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Subscribe to RSSThe front page of the New York Times with the photo of a sullen-looking Boehner: “Boehner cancels tax vote in face of G.O.P. revolt.” Its lede: “Speaker John A. Boehner’s effort to pass fallback legislation to avert a fiscal crisis in less than two weeks collapsed Thursday night in an embarrassing defeat after conservative Republicans refused to support legislation that would allow taxes to rise on the most affluent households in the country.”
The Washington Post: “House Speaker John A. Boehner threw efforts to avoid the year-end ‘fiscal cliff’ into chaos late Thursday, as he abruptly shuttered the House for the holidays after failing to win support from his fellow Republicans for a plan to let tax rates rise for millionaires.”
The L.A. Times called it “a stunning political defeat that effectively turned resolution of the year-end budget crisis over to President Obama and the Democrats.”
Politico’s lede: “Things were so bad for Speaker John Boehner Thursday night, support for his Plan B tax bill so diminished, the limits of his power with his own party laid bare, that he stood in front of the House Republican Conference and recited the Serenity Prayer. ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’ Boehner nearly cried.”
The Washington Post also says Boehner was “near tears.” From the story: “The failure of a grand bargain was the latest oh-so-close moment for Obama and Boehner, who have been dancing around a deal to cut the deficit for the better part of the past two years. And the collapse of Plan B set a new low in Boehner’s sometimes rocky relationship with a House Republican caucus that has long been uneasy about the speaker’s dealmaking with Obama.”
More from behind the scenes: “Having offered so much, Boehner hoped he could keep the details quiet long enough for him to get Obama to agree to enough spending cuts to satisfy his caucus — and so that his leadership team could make the case for compromise in person. But the details did not stay secret for long. Reports leaked out Saturday evening that Boehner had agreed to raise taxes on millionaires. That was followed by a more alarming leak Sunday evening that Boehner was also willing to grant Obama another increase in the federal debt limit. Home in their districts, unsuspecting rank-and-file Republicans were stunned. At that point, senior aides to those lawmakers began anxiously reaching out to GOP leadership staff wanting to know what had happened to the Boehner demand that every dollar in a debt ceiling increase would come with an equal cut in spending. Boehner’s staff scrambled to issue a memo to Republican aides and outside conservative strategists that explained his offer included $1 trillion in spending cuts — roughly the increase in the debt ceiling. But other leadership aides said that the damage had already been done.”
The Wall Street Journal: “Boehner's Budget 'Plan B' Collapses.”
Before you get your parachutes, National Journal’s Frates writes, “if politics is part theater – and God knows there’s been plenty of choreographed drama this week – then the House vote tonight marks the end of Act II with the all-important third act climax to come. There is still plenty of time, and opportunity, for Boehner and Obama to strike a deal. … The path to a deal remains. The only question is whether the speaker and the president can walk down it together.”
More: “[B]ehind the rhetoric there was a strategy at play. The plan appeared designed to move Obama toward the speaker’s position of smaller tax increases and larger spending cuts while helping conservatives wrap their heads around the idea of voting for a tax hike.” And: “Though Boehner couldn't get his caucus on record supporting a tax hike, his voter counters now have a much better idea of how many Republicans could get behind that approach. That's important because if Obama and Boehner strike a deal, he won't need to deliver all the votes himself. An Obama-blessed package will win support from House Democrats, who opposed Plan B. Most Republican insiders believe Boehner only has to deliver about half his members to keep his speakership.”
Just asking, why would Boehner negotiate terms with the president he already knew he couldn’t sell?
The speaker struggled to round up GOP votes for a package that only would have raised taxes on millionaires. If Boehner had trouble selling his own package, it sends a message to Obama that his position, raising taxes on people who make over $400,000, is going to be even tougher to pass.
Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp was on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and talked of getting something done, but when asked point blank if he’d vote for a tax increase on anyone, he said, flatly, no. He claimed Speaker Boehner always "dives left" and "conservatives are on the outside.” He said, “I disagree with John Boehner actually caving on taxes.”
Then the conversation went to gun control. Huelskamp initially said there could be a “conversation” on what the solutions to the problem could be, but then said, "It's not a gun problem; it's a people problem."
Buried: “Congressional Republicans on Thursday challenged the Obama administration's plan for correcting flaws exposed by the deadly attacks on the U.S. mission in Libya, pressing for an overhaul of its approach to security and probing to discover what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top officials knew before the attacks,” the L.A. Times writes.
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Merry CLIFF-MESS
Another Christmas of bitter tears into a tumbler of value brand bourbon!
Can Boehner ever win?
Comprehensive Friday Post
Get Mad, Stay Mad!
So here we are, one week out from the horrific slaughter of the innocent at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. People dither, dawdle, delay and deflect about the causes and the solutions to end the gun fetish nightmare that is demonstrably slaughtering more men, women and children on a rapidly increasing basis. I say, right now, you have to Get Mad and Stay Mad!
Everyday that gun control laws don’t change so that rational people can live without fear, YOU, Yes YOU, need to see the Specter of Death, swathed in the grimy, fetid fabric of darkness, a sepulchreful grin in a bleached, leering skull, reaching a bony, withered hand, dripping with the gore of the freshly killed coming to clasp your children into the eternal, unchanging night that is death’s domain. You need to Get Mad and Stay Mad!
And by mad, I do not mean the insensate, inchoate rage that characterizes the typical American gun wielding psycho-killer. I’m speaking of the anger of righteous indignation, a white hot fury that won’t be banked until justice under the law and reform of the institutions that allow this gun madness to be perpetrated into an endless, blood soaked perpetuity is achieved. Get Mad and Stay Mad!
Now some people may think the 20 or 26 “Acts of Kindness” is an appropriate response. Or flooding Newtown with teddy bears and stuffed animals and free Christmas trees is a relevant way to deal with this situation. This is a typical momentary, self-indulgent, conceited panacea of slothful, indolent eyewash that typifies the American response. Has 26 acts of kindness changed a single law? Has a memorial of teddy bears and frost bitten flower arrangements helped a mentally ill person get the treatment they need before the voices in their head direct them to the next killing field? No, but it is so typically American to think, “Well, I’ve bought a toy or I donated to Good Will; I wonder who won “Survivor” or “X Factor” or whatever the next mundane, inane, attention grabbing freak show is passing for “entertainment” these days?” That won’t cut it anymore. Get Mad and Stay Mad!
Am I hurting you? Am I assaulting your feelings? Do you think it’s as bad as being riddled by multiple, high speed .223 or nine millimeter bullets, tearing your flesh asunder, penetrating you with searing pain, while your brain tries to process the surprise and shock of your sudden, vicious violation? A violation that you’re to young to comprehend as the precious lifeblood flows from your body and chills to the same temperature as the linoleum floor that you’re forever staining with the essence of your vitality. Am I hurting you? As hurt as a parent who dropped their child off at school never expecting to get a call about a mass murder? As hurt as the gut wrenching, nerve snapping adrenaline surge of searching to find your child’s face in a crowd of bewildered, weeping and terrorized children? As hurt as the parent who is asked to come and identify a bullet riddled, metal shredded corpse that only hours ago was their beloved light and joy of their earthly existence? If that’s what it takes to motivate you to action, then I hope I’ve stung you to the very core of your being and that you might taste even one salty, bitter tear as it courses slowly down your face in between constricted gasps and sobs of sorrow. Then, Get Mad and Stay Mad!
So, what can you do? What can I, one person do? Block out some of your 1080 p “story time” that’s being regurgitated from your DVR and write your elected representatives to demand change now. Find like minded friends, neighbors and co-workers and pick a date to march, en masse, to your state capitol to demand change. Then take those same people and find more and take chartered buses to the nation’s capitol on an appropriate day, say, Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2013, depart those buses and rally on the Mall to demand change from your elected representatives. If it doesn't work the first time, keep doing it, until you get the results that end this gun crazed madness that is killing innocent citizens; men, women and children at our schools and malls and churches and political gatherings. Until that happens, Get Mad and Stay Mad!
Westward, “Ho’ ”
It’s time to issue a clarion call. A call to all the sufferers of Obama Derangement Syndrome, with their tri-corned, tin foil hats nestled snugly upon their heads, who believe that F.E.M.A. death camps are being constructed across the nation waiting to sweep them up for their “patriotic” beliefs. A call to all that believe climate change is a United Nations plot to steal their liberty and that the Affordable Care Act is going to add more fluoride to pollute “our precious essence”. Come heed my call.
Westward, westward you must go, to the land of half term governors, the land toward which the action of the sea is directed, a state that has the distinction of being the easternmost, westernmost and northernmost, (giving you three directions to brag about, unlike ”The South“), a land as big as two thirds of the continental United States. Yes, take your trailer off blocks and gas up the S.U.V.; Alaska is calling you.
Alaska, a land of untrammeled wilderness, where reality television stars rape the land with hapless grins on their mirthless faces. Alaska, where every variety of game is available for you to unload your weapons upon with the rapacious glee of an amphetamine crazed wolverine. (And they have wolverines, though how much meth they use, I know not.) Alaska, where if you have the virgins, they have the volcanoes. Alaska, where multi-national corporations are waiting to employ YOU with their schemes to utterly destroy every eco-system that might have a penny of resources in it. And hey, don’t forget, Alaska will pay you if you can live there for 366 days and every year after that. Don’t go Galt, dig Galt’s gulch in Alaska.
Yes, that star of the north; “North to the Future” is their motto and what a glorious future you could take part in! Spending long summer days organizing militias to stop those communist Russkies and spending long winter nights rewriting the Constitution until it finally agrees with the Book of Revelations. So take your Confederate flags and your Gadsden banners and plant your standard in Alaska.
Head on up, and leave the heavy lifting of economic and social change to us down here. We’ll try to let you stay as backwards as you want to be, with minimal intrusion. Hell, I’ll bet when enough of you are up there, Canada will be more than happy to build a border wall for you, since everyone knows how fond you all are of those.
From Fish Hook to Funny River, Kalifornsky to Kipnuk, Moose Creek to Meadow Lake (and let‘s not forget fabulous Wasilla), the siren song of Alaska beckons. So do yourself and everybody else a great big favor, and start the migration now. Westward, “Ho’ ”!
P.S. Take the Republican party with you, they won’t be missed. Oh yeah, and Ted Nugent, please!
ForePlinger, that one goes on the instant classic list. Too true and too funny and how I wish they would follow yor advice.
IT’S OFFICIAL!
Barrack Hussein and Democrats are the Party of No!
No budget for 1,332 days.
No plan for jobs.
No plan for the fiscal cliff.
No plan for sequestration.
No plan for increasing growth.
No plan for cutting spending.
Obama has not, is not and will not cut anything from our budget, let alone our debt.
On June 12, Barrack Hussein claimed he already signed $2 trillion of cuts and allegedly proposed $2 trillion more in cuts.
On June 22, he said he was going to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion.
On August 14 he stated he already cut a trillion dollars.
So which is it?
The truth is, none of the above. There has been no cut in spending and the 2013 budget dramatically increases deficit spending.
In 2008, according to the OMB, federal spending was $2.983 trillion. In 2009, after he voted for the $700 billion Bailout and signed the $833 billion $timulu$, spending increased to $3.518 trillion. In 2010 federal spending was $3.456 trillion. In 2011 spending we $3.603. This year OMB estimates our deficit budget will be $3.796 trillion. Since 2010 federal spending has increased by $340 billion.
There has been NO trillion dollar cut in spending.
When Barrack Hussein claims that he already signed $2 trillion of cuts, he means the debt-limit deal from last Augusts debt-ceiling deal. In exchange for agreeing to borrow an additional $2.1 trillion it was agreed to cap the amount of increase in future federal spending, but no date was ever agreed on when this should happen.
This mirrors the 1982 TEFRA agreement that Reagan agreed to which Tip O'Neil later reniged on.
The CBO explained what the deal might mean. If appropriations in the next 10 years are equal to the caps on discretionary spending and the maximum amount of funding is allowed, CBO estimates the legislation would reduce budget deficits by $917 billion between 2012 and 2021. In addition, legislation originating with the joint select committee would cut deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over the 10 year period. Thus we get a total of at least $2.1 trillion over the period.
However, the CBO warned, "Those amounts are relative to CBO's March 2011 baseline adjusted for subsequent appropriation action."
So, in essence, this will NOT cut spending, it would cut the size of anticipated future deficits based on the deficits the government was already planning to run based on previous legislation. This can also change if any new legislation is enacted. It won’t cut any spending in the long-term or even the mid-term.
As per the CBO’s update in March, including the spending caps, it showed that spending would drop by $47 billion. After that it will increase in each of the next 9 years up to $5.520 trillion in 2022.
Under the Obama-Boehner deal, the budget would never balance and the debt would increase by another $2.887 trillion over 10 years. So, not to be outdone by his own ignorance, this years budget would have reversed the debt deals caps on increased spending. The CBO’s analysis concluded that, "the cumulative deficit that would result from enacting the president's budget -- $6.4 trillion (or 3.2 percent of GDP) -- would be $3.5 trillion larger than the cumulative deficit projected under current law."
This is the delusion of the Liberal/Progressive cabal. They believe the cuts in already bloated spending levels will somehow magically reduce the deficit and debt. There is no functional way to accept any of the bizarre offers from the Left. They are not interested in true fiscal sanity.
The question is, why do the Liberals/Progressives hate America so much that they are willing to collapse our envied economy, again, just to save their unsustainable entitlements and social programs?
This is the criminality of Progressivism.
Good points , however, everyone will blame this cliff mess on the GOP. On every thread today, the PIG oinks about it, and how the Republicans created this mess.
But the media will continue to blame conservatives. No one questions the moving target Barry creates. He NEEDS to have the increased taxes to pay for his spending programs.
Are you two eye-balling each other from your respective holes? You make a sweet couple. No breeding though.
No comment from the GOP on this little tid bit:
Buried: “Congressional Republicans on Thursday challenged the Obama administration's plan for correcting flaws exposed by the deadly attacks on the U.S. mission in Libya, pressing for an overhaul of its approach to security and probing to discover what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top officials knew before the attacks,” the L.A. Times writes.
I saw some of the commentary from FOX on this. Not only were they attacking Sec. Clinton for not being at the hearings, their attitude demonstrated that they have no idea what happens when a person becomes severely dehydrated to the point of passing out and receiving a concussion. What a total bunch of morons.
As to the whole situation in Libya, the GOP has already decided that it needs to micro-manage the State Department (more than they do already.) I heard some of these Congressional morons say things like they should take away the cultural exchange programs and put in more guns and military. These GOP idiots would prefer that we put up armed fortresses throughout the world as our embassies and never leave them. Is it any wonder that George W. Bush was the most hated President, ever.
I am truly convinced that in order to be a member of the modern GOP, you have to have an IQ of less than 70.
Obama and Boehner.......
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy". ~ MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
Trying to balance the Budget in the middle of a Recession is as nutty as cutting taxes when you are going to war.
So the Republicans don't want to raise taxes on those earning over a certain amount. Well, if we go over the cliff then taxes will be going up for the majority of people. I know we need to cut costs but I don't understand the logic, if you want to keep the electorate happy. Well if those automatic military cuts go into effect then that'll cut costs down quite a bit.
American Taxpayers earning greater than $250,000 per the IRS are projected to make up 2 percent of households in 2013.
So help me to understand why the GOP is fighting so, so, so very hard for the 2% minority? What this HIGHLIGHTS so very well is how the GOP and the House of Representatives NO LONGER serve and represent the interest of the Majority of US Citizens...they truly appear compelled to represent only the wealthiest 2% of our citizens.
This LACK of Representation for the 98% causes me to shake my head in discouragement for the current state of affairs of our Legislative Branch... so sad. The GOP in the House should be impeached for their lack of representation for the 98%.
The runaway GOPeaParty stagecoach seems headed over the cliff with Boehner and the Tea Party rebellion wrestling for control of the reins.
Democrats must begin now to campaign for legislation to restore tax cuts to the middle class after they expire on Dec. 31.
The GOP used to be the party that could govern better, so people thought. That’s another thing that’s now been flipped on its head. The Democrat party has now earned undisputed rights to the “can govern better” title, along with all of these: more likely to compromise, to act “adult”, less rigidly ideological, better represents the middle class, and less likely to involve the country in ill-advised military adventures. Plus the Democrats retain their traditional advantages of being better able to protect Social Security and Medicare, and more sensitive to the rights of minorities. So what have the Republicans got left, really? They have turned into the party that is rigidly ideological and wants to protect the extremely wealthy, plus they seek to treat immigrants harshly, and they don’t want individuals to be able to control their own medical privacy. In short, the question increasingly is – does this party have a future?
The Republican Party is reaping the fruits of it's talk-radio outreach, with all it's florid demagoguery. I am old enough to remember when Rush Limbaugh and his ilk started, as adversaries of the Clinton administration. The Republicans were so happy to have this guy stirring up the Archie Bunker base, (yes, I'm also old enough to remember Archie Bunker), they never paused to consider what would happen if the right-wing whackos got influencial enough to swallow the whole Party. This is no longer the party of Gerald Ford or even Reagan. It's the Rush Limbaugh Party now.
So true Amy...So true. I just wonder whether the whackos got big enough to swallow the party or the party became bite-sized... I suspect both things worked together to stifle the gag reflex as it was swallowed whole...
Its evident that Boehner has the title of Speaker, but has no power.
Say what you want about Pelosi ( I am not a fan ), but she could always get the votes. Going forward, I don't see how Boehner stays as Speaker.
Don't get me wrong, he WILL remain as Speaker, but he has no power so negotiating with him is now useless. With all of the issues and problems facing the Nation, we know for sure that Boehner can't deliver anything except names for Post Offices.
The Boehner is #1 in the GOP right now. What does that tell you?
Koch-Adelson are still #1 in the GOP party.
She might could get votes, but its because she had something on everyone up there. She alone costs the TAXPAYERS $ 500,000 everytime she went home which was 2-3 times per week because she could not fly commercial with the common people. You take the $500,000 thats each way 6 times 52 weeks its a lot of money.
Sonja,sonja,sonja...you should quit listening to people who are lying to you. It is fairly easy to fact check stories now that we have the internet. It is true that she has military transport as opposed to commercial...that darn GW tought it might be a good idea after 911 to provide that to the Speaker (at that time Hastert R) When Nancy Pelosi became speaker, she flew home less than once a month in the first 20 months...so your figures are way off, as a matter of fact even on the crazy right wing BS sites, I have only seen them claim that each flight costs 60K...LOL...500K ,now, is it? You should at least TRY to make the lies a little more believable for anyone with 1/2 of a brain cell
Boehner is just another media made politician. The media has propped him up now for two years. Every politician the media has tried to make has failed. It's time the media stopped trying to tell us how smart these guys are, just to see them make a fool out of themselves and the media. Note to media: the public can see how dumb Ryan, Cantor, Romney, Boehner, McConnell and the other politicians you keep saying are so smart are. So stop trying to make kings out of fools. There are extremely smart politicians in the republican party. They just don't say stupid things so the media ignores them.
The 'smart' Republicans are an odd bunch. All capable candidates for President stayed out of the race, and those that are in Congress are as quiet as church mice.
There is a real fear of being 'primaried', which points to the fact that our elected officials see their role as a full-time job and they are afraid of losing it - just like we are.
Someone who is elected to Congress and has a 2-term limit ( like the President ) knows that Public service at this level is a finite responsiblity. In following the news on the fiscal cliff, its evident that no one is really behind Boehner and he has enough rope to make a bridge or hang himself - whatver the end result, the 'smart' Republicans have left him to make his own end.
Fox cannot run Mr. Murdock for President, so it has to come up with someone.
It's obvious Boehner is being controlled by the tea people. In his news conference that just ended he said at least ten times "we have a spending problem" and it was in every answer he gave to the media. Boehner and the tea people have to under stand, the majority of the country doesn't care if they think we have a "we have a spending problem". What the majority of the country knows is we have a do nothing republican congress and some dumb tea people that only want to get in the way. Note to republicans: the tea people aren't as strong as they lead you to believe.
The Extreme Republicans must go. They are total crazies.
Last night was a joke!! There is no leadership in the GOP House!
There is leadership Tommy. It's the tea people leading the republican party to obscurity and the paranoid part of the party is gladly following them. Trouble is they started believing their own doomsday crap.
I was thinking that just this morning Mo... That the fear-mongers have finally succeeded in scaring themselves... Like little kids around a campfire telling ghost stories... Now they can't even trust each other enough to sleep in the same camp-ground!! The whole jamboree is ruined.
To paraphrase Mel Brooks:
[one American to another American] "...the GOP congress is revolting..."
[reply] "Don't I know it!"
I'm curious as to why anyone on this post believes that the Democrats actually want a deal done? They will get their way no matter what, right or wrong, and the Republican party takes the blame. The last thing the Democrats want is for a compromise before the end of the year or maybe at all. The President will say "we tried" (regardless of whether or not he has doesn't matter), and then the Republicans will lose the any part of the Congress in 2014. Once the Democrats have total control, even if the economy is still in the toilet in 2016, the Rebulicans still won't be voted back in power until roughly 2020 or 2024. Why then? Because people will get tired of the direction and then vote the other party back in. Party control has flip flopped for over 200 years.
Well if it isnt the rep fault then who is it. They cant even work together. when the speaker comes out and is so frustrated that he says god only knows then asks the senate and the president to pass something to stop it, what does that tell you. Its not the dems and its not the presidents job to come up with a budget. he only laid the ground work on what he would accept. Everyone hollors cut the ss or medicare. Thats why the rep lost. we worked and busted our ass. cut some aid and stop the wars. you want to cut entitlements fine, cut you cannot get back in taxes more than you put in. Your gonna find out its the dem senate that will come to the rescue. They will by pass the house. boner is beggin for them 2. Rep party is done. The tea baggers screwed there own party not once but 2x.
You are so correct simpleindependenttruth, OBAMA does not want a deal, he wants to prove a fact that he can outlast the GOP and force the fiscal cliff which is what he wants to happen. He and his wife have spent more of the TAXPAYERS money on travel than any other President, she has spent TAXPAYER money on clothes and Jewelry, how about that $43,000 bracelet, no other Presidents wife did that. He wants this country to fail and he will take our guns, that is on his agenda, guns do not kill people, mentally ill people do. This is what happens when you don't have care for the mentally ill, here in Alabama they took them out of the mental hospitals and put them into neighborhoods with children in them, we had one kill another at the home, they are filthy, and the people are not being taken care of. I was told, there was a woman lobbiest working on this in Montgomery because her husband, who works for the federal government owned a bunch of houses and want to fill them to be paid from the TAXPAYER coffers. These people can obtain anything they want illegally as no one watches them. The Democrats will use anything they can to get our guns, criminals are always going to have guns, law abiding people will be the ones to lose their guns. OBAMA has no business experience, he does not know what a budget is, he went to school on the tAXPAYERS as a foreign student, that is why is records were sealed. IF the Democrats were to get power in both the house and Congress, we might as well give up because they are only going to give everything to the baby makers, and the illegal aliens, even the blacks here in Alabama don't like him at least the literate ones. OBAMA hates white people and he intends to destroy the America we know because he is a socialist and a Muslim. This will be made known shortly.
Sonja, you need to back off the meds. If you are going to spew the kind of junk you've posted, put some links in your posts. BTW - your racism, bigotry and paranoia are showing. The only thing you overlooked was letting us know God told you what to write.
LOL,Cathy...I just spent 10 minutes typing and posting to poor sonja on how she could actually stop being a victim of lies...that was certainly time wasted. I only hope the Newtown massacre results in more availability of mental health services.
--Obama offered a pretty-stunning compromise: Tax increases for those with more than $400,000 in taxable income, and reducing the CPI annual increase in Social Security, are large concessions.
--Next year's less-nutty GOP Caucus will wish it could go back to that deal, but now it will take Democratic votes to pass anything. Minority Leader Pelosi will say "That ship has sailed, and you refused to get on board."
This is simply, MORE OF THE SAME . . . "TAX an SPEND". That is ALL the Democrats "EVER" do. Republicans LOST the election, because they REFUSED to listen to the TEA PARTY, who simply said "We DON'T want, MORE OF THE SAME", which is all that Romney wanted to do . . . so, the TEA PARTY people, just "STAYED HOME". Until its clear that the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, politics "DOESN'T WORK" ( An "NEVER HAS" . . . its only made the PROBLEMS we have, "WORSE" ) . . . NOTHING will change. Our problems will simply get WORSE, the Democrats will try BLAMING the Republicans, when its "THEM", ( The DEMOCRATS ) that IS THE PROBLEM, an our country is "DIEING" because of it . . . an the WORST of it is, this group of "IDIOTS", on BOTH SIDES, could care LESS . . . as its nothing but "WANTING their OWN WAY" ( I E "I'm going to take my BALL an my BAT, an go HOME" ) "BULLSH!T". Nothing but a group of "SPOILED CHILDREN". ( A good SPANKING, would do them "ALL" good !. )
sorry brian, but I don't listen to Tea Party bull, especially when it comes from representatives who think that rape is legitimately done away with by a woman's body. what a crock! We have a bunch of NUTCASES in the GOP! And they DEFINITELY don't have a CLUE what happens in a man's ordinary life. middle class. what a bunch of bull.
I'm going to ask you a really serious question. Besides the bankers the accountants,and the lawyers, who all get paid FIRST, who says that we need a "balanced budget." Who says the "money" to pay police officers and members of the armed forces, etc has to "come from somewhere?" Without being beholden to our current system, someone please explain why we need to keep using it, when its obviously broken? Why does the fianancial system have to start with us being in debt to banks?
My God, people. It's not about Democrats or Republicans anymore. It's about survival of our world. So where is the huge compromise or leathal bullet to rich people if have to pay a little more so the poor people who are already homeless don't end up becoming food for each other --- and as low as morality is in this country, it's inevitable we are returning to Godless heathens for whom cannibalism was the norm. If someone makes a few million or billion, what's the harm in an extra $50,000 or $100,000 going toward financial stability of our country? If you have 5 houses, or 10 cars, or 8 digit bank accounts, would you actually feel the pinch of this money that would save all people in this free country? Probably not.
But there are the people for whom wealth means an obligation to all. Like Bill and Melissa Gates in helping our schools educate every student. Like Warren Buffet who sets aside huge sums to charities. (I know they're tax deductions but there are other ways to accomplish that. He has chosen the morally-conscious way.
The ones who don't want to agree to this law are those politicians (in whose pockets we can pretty well guess) who prefer to draw a line in the sand and treat our lives as game board pieces. The fact is, no one is winning here. And if this policital BS continues, we will be lost, maybe beyond recovery.
Maybe it's our job as citizens to write to these government officials and let our voices be heard. Maybe we need to scream a little louder. If you're in the middle class, your days are numbered. If you're suffering from poverty, your days are numbered. If your rich, you better have LaPierre's arsenal lined up because they're will be much agony at your door that may well come inside.
you are right. I'm going to write to my congressman. but good luck hearing me.
@jimspence You wrote: "The question is, why do the Liberals/Progressives hate America so much that they are willing to collapse our envied economy, again, just to save their unsustainable entitlements and social programs?"
Dude, does Boehner blind you that badly? The recent election demonstrated a rejection of the precise propaganda that you carry forward. People simply aren't buying the lies of fire and brimstone from the GOP and their ilk. If you don't like socialism, then don't attend your library, nor schools, nor call your police, nor your fire department --- those are all social programs. Are there additional social programs that you believe liberals wish to implement? Cuts to social programs hurts people that need help in the first place. But then we're getting used to the conservative apathy. If the GOP listened less to religious whackos and millionaires, they'd be.....liberals.
@mark, trying to explain these concepts to people that still believe the earth is flat, is like trying to explain ice cream to a hog. You would be better off working with people that understand although we came here on different boats, we are all in the same boat now. Change is always difficult, but it is inevitable...
The GOP proves with every single word and deed that they are the haters. The republicans in our government put there by you foolish republican voters are not concerned in the least about the middle class and definitely not about people not in the middle class. The hate against President Obama and Democrats is what is wrong with most republicans who hate right along with Fox News and along with the most hateful people on radio and television. President Obama is kind and caring. He cares about all you republicans who have no intelligence and hate anyone who is intelligent and knows that the republicans are always wrong, wrong, wrong.
If you want to fix this problem, and a host of other problems as well, the one thing that needs to be done is take the money out of politics. As long as politicians can be bought by corporations and lobbyist, the voice of "We The People" will not be heard. But let's start with baby steps, how about term limits?
I don't think it's practical to take the money out of politics when you have centralized governments like they do everywhere.
Shorter term limits wouldn't help enough.
Half the voters think they want one party and the other half think they want the other party. Both have had there go-arounds in power many times over and the beast keeps growing bigger like it always does. That's the nature of the beast. Both parties are 180 +/- 5 degrees out of alignment with all of our values but the people are brainwashed into not realizing it. Most of these people are otherwise smart people.
Let's learn that democracy and big government is NFG and then the problem can be fixed.
Merry Christmas!
To clarify the point about "... Half the voters think they want one party and the other half think they want the other ...", look, if one party truly would be so much better, then how come we've never gotten lucky enough to have that one win an election when they are so often decided by such narrow margins and it's not like one party always wins ....
I do agree with baby steps. But I think the people would have to draft a Bill.
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whats so ridiculous about this story is all he needed was to get around 30 votes and side with dems and get it done but no he is more worried about what his buddies think than doing what he was elected to do
These clowns Democrats and Republicans do not care one iota about the American public, all they care about is themselves. The only thing they can think to cut or tax is Social Security and Health insurance. There has got to be some way to make them put themselves on Social Security and the great OBAMACARE and a 401K instead of the great perks they give themselves and then I bet they could solve the problem in 5 minutes. These people are the very rich including OBAMA, some people have yet to realize he is not one of the common people, he is among the rich. I'm sick of the whole bunch, but no one will vote them out, they keep voting for the same old people so they can steal more money from the American TAXPAYER. I could cut the budget real quick, these women that keep having one kid after another just to get more money, would be cut back to money for one child and one only, and they have to be drug tested and work doing something for this money. The AMERICAN TAXPAYER cannot support these people anymore, they have taken everything and there is nothing left for people that really need help if they lose their job. This government has run AMUCK and with OBAMA and his do nothing wife going on all these expensive vacations, Nancy Pelosi cost the TAXPAYER $ 500,000 everytime she goes home because she cannot ride with the common people. I could cut costs in about 10 minutes and then we would have money for the American people that have worked for over 50 years. This CONGRESS, PRESIDENT, and HOUSE is a disgrace to this nation.
Pelosi's travel costs $500,000? Cite your source!
Lets go over the cliff - a 1 and a 2 and a 3 - JUMP!
everyone will blame the Teaperp clown college GOP - all they needed to do was just cut taxes to people making under 400K or 1 million or whatever - they cannot even do that! Why ? Because they ruin or loose their bargaining chip - well how teatotaller of them.
Someone Please Please put these people in a class of their own - lets call it - Unemployed..
Please vote them out - I don't care if Fox News says they are OK -
The Problem is Bush said these were Temporary Tax Cuts and now it's another Republican Lie. The lies from that administration, continuing today, clearly, is why I went left and havent gone back. Homeowner, Business Owner, Taxpayer.
Amen to that. How soon we forget what Bush had said. (and done or not done for that matter) Our two Party system is breaking down. They just can not think about the voters, only their own party.
The sooner we all realize that none of the politicians in office more than two terms could care less about us, the better off we will all be. Those of you slamming the Repubs or the Dems don't get it do you? They are truly the same party set out for our demise.
The Fiscal Cliff will happen, it is not a point of Dems and Repubs getting together to stop it, they want it to happen. They want the economy and dollar to crash, they want Americans to fight with Americans, they want to divide us so that they can step in and be the saviors. If you believe they are the saviors, you have another thing coming.
We don't need federal income taxes, didn't have them prior to their implementation and amazingly, we had schools, roads, a military, etc. Let me ask you a question. Do you have an endless supply of money that you can borrow every month to pay your bills? I don't, I have to live within my means, so too should the government. The amount of money coming in isn't a problem, it is the amount of money they are spending.
Why are we bailing out businesses? The auto industry, the banking industry, the Postal Service? Did you get a bailout for your business? I didn't, and I had to close my doors. What happened to people having pride in themselves and the country, not taking handouts, not demanding that everyone else take care of them while the majority of them do absolutely nothing? I was laid off from the tech industry during the dot-com era, never once did I receive unemployment benefits even though I could have. I have respect for myself, lived within my means, did part-time work until I found another job. Most people won't do that, they get free food, housing, cellphones, Internet connectivity, etc. and all they want is more and more.
Receiving government assistance used to be frowned upon by people, they were ashamed to be on it and made themselves better by working harder and doing whatever was legally necessary to survive. Nowadays, people don't want to work, they want the government to take care of them, this madness has to end.
No more big government, no more spending more than what is affordable, no more handouts (to anyone other than those physically or mentally incapable of supporting themselves, the retired, or the elderly). No more birthing factories, no more assistance to illegals, no more corporate assistance, no more assistance to foreign countries, stop it all NOW!
SO what is the solution? How do we limit terms? If it is an Amendment, then doesn't congress need to vote?
BLAH bla bla bla bla bla BLAH Blah bLAAH bla bla
bla bla bla blah blah BLAH! So, THERE!
To call it embarrassment lends dignity and the capacity for shame to politicians who have NEITHER. So, He was near tears. Boo hoo. So WHAT? He wasn't crying for the POOR! All of them can't go to hell because they are already there. May they thrill to the company of demons.
Useless Republican narcissists. They are all petrified of Grover Norquist and the Tea Party Terrorists. Democracy is clearly not working in the USA. We have a dualistic system that does not work. Why? Because the egoic politicians that we elect are more concerned with protecting their political skins than they are doing what is right for the American people.
The SOLUTION: TERM LIMIT ALL SENATORS AND CONGRESS PEOPLE to 2 Terms. This will solve many problems. Our government officials need to be elected from a pool of professional government administrators....not from used car salesmen, lawyers, and the general public like we are now doing.
SOLUTION #2: Require all candidates for public office to take an IQ test and a test for psychological balance and maturity. Test each candidate for their levels of empathy and compassion. Without empathy and compassion it is impossible to weigh the impacts of their actions on ordinary Americans. The Republicans simply do not care and cannot empathize with struggling Americans who are fighting to simply keep food and basic necessities on the table.
OK. so how do we do that? Petition to ask for an amendment? Do we as the people introduce a bill? Cause you KNOW the Senate and House isn't gonna go for it. First of all, get rid of the TEA PARTY!
Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp was on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and talked of getting something done, but when asked point blank if he’d vote for a tax increase on anyone, he said, flatly, no. He claimed Speaker Boehner always "dives left" and "conservatives are on the outside.” He said, “I disagree with John Boehner actually caving on taxes.”
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TYPICAL.