conspiracy or something...
No conspiracy, it takes work to be a narcissistic jackass.
Hard work I tell you.
Actually it's not too tough to figure out the article dump pattern here at the mighty FR.
Timing. Is. Everything.
You mean you're still reading his crap?
What are you some kind of masochist or something? ;o)
Yeah, Feisty- like the masochist and sadist that met on the street one day.
The masochist says to the sadist, "kick me- hard, you know- down there, PLEASE"
And the sadist says "No".
That's kind of how I feel some days reading all the crap on these posts. "It hurts so good, quit it some more" You know- all the people saying "This blog is full of libs", then can't seem to move away from it.....
"No conspiracy, it takes work to be a narcissistic jackass."
Yeah, well- smoke 'em if you got 'em, I guess.....
That's a good reason to implement the ignore author button!
You have NO idea how much nicer it is to not have to read their worn out drivel day after day...
I've got it already - they HATE Obama, and since they have no one that's anywhere near capable of beating him in 2012 the more vicious they're going to become!
Can I loan you my haz-mat suit? lol
Feisty - the poster child for the ignorance is bliss crowd.
Does make you wonder what Mr. Feisty does to the poor old gal that she has to have a haz-mat suit.
fiesty - beats the heck out of reading your shtick and dribble.
Hey Feisty et al,
Re: Spanky's comments here. Maybe over time it has become the norm. Stunned to read what he wrote here today. This guy is a serious verbal abuser in my opinion. Not sure what triggered him today, but noone deserves this kind of abuse.
Backhouse,
Schpanky enjoys harrassing women and disabled veterans...takes real guts, I tells ya! Reeeeeaaaaal G-U-T-S guts!
Hi Backhouse & Mickey!
Spanky also gets off on degrading breast cancer survivors...
But, your right Greg his favorite object of demeaning are indeed women...
Maybe it's idea of payback for having little girls beat the crap out of him on the playground! lol
[Maybe it's idea of payback for having little girls beat the crap out of him on the playground!]
There's that...or maybe he spent one too many times as the pivot man in a circle jerk...
LOL!
You win Mickey!
I cannot possibly top your observation! ;o))
PS: I think I told you this once before but, I LOVE LOVE LOVE your sense of humor!
From yesterday...
I sincerely hope that "I want to be quotable" politicians from BOTH niches can hold their powder and something actually gets done. Tomorrow there will be tales of who is in a hissy-fit about what, and some will be "walking back" their initial statements and or suspected inclinations. If it bleeds it leads journalism dictates that the focus will be on the dissension rather than the concurrence within the ranks. And there is NO WAY to control the "true believers" on either side.
So I feel like the character in That old Woody Guthrie tune "worried man", because while I have never held a single doubt about the outcome of the debt ceiling "crisis", I am sure as hell worried that the Go6 plan is destined to become a watered-down version of their watered down version of S/b, ultimately no more than a band-aid.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
We seem to go from one "even worse" scenario to another...
Hmmmm - I think obama uses his minions to test the water first and then changes his tune based on what develops.
I don't recall the TV show or movie, but I remember the line..."what we have here is a failure to communicate"
Oh pick me!!! I don't even have to google any of this: "what we have here is a failure to communicate" was a line in the movie Cool Hand Luke. It was spoken by Strother Martin first and then Paul Newman repeated it at the end of the movie.
Regardless, lets just wait and see if your comment has any merit. At the moment, as is typical these days, it is all media speculation....what happened to reporting the actual news, not what they think will be news....I miss Walter Cronkite.
"american" you can't communicate if one side doesn't listen. How well do you do with a co-worker that ignores your input or says my way on the highway on a project.
I can't seem to figure out who would benefit the most if the debt ceiling is NOT raised in a timely manner and the country does fall into the precipice of default.
The Republicans would obviously blame Obama and visa-versa.......but I'm having a serious problem because I believe that the American electorate WOULD somehow blame this on the President and NOT the Republicans......not because of the facts, but because the Republican spin machine is such a smooth running apparatus.
In an odd sort of way, I kinda hope that the debt ceiling isn't raised and the Republicans ARE blamed for all the problems that would occur and the Democrats would sail into a second Obama term and take back control of both houses of Congress and most of the State Governorships and we enter a period of Democrat control for a decade because folks will finally see the wolf in sheep's clothing.
But, surely it's not that simple....right?
"Spike" if were only that simple. All we can hope for is that all reasonable people vote. Turnout is the key, the rational and moderate folks in this country outnumber the extremists, but the extremists win when voter turn out is low. So its up to you and me and other people in the middle to be active and vote in 2012 or we will only have ourselves to blame if we get Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman or Mitt Romney as president - they will indeed destroy the middle class with their supply-side economics, love for all things corporate and intolerance. They all suffer from the "Leave it to Beaver Syndrome" - Let's all go back to the way things were in the 1950's.