Democrats Taking the USA over the Fiscal Cliff

Did you hear Obama's press conference this morning? It was stunning. He was talking about the very reasonable and balanced proposal that he has laid at the feet of house Republicans, amazed that they haven't snatched it up.

According to Obama, he is offering $800b in cuts (to be specified at a later date) in exchange for $1.2t in new taxes. By Obama math, that 800b of unspecified cuts at a later date, when you add interest, exceeds $1 trillion. Using more Obama math, if you add in the $1.2 trillion in mandatory cuts obtained by House Republicans by using the debt ceiling as a cudgel, you wind up with nearly $2.5 trillion in cuts in exchange for a meager ~$1 trillion in new revenue, giving the balanced 1-2.5 ratiio the president says he always wanted!

Of course when you use real world math, what you wind up with are the guaranteed $1 Trillion in cuts already legislated by the Republicans against the $1.2 trillion in new taxes, and another $1 trillion in new Federal spending on health care and other Obama initiatives, leaving the deficit EXACTLY where it started and taxes 1.2 Trillion higher. We all know the other $800bn in other cuts will never happen if it is not inked as part of this deal.

To add icing to the cake, Obama mentioned that he will not allow the debt ceiling to be used as a cudgel to obtain more spending cuts this time around, ignoring the fact that the use of that cudgel is the only way we got the $1 Trillion in real spending cuts he is taking credit for. What an asshat.

 

Yep, what a clown!

 

[video=youtube;jNid71pvxfI]http://youtu.be/jNid71pvxfI[/video]

It's amazing how confident this guy tries to be, while sounding like a complete moron. We are in the year 2012, he's in his second term and he still does not get it. "Protect the middle class" by raising taxes.. Don't create jobs... Amazing!

12:35 is amazing, it's another "you didn't build that" moment.. Bringing up Sandy and the shooting?

The majority of Americans don't agree with you on your tax crap.

 

Trying to use the shooting tragedy as leverage for his tax hikes wasn't in the least cheap and creepy. Nope, not at all.

 

When the GOP ultra conservative Congress couldn't even get a majority of House Republicans to accept limiting tax increases to those with incomes over $ 1 million it showed how incapable the GOP is to governing the country, forging compromises and solving problems. http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/20/politics/fiscal-cliff/index.html

The Tea Party members of Congress have Zero interest in the health and welfare of the United States and are simply interested in their own political lives, their secret financial supporters, and an economic theory that has proven to be entirely false.

Its an incredible shame. The congress is infected with an extremist right wing political force that is willing to recreate a recession for solely political reasons.

Osama Bin Laden found his most loyal followers after all: The Tea Party...once again they are trying to move the US to financial disaster.

In 2008 ultra extremist Republicans voted against a bailout in Autumn creating a crushing disaster for all markets. Fortunately enough Republicans changed their votes a few days later that a bail out was effected and the nation averted a financial meltdown and depression. Last year the GOP conservatives created an artificial crises on the debt ceiling debate...which was only averted by this drastic "fiscal cliff" situation that has every sign of causing a US and world Wide Recession.

Now the GOP Congress is showing it can't be trusted to support any compromise and avert a recession.

The world is watching while the most powerful nation in the world with the world's largest economy is finding itself completely unable to govern itself because of a stubborn, baby like Extremist Right Wing Political force that is hell bent on destruction.

Bin Laden has to be very proud of the tea party at this moment. They are working to accomplish everything he couldn't do--destroy America.

 

Funny, I thought the president that was gonna bring us all together and lower the sea levels and such was the one that was gonna govern the country and forge compromises. As I recall you still blame Bush for everything that happened in his administration during the time the Dems had majorities in both houses.

Obama has shown zero leadership as far as averting the fiscal cliff he claimed in the third debate we WILL NOT go over. Appears to me his real intention is to raise taxes one everyone. Frankly that doesnt surprise me... I've been saying it all along.

 

I have to appreciate your willingness to capitalize on the political value of a failed political gesture. The Senate already said they would not bring the bill to the floor(like so many other house budget proposals). The president had already declared he would veto it. It was DOA.

What is worse, it was nothing but a tax increase bill, without addressing a single line item of the most important issue. Spending. It went where it needed to go, and mark my words, the smaller government movement is gaining popularity, regardless of what the political pundits have to say. Come 2014, you will see a more fiscally conservative congress than you see today. Try passing another trillion dollars in spending with that that in your pipe.

The obvious untruth of that statement is clear for all to see. Their vote was anything but generally popular. They did the job their constituents sent them to do, and that is called good politics. More to come.

Funny, I just saw the president taking credit for the cuts generated by the debt ceiling increase the other day. Nancy Pelosi too. Whose cuts are they, if not the House Republicans?

I hate to be the one to break the spoiler, but Democrats can take these "fiscal cliff" tax increases and shove them up their ass. We are a few short days away from the debt ceiling needing another bump based on Obama's spending, and round one will look tame by comparison. Looking at the recent vote on Boehners empty gesture, I am growing confident the people we sent to congress to effect change will fulfill their mission at any political cost. I watch people like John Gibson talking about cutting bait with the hand the House Republicans have been dealt and I am reminded of the decades of going along to get along that has gotten us here.

The president can have his across the board tax increases he wants so badly to throw our economy into recession. Come the debt ceiling debate, he will be forced to confront his spending in a very real way. Rather comic to think that a Democrat will be begging for the return of the Bush Tax Cuts for the middle class to save his political legacy. So much for the BS "tax cuts dont stimulate the economy" mantra you've been bandying about.

Governance requires a leader. The only leadership we are seeing at the moment is coming from the Tea Party.

 

LOL. Stop living in la la land man, the left isn't showing any sense of compromise..

Yeah, and the right / "extremists" are to blame..

Blame whatever you can whenever your administration can't get sh*t done.

WOW.

 

Its obvious that with the election past us and recent polls show ever diminishing numbers of Americans supporting the tea party the only people that believe its right wing agenda of misinformation propaganda, are the tea party members itself, of which there are quite a few supporters here.

As elected members of congress they have shown themselves completely incapable of governing and solving problems. The tea party obstructionists set up this "fiscal cliff" whose severity was supposed to shock members of congress into resolving issues.

That isn't working with the tea party obstructionists.

Now the tea party obstructionists have shown they don't even support their own leader in congress

If they can't support their own party leader the rest of the nation has to have little faith in their ability to solve problems and govern.

Knowing full well that offering "plan B" was a negotiating point" Boehner discovered that the Tea Party radicals don't understand the word, compromise. An ever smaller radical group of extremists caused the ratings industry to downgrade American credit ratings last year solely because they created an inability to govern and now the tea party extremists want to take the nation into recession.

Osama bin Laden has to love the tea party.


Regardless of the fact that more and more people simply believe the tea party are a radical group of extremist nuts the propagandists continue to put out more twisted nonsense on a daily basis:

Consider O-nation's complete piece of misinformation as to the state of the tea party when he tried to show that a couple of people of color representing tea party interests represents the common sense and reality of the public at large.

for instance in that thread he put out this piece of complete disingenuous garbage:

Take a look at the money raised by the candidates in that congressional election in Florida: http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.php?id=FL18&cycle=2012

tea party radicals trying to keep Alan West in Congress raised over $19 million and spent over $17 million.

His Democratic opponent raised over $4.6 million and spent over $4.3 million.

Despite spending 4 times as much raised by mostly anonymous tea party financiers, the population voted out the tea partier.

Other than their own radical supporters the majority of people don't buy their misinformation cr@p.

 

Pretty sure elected representatives are not elected to represent a party, theyre elected to serve the constituents.

Aside from that it might be worth noting the Tea Party is actually a movement, not an actual political party.

Not sure where your sustained vitriol about the Tea Party originates, or why you feel a need to engage in the constant and somewhat humorous villification (thats the second post in a row linking the Tea Party and Osama... seriously now). I'd suggest switching to decaf before you blow a gasket.

 

And yet, in this last election cycle, new Tea Party candidates are going to the Senate. Take Ted Cruz for instance, a Hispanic from Texas. This is a house of congress with only 100 members and this last election cycle where Obama won, another Tea Party member was added to their ranks. How long will it be before the Senate starts passing the legislation sent to it from the House?

The fiscal cliff signed by the President and passed by the Democrat controlled Senate? Just checkin.

I think you should read Bob Woodward's book on the subject. He clearly labeled Obama as the one who was unable to compromise. House and Senate had agreed on legislation, and the president rejected it because of politics.

If that was your take away from my post, I would recommend you read it again. The point of the post is that, if not for the Tea Party, the Republican party would be much more the homogeneous group of "angry old white men" the left is always trying to characterize it as. The Tea Party "racists" are the ones introducing the most people of color to leadership positions within the Republican party. It seems that would be something the left could get behind, but instead, these people are called interesting names like "Token" and "Uncle Tom", or disparaged as being unintelligent or having no common sense, as your post does. Its shameful.

And yet outside money spent against West was 11th highest across every congressional district in the country. That aside, your comment tries to frame West as unpopular, but one has only to look at how Col. West's district was redistricted prior to the election to know how he NARROWLY lost this election.

 

In other news, Obama is heading to Hawaii!

That should get the job done!

 

Earl, you are long on rhetoric and short on facts. Granted, you have learned to write better, and doing your best to break our arms to manipulate us to your point of view. But all you are doing is demanding that we believe you - and I think you know that is completely unrealistic.

But aren't you forgetting something? The President is a Democrat, as is most of the government and the Senate. The Democrats are in charge.

It has already been demonstrated, time and time again, that if you tax the top 2% or even 5% of the country at 100% there would be no significant effect on the deficit. You can cut the entire military budget and leave our country defenseless and it would have little impact.

The only solution is to lower spending. THAT is the only solution. Lower spending NOW. Not the same old bullshit of "we're gonna cut a gazillion dollars over the next 30 years" crap. We've heard that time and time again and it's all smoke and mirrors.

Please, Earl, I write this with no partisanship at all. I write this as someone who supported Hillary Clinton (D) for President and voted for the late great Ted Kennedy (D) as my Senator from Massachusetts: you have to agree that the Republicans have agreed to across the board spending cuts - right? You DO agree with that, right? Can you please show me ANY significant spending cuts proposed by the President that come close to balancing the budget? Can you?

The cold hard truth is that politicians exercise power by spending money. To cut spending means surrendering power. In this measure, Barack Obama has demonstrated a complete and total failure to lead.

Blame is not a solution, Earl, You seem less interested in solving American's problems, and more concerned with finding someone to blame them on.

Earl, would you be in favor of revoking Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare benefits to the top 5% of wage earners? Isn't that realistic?

The deficit is like rising flood waters. We can raise taxes and raise the bridge, but the cold, hard truth is that this country has reached a limit where the waters are too high and the bridge cannot be raised any more.

You know, that says a lot. Presidents usually spend Christmas in Washington so staff and Secreat Service can spend the holidays with their families in DC.

 

Yeah, well, um, you're a racist.

 

George Bush

"He has spent every Christmas at Camp David as president," Fratto said. "...So the president and his family are looking forward to that."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/12/23/bushs_last_camp_david_christma.html

Camp David is located in the Catoctin Mountain Park, a national park in Maryland . It is the country retreat for the President of the United Sates of America.

 

And if it were George Bush doing it right now the media would be trashing him for it.

 

Okay, so you missed the point. Corwin is a liar. Or as he might say it...

Corwin is a liar.
Corwin is a liar.

 

Yes, but Camp David is just 62 miles from Washington DC. That's less than an hour's drive for off-duty Secret Service and staffers to easily be with family during the holidays. The government even runs a convenient daily shuttle for personnel to get to and from Camp David and DC easily.

So, when Bush spent holidays at Camp David, staffers got to enjoy the holidays with their families in the DC area.

So Bushie, exactly where are you saying I am not being honest about this? What is your point about Camp David and George Bush?

 

No.

You missed my point. If it were George Bush heading to Hawaii he would be getting trashed by the media.

But, since its Obama no one cares...

 

No.

You missed my point. If it were George Bush heading to Hawaii he would be getting trashed by the media.

But, since its Obama no one cares...

Its just out future we are talking about here, so you enjoy that beach.. What a joke of a leader!