The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

President O' Bachmann says she is against Boner's plan. Romney can't figure out if he's for it or against or both (there's a surprise) and TPaw courageously says he has to learn more about it. The only major support Boner has is from the US Chamber of Commerce.

I don't think I've ever seen a more pathetic campaign then TPaw's.

So, why is Boner the Speaker of the House again? Who voted for him, and why?

In a Tuesday morning meeting, Representative Eric Cantor, the chamber’s majority leader, told fellow Republicans to “stop grumbling and whining and to come together as conservatives and rally behind” the House speaker John A. Boehner’s plan. But many lawmakers complained that it lacked sufficient spending cuts. As a further blow to its prospects, the Club for Growth, which scores members on their fiscally conservative votes, came out against the plan.

The scramble for votes came as lawmakers’ phone lines and Web sites were overwhelmed in response to President Obama’s plea on Monday night for Americans to call members of Congress and push for a compromise. Across the Capitol in the Senate, the majority leader, Harry Reid, waited for the House to vote — likely on Wednesday — before bringing his own debt legislation to the floor.

Cantor can't get them to vote for it either. That's some awesome leadership you got there, GOP.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/us/politics/27fiscal.html

 

[Bill]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

A work-around to solve the debt ceiling problem for a year or so. From Ron Paul.

http://www.thedailycrux.com/content/8258/Government_Stupidity/eml

 

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

A work-around to solve the debt ceiling problem for a year or so. From Ron Paul.

http://www.thedailycrux.com/content/8258/Government_Stupidity/eml

So we can do this again in the midst of a presidential election? Goody.

 

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

If you're so inclined, you can read the text of the Boner and Reid bills here Considering neither have a chance in hell of passing, I can't believe they wasted the paper and ink required to print these...

 

[Foxton]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

If you're so inclined, you can read the text of the Boner and Reid bills here Considering neither have a chance in hell of passing, I can't believe they wasted the paper and ink required to print these...

Because having it in writing is more important than the content.

 

[TimP]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

So, why is Boner the Speaker of the House again?

To remind idiot Americans what happens when you let the Republicans have control. Don't worry, soon the Democrats will take back the House and Speaker Pelosi will be given back her seat and America will continue to join the rest of the civilized world.

 

[Bill]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

So we can do this again in the midst of a presidential election? Goody.

Raising the debt ceiling has been averaging something like one and half times a year since 1950, so we may have to go through this again one or two more times before the election anyway.

 

[Bakunin]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

To remind idiot Americans what happens when you let the Republicans have control. Don't worry, soon the Democrats will take back the House and Speaker Pelosi will be given back her seat and America will continue to join the rest of the civilized world.

Oh for ****'s sake, is this really how you see the world?

Your beloved party did practically nothing with majorities in both chambers plus the presidency. End involvement in Iraq? No. End involvement in Afghanistan? No. Pass cap and trade or a carbon tax? No. End the Bush tax cuts? No - in fact, they EXTENDED them in a lame duck session of Congress. Oh, and they paid no attention whatsoever to the deficit / debt problem, hence we're dealing with it now - with a completely divided cluster**** of a government.

Call me unconvinced that the Dems retaking the House would really improve much of anything.

 

[Rover]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

The House GOP seems to really be relying on having the same electorate show up in 2012 that showed up in 2010. That goes against most historical data, but one guess is as good as another I suppose.

Regarding the Boner, he really needs to give up his job. Not sure what the point is if his own people are screwing him over in the most important vote of his career.

 

[Almington]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Oh for ****'s sake, is this really how you see the world?

Your beloved party did practically nothing with majorities in both chambers plus the presidency. End involvement in Iraq? No. End involvement in Afghanistan? No. Pass cap and trade or a carbon tax? No. End the Bush tax cuts? No - in fact, they EXTENDED them in a lame duck session of Congress. Oh, and they paid no attention whatsoever to the deficit / debt problem, hence we're dealing with it now - with a completely divided cluster**** of a government.

Call me unconvinced that the Dems retaking the House would really improve much of anything.

Until one party has control of all three with a super-majority in the senate (or the needing 60 votes for cloture rule is removed) we will continue to effectively have a divided government that can't do a **** thing.

 

[Bakunin]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Until one party has control of all three with a super-majority in the senate (or the needing 60 votes for cloture rule is removed) we will continue to effectively have a divided government that can't do a **** thing.

The Dems could have bought off 1-2 GOP senators to get things through - you can't tell me the most liberal GOP senators would flat out refuse to consider some massive pork projects.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Oh for ****'s sake, is this really how you see the world?

Your beloved party did practically nothing with majorities in both chambers plus the presidency. End involvement in Iraq? No. End involvement in Afghanistan? No. Pass cap and trade or a carbon tax? No. End the Bush tax cuts? No - in fact, they EXTENDED them in a lame duck session of Congress. Oh, and they paid no attention whatsoever to the deficit / debt problem, hence we're dealing with it now - with a completely divided cluster**** of a government.

Call me unconvinced that the Dems retaking the House would really improve much of anything.

I have to say, despite my fairly strong liberal leanings, that this is hard to argue with.

We had a popular president with a strong mandate starting in 2008 and a stranglehold on both chambers starting in 2006, and we did very little to reverse the worst six year period (2001-06) of domestic and foreign policies in a hundred years. We are still living in Dubya's America, with a predatory DOD and CIA scouring the planet for hornets' nests to stick their noses into (with a few billion here and there in contractor profits to just happen to fall out of it), a new Gilded Age of fiscal policy wholly owned and operated by huge, politically-connected corporate interests which themselves are multinational and utterly unconcerned with, if not hostile to, American values, a burgeoning police state eroding our civil liberties, and ever worsening economic conditions for the vast majority in order to bolster the personal fortunes of a very few.

There is a point when a fair man begins to suspect it isn't an accident, and the Dems are working for the same a-holes the GOP is.

But none of that justifies some quixotic Nader biting of the nose to spite the face. That's why we got those 6 years in the first place. There is still a clear difference, since the Dems can at least be strong-armed into doing the right thing from time to time. That train left the Republican station decades ago.

 

[unofan]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

A work-around to solve the debt ceiling problem for a year or so. From Ron Paul.

http://www.thedailycrux.com/content/8258/Government_Stupidity/eml

If anyone needed proof that Ron Paul knows nothing about economics or monetary policy, this is it, right here.

You want to know why quantitative easing hasn't caused all that much inflation yet? It's because the Fed can sell off the treasuries to recoup the cash it sent into the economy when it bought said treasuries. And everyone knows this, and everyone knows that's what's going to happen in the medium to long term. You remove the 2nd step of that equation, and inflation shoots through the roof.

This plan may put off the debt ceiling vote, but the solution is as bad or worse than the problem.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

The Dems could have bought off 1-2 GOP senators to get things through - you can't tell me the most liberal GOP senators would flat out refuse to consider some massive pork projects.

I seriously doubt that. They can't even get Obama's court appointments through. The GOP strategy since Obama took office was to filibuster everything. And the stupid democrats opened that door under Bush.

The bottom line is this. When Bush came in a starve the government strategy was put in place. This debt ceiling vote is the culmination of the starve the government strategy. The Republicans have to get what they want here or the strategy has failed. It's the only explanation anyone can come up with for passing enormous tax cuts while at the same time passing an entitlement, starting two wars, and passing a huge unfunded education mandate. The housing crisis only served to help the Republicans cause because that further starved the government.

The Republicans will win. The government will be a shell of its former self.

 

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Speaker Boner had to postpone the <del>defeat of</del> vote on his bill because there is hardly any support for it. House colleagues spent yesterday ripping it and four GOP senators wrote a letter to their counterparts in the House telling them not to support it.

Maybe the Republicans should go sort out their $#!t then get back to us when there's actually someone in charge Obama can have real negotiations with because he obviously can't talk to Boner and there's no point in talking to Cantor and the GOP is the minority in the Senate.

Edit: McConnell takes another step towards irrelevance by supporting the Boner plan.

 

[TimP]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

I'm all for democracy and listening to the minority, but Obama should just grow a pair, remind the kiddies that he won so they shoudl sit down and shut up, and work with real adults (Democrats) to find a solution.

 

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

I'm all for democracy and listening to the minority, but Obama should just grow a pair, remind the kiddies that he won so they shoudl sit down and shut up, and work with real adults (Democrats) to find a solution.

That's not politically realistic. Any plan they devise has to get through the House, which has apparently been hijacked by nutters. I don't think any plan will get passed until the GOP decides who is really in charge of their caucus.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Edit: McConnell takes another step towards irrelevance by supporting the Boner plan.

The plan that cuts less than the Democrats? Too funny. They just don't want Reid or Obama's name on it, that's the bottom line.

 

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Wall Street is taking this news in stride. The NASDAQ is already down 2%

Congressman Jim Clyburn has joined the chorus asking Obama to use the 14th Amendment remedies.

The GOP had a session last night and were shown this clip from the film The Town

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ub792aeMjlM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Apparently the debt negotiations and a bank robbery are the same thing.

Edit: Boner asked to resign

Tea Party Nation lead Judson Phillips called on House Speaker John Boehner "to go" and be replaced by a "Tea Party Speaker of the House" in a blog post Wednesday morning, the same day that Tea Party Patriots Co-Founder Jenny Beth Martin said that her group was looking into the same option.

Not sure that would help, but OK...

Edit2: Boner has a message of his own:

Scrambling for votes on his troubled deficit package, Speaker John Boehner told GOP lawmakers Wednesday morning to “get your ass in line” behind his debt ceiling bill, saying the Senate will fold and pass it.

“This is the bill,’ Boehner said in a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Wednesday morning. “I can’t do this job unless you’re behind me.”

Well, he's half right...

 

[Rover]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Absolute meltdown on the GOP side. I don't understand how a total idiot like Reid can at least write a bill that saves what he intends it to per independent analysis, while the Boner in the highest stakes negotiation of his career comes up with something that's 1/3rd less than he intended. When your leadership is so bad it makes Harry Reid's look good its time to resign.

Regarding 14th Amendment remedies, its not up to Obama to save the Congress from itself. The House is Constitutionally obligated to initiate budget bills. They need to get something realistic out there for the Senate to vote on. Republicans were elected to the majority to govern, not to line up gigs on Fox News after they retire/get bounced from office. Will anybody step up on that side or what? I keep reading nonsense about McConnell becoming a vital deal maker. Deal maker for what? His approach got rejected by his own party in the House and he dismissed the Reid plan. Sounds more like he's part of the problem instead of the solution.

Finally while the Dems should have done a better job with this when they were in the majority, nothing like this crisis happened on their watch. That is solely the fault of the GOP. The Dems inability to address tax & budget problems falls on one man - the aforementioned Harry Reid. Pelosi passed the entire Dem agenda. Useless Harry Reid couldn't figure out that tax breaks for cows would have bought Snowe and Collins vote in Maine along with a pardon for Shawn Walsh's crimes against college hockey. Ironic isn't it that once this current debacle is over he's probably going to be the last man standing.