Tag Archives: John Boehner
GOTP House leaders agree to extend payroll tax cut?
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Republican Tea Party (GOTP) House leaders are “surrendering to political reality”, and doing “an about-face and said they were willing to extend a payroll tax cut for 160 million working Americans without insisting that it be paid for with spending cuts”.
Of course this shift isn’t because they’ve suddenly become compassionate and care about working America, it’s because the evidence is in, and they’re being pummeled in poll after poll over their decision to protect the uber-rich at the expense of everyone else, especially by blocking a tax break for the middle class.
It also means a huge legislative victory for the President, winning his top legislative priority for the year moving towards November’s election.
As the Times reports, Republicans have been arguing since November the cost of maintaining the tax cut had to be offset by spending cuts – especially cuts to everything they hate and despise, basically anything helping the poor and down trodden; a stance never gaining traction with a majority of voters, and an attitude allowing Democrats to hoist the GOTP on its own political petard, accusing Boehner and crew of rank hypocrisy, especially since the Bush tax cuts for the uber-rich have never – and I do mean never – been offset with spending cuts.
“This is not our first choice,” GOTP House Speaker John Boehner sobbed in a statement.
“In the face of the Democrats’ stonewalling and obstructionism, we are prepared to act to protect small businesses and our economy from the consequences of Washington Democrats’ political games”.
Wow, really? Democratic “stonewalling”? This from the man who hasn’t passed a single piece of legislation aimed at creating jobs in America, and from a party with a record number of filibusters in Senate? This is so blatantly false it’s absolutely laughable, and will no doubt come back to bite the Speaker.
There’s of course just one small problem with what the “leaders” of the GOTP Congress want to do – the Tea Party Caucus. Time and time again “deals” have been reached on various subjects only to be stopped dead in their tracks by the freshman class of tea baggers (a term created by the Tea Party movement to describe themselves until they were educated into what the term could mean) who block everything and anything that has even the appearance of the slightest approval of the White House.
So, while it great that the House GOTP “leadership” has seen the light, it remains to be seen if it can get its members to go along, and if it jumps that hurdle will Mitch McConnell and the GOTP Senate play ball?
Wall Street Journal Editorial Rips Boehner and McConnell?
The Huffington Post’s reporting that the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has attacked congressional Republican Tea Party (GOTP) members for possibly losing the payroll tax cut standoff to President Barack Obama.
The Editorial began recounting how GOTP Senate leader Mitch McConnell “famously said a year ago his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.”
Earlier this week GOTP House members killed the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits and a provision avoiding Medicare payment cuts to doctors by a 229-193 vote. The Senate had voted by an 89-10 margin to extend all three for two months. All three provisions expire on 1 Jan 12. GOTP House members want the Senate to return and negotiate over a compromise plan but Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he won’t negotiate until the House approves the Senate’s package.
Finally Senator Reid has shown some back bone against the Tea Party conservatives across the aisle; what’s even better about this situation is McConnell had clearly struck a deal with Reid, and Boehner has to have been part of it as well but then his Tea Party compatriots cut his knees out from under him led by Eric Cantor.
The conservative editorial board wrote that the GOTP has “thoroughly botched the politics.” The board also added that Obama’s in a “stronger re-election position today than he was a year ago.”
After 1 Jan 12, the payroll tax paid by workers will rise from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent and benefits for the long-term unemployed will expire if Congress doesn’t pull its head out of its collective fourth point of contact. Doctors will also face a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements scheduled to take effect on 18 Jan 12.
The icing on the cake for the President is that 2008 Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain of Arizona showed his approval of the editorial tweeting, “WSJ is right on the mark here.”
When the smoke clears from this latest GOTP catastrophe, the President will once again come out on top, John Boehner may find himself stepping down as Speaker, and the Tea Party will come out as having attempted one bridge too far; come 2012 the bill will come due and local Congressional Districts will likely toss the riff raff out turning the House back to a Democratic majority. The Tea Party’s angry white guy shtick only plays so far and they’ve been on stage well past their collective curtain call.
Boehner says his relationship with the President is frosty?
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting soon-to-be one term House Speaker John Boehner says his relationship with President Barack Obama has grown “a little frosty.”
Wow, really? His “relationship” with the President has grown “a little frosty”? First of all Mr. Speaker, you have to have had a relationship with someone before it can grow “frosty”; second, refer back to the first point.
The Republican Tea Party (GOTP) puppet spent a lot of time whining on ABC’s “This Week” that the President is engaging in “class warfare” by pushing for higher taxes for wealthy Americans.
Boehner says the rich pay enough taxes and it’s wrong for the president to “pit one set of Americans against another.”
To quote former president Ronald Reagan, “there you go again”.
First, how’s it class warfare if someone suggests the uber-wealthiest 2% of the country’s population should have its taxes increased before chopping, slashing and burning programs to the poorest and most vulnerable, but it’s not class warfare when you staunchly defend the tax rates of the uber-wealthy while pushing to end programs for the poorest and most vulnerable?
The GOTP is playing bait and switch hoping the majority of the American electorate is too obtuse to notice; problem for Boehner and company is they’re not. Voters are beginning to notice, and as Tip O’Neil once said, “All politics is local”. Putting the entire GOTP House on record voting in support of the infamous Ryan plan was one of the dumbest things any Speaker has ever done, and handed any Democratic opponent a huge stick to beat their GOTP rival with. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the House wasted the entire legislative year with political stunts while American’s are out of work; this is going to come back to roost in November 2012.
How’d the GOTP spend its time? By saying no to each and every piece of legislation proposed by the President; by playing political dodge ball with the nation’s debt ceiling; by placating the uber-conservative Tea Party minority when it introduced more than 100 bills aimed on ending a woman’s right to choose, grand standing by staging an elaborate reading the Constitution (while leaving out an entire article) and by reaffirming the national motto of “In God We Trust”.
Bill Clinton beat the Republican incumbent in 1992 by proclaiming “It’s the economy stupid!” And guess what? It’s still the economy stupid! The GOTP’s playing its collective fiddle while the nation’s economy’s burning; hope Boehner’s enjoyed his time as Speaker.
President goes on offense?
Original photo official White House photo
President Barack Obama using the strength of the bully pulpit took the battle into the enemy’s home turf today pitching his $447 billion jobs program of tax cuts and new spending in Richmond, VA, the home District of the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) whiny boy – House Majority “Leader” Eric Cantor.
“I know that folks sometimes think they’ve used up the benefit of the doubt but I’m an eternal optimist,” the President told more than 8,000 people at the University of Richmond. “I’m an optimistic person. I believe if you just stay at it long enough, after they’ve exhausted all the other options, folks do the right thing.”
Thus far, the GOTP has remained “noncommittal”, which is much better than remaining “diametrically opposed”.
“The proposals the president outlined tonight merit consideration,” GOTP House Speaker John Boehner, said after the president’s speech. “We hope he gives serious consideration to our ideas as well.
“It’s my hope that we can work together,” Boehner added.
You hope the President gives serious considerations to what ideas? The ideas the GOTP voted for in lock step to dismantle Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Veteran’s benefits? The so-called “plan” put forth by Paul Ryan? Is that what passes as ideas today in Boehner’s world?
“You should pass it right away,” the President told GOTP lawmakers more than once, and he pledged to campaign for its enactment “in every corner of this country.”
The President masterfully made his point about where he would take the fight when he identified the need fix a certain bridge; “There’s a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky,” he said. Coincidently the two states represented by the Speaker and Senate GOTP leader Mitch McConnell.
McConnell was not fazed, and retorted in typical obstructionist fashion, “For months, we’ve been engaged in a national debate about spending and debt, about the need to get our nation’s fiscal house in order, about the need to rein in government. … Yet here we are, tonight, being asked by this same president to support even more government spending with the assurance that he’ll figure out a way to pay for it later.”
Yes, that’s right Mitch always with the negative ways. But what is to be expected from a Senator who declared his number one priority is to make sure President Obama only has one term? Not to put Americans back to work; not to defeat Al Qaeda; but to make sure President Obama only has one term. Wow, what a sterling example of unselfish service to our country. Kind of makes you want to run right out and add Mitch’s likeness to Mount Rushmore doesn’t it?
Meanwhile, getting back to meaningful, adult, conversation on the country’s troubles, the President said the tax cuts he’s recommending would mean $1,500 a year for the typical working family and $80,000 for businesses with 50 employees of average pay, and he said he would outline legislation in coming days to offset the bill’s $447 billion price tag so it wouldn’t add to federal deficits.
All-in-all, the President’s asking for $253 billion in tax cuts, with an additional $194 billion in new spending to fund highway and other construction projects, modernize schools, stabilize blighted neighborhoods and help states hire teachers and first responders.
Of course McConnell wasn’t the only GOTP dinosaur to oppose the President’s challenge, soon to retire – thankfully – Senator Jon Kyl whined, “Rather than offer a new road map for recovery and reform, he merely dusted off a tired agenda of old ideas wrapped in freshly partisan rhetoric.”
Very insightful offering from Kyl, who’s serving on the newly formed uber-committee responsible for finding ways to cut the nation’s debt and has threatened to walk out if anyone suggests further cuts in defense spending. If I were a Democratic Senator I would suggest it every time the committee met just to push his buttons and see if he would be true to his treat, or to just see if his head would explode.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat, was as hopeful as ever saying he hoped the proposals would “present a litmus test to Republicans. I hope they will show the American people that they are more interested in creating jobs than defeating President Obama.”
Yeah, you hold on to that happy thought Senator, that and some fairy dust and one day you may just fly. Are you kidding me? Do you really believe the GOTP members of Congress are going to do anything to willingly help this President get the economy going? Most of them want things to stay as bad as possible in hopes of defeating him in 2012; and no, that is no exaggeration.
Democratic House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi is coming out swinging at her GOTP counterparts, “Republicans have a choice to either work with Democrats on the immediate need to create jobs or waste more time when American families are demanding action.”
Personally Congresswoman, I predict they’ll do nothing. They’ll hope to stall as long as possible. From a political point of view it’s a disaster either way for the GOTP. If they help the President the rabid Tea Party members of the far-right will eat them alive; but if they do nothing, the President and any Democratic opponents will be able to truthfully paint them as the do nothing party they’ve become. It’s a win-win for the President, and a masterful play.
If his GOTP presidential opponents come out against the plan then they have to defend why. Again, a masterful play by the President; he’s put them in an indefensible position. They can stall, or oppose, and be portrayed as being anti-recovery and friends to the wealthy, or they can come out in support and be devoured by the Tea Partiers.
In going on the offense the President looks Presidential, while the GOTP presidential crazy 8’s in comparison look like fools.
Fiscal jihad leads to downgrade of U.S. credit?
Well congratulations Republican Tea Partistas (GOTP), you’ve achieved something no one else has ever done in the history of our nation, you’ve given the nation’s full faith and credit a black eye. The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that Standard & Poor’s, one of the world’s three major credit rating agencies, cited “difficulties in bridging the gulf between political parties” as a major reason for the downgrade from U.S.’s top shelf AAA status to AA+, the next level down; of course the GOTP and Democratic law makers quickly jumped on the blame the other party bandwagon.
But whose fault is it?
Only one thing’s changed this go round of the debt ceiling argument, and that’s the introduction of the Tea Party – or as I like to call them, the Tea Partistas – who secured around 80 seats in the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections and who have been reaping havoc ever since. It was their moronic insistence the debt ceiling is tied to cutting spending, and their equally moronic insistence that taxes cannot be raised, especially not on the top 2% – or the absolutely uber-wealthy in the country.
It was the Tea Partistas’ holding the economy hostage, demonstrating to the rest of the world that we now have right-wing political Jihadists bent on bringing everything down if they don’t get their way that has shaken the world’s view of America, it’s why Standard & Poor’s lowered our rating, citing “difficulties in bridging the gulf between political parties” as a major reason for the downgrade. The rating agency has essentially lost faith in Washington’s ability to work together to address its debt.
The downgrade, hours after markets closed on Friday, is a first for the United States since it was granted an AAA rating in 1917. Reportedly S&P warned about a downgrade as far back as April. Its decision came just four days after fractious debate over raising the nation’s debt ceiling ended in a compromise that would reduce the country’s debt by more than $2 trillion. S&P said Friday the cuts did not go far enough.
This is where things become clouded and suspicious however with regards to S&P, and to which side the company is politically aligned. Only one group in Washington right now is making the same mewing as S&P and that’s the Tea Partistas. Is it possible the rating company is making a down grade in order to somehow gain by it?
AP is reporting that officials at the Treasury Department fought the downgrade until virtually the last minute, and that administration sources familiar with discussions said the S&P analysis was fundamentally flawed. S&P had sent the administration a draft document in the early afternoon Friday and the administration, after examining the numbers, challenged the analysis.
In a statement, Treasury said, “A judgment flawed by a $2 trillion error speaks for itself.”
GOTP potential opponents of the president in 2012 pounced on S&P’s announcement.
Michele “Krazy” Bachmann, the Tea Partista favorite, called on Obama to fire Geithner and quickly submit a plan to balance the budget, not just reduce deficits; and Mitt “Flopsy Mopsy” Romney said the credit downgrade was the “latest casualty” in Obama’s failed economic leadership.
S&P said in its report that downgrading the U.S.’s credit rating reflected the agency’s belief that the debt deal Congress pulled together was not sufficient “to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.” S&P said that in addition to the downgrade, it is issuing a negative outlook, meaning that there was a chance it will lower the rating further within the next two years.
A downgrade a notch lower, to AA, will occur if the agency sees smaller reductions in spending than Congress and the administration have agreed to make, higher interest rates or new fiscal pressures during this period.
Basically S&P is now attempting to hold the country’s economy hostage too; this sounds just like the Tea Partistas. The not so subtle threat that S&P “will lower the rating further within the next two years” is highly suspicious timing basically stating it will do it again sometime during the presidential campaign cycle. Who would that benefit? The GOTP candidate and the S&P because the conservatives want to further deregulate the stock market and financial institutions. We can probably expect the stock market to plunge on Monday.
GOTP House Speaker John Boehner said he hoped the downgrade served as a wake-up call to the Democratic Party.
“It is my hope this wake-up call will convince Washington Democrats that they can no longer afford to tinker around the edges of our long-term debt problem,” Boehner said in a statement. “As S&P noted, reforming and preserving our entitlement programs is the `key to long-term fiscal sustainability.”
Again, the Speaker’s statement makes this down grade highly suspicious and suggests perhaps it was coordinated with the GOTP strategy all along? Boehner cites, “reforming and preserving our entitlement programs is the `key to long-term fiscal sustainability.” So now, according to Bonehead, and allegedly the S&P, the only way to fix the debt problem is to stick it to the poor and the elderly.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid believes Bonehead and his interpretation of the downgrade is wrong, and suggested S&P’s action shows that a mixed policy of raising taxes and budget cuts – was the correct way to move forward.
“The action by S&P reaffirms the need for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that combines spending cuts with revenue-raising measures like closing taxpayer-funded giveaways to billionaires, oil companies and corporate jet owners,” Reid said.
S&P’s actions are suspicious, and it appears the group may have overplayed its hand, especially when the main reason it cites for the downgrade could have come straight out of Rush Limbaugh’s mouth – or the GOTP playbook; obviously a balanced approach makes the most sense.
The GOTP catapulted the economy to the brink of disaster by cutting taxes while simultaneously taking the country into two wars; it was the actions of the Bush/Cheney team – wholeheartedly supported by Bonehead and company – which put us here, coupled with Mitch McConnell’s filibustering essentially every bill passed by the House for the first two years of the Obama Administration. There is only one party to blame, it is not something both parties put us in, it was the actions of the Republicans now sealed to the Tea Partistas which has done this. If the President is able to place the blame where it belongs and convince the country of how gross negligence by the GOTP has so thoroughly screwed things up then he’s re-elected; otherwise then we are in for a long slide into economic catastrophe.
Clearly the tax cutting supply-side economics sophistry of the right has failed; it hasn’t produced any jobs and has robbed the country of much needed revenue, and the President needs to hammer away at this until it sticks. Point it out clearly and say it as many times as it takes for the majority of Americans to get it. Reaganomics doesn’t work. It didn’t work in 1980, and it doesn’t work now, even Reagan knew this; he raised taxes eleven times during his presidency to garner revenue. The GOTP just doesn’t get it, Reaganomics has become its mantra, and they’ve become fiscal jihadists willing to destroy everything if they don’t get their way – they’ve become economic terrorists.
What’s in this deal?
The White House is saying the so-called “bi-partisan” debt ceiling deal “removes the cloud of uncertainty over our economy at this critical time, by ensuring that no one will be able to use the threat of the nation’s first default now, or in only a few months, for political gain;
“Locks in a down payment on significant deficit reduction, with savings from both domestic and Pentagon spending, and is designed to protect crucial investments like aid for college students;
“Establishes a bipartisan process to seek a balanced approach to larger deficit reduction through entitlement and tax reform;
“Deploys an enforcement mechanism that gives all sides an incentive to reach bipartisan compromise on historic deficit reduction, while protecting Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries and low-income programs;
“Stays true to the President’s commitment to shared sacrifice by preventing the middle class, seniors and those who are most vulnerable from shouldering the burden of deficit reduction; the President did not agree to any entitlement reforms outside of the context of a bipartisan committee process where tax reform will be on the table and the President will insist on shared sacrifice from the most well-off and those with the most indefensible tax breaks.”
The “deal” – if approved by both houses of Congress (something that remains to be seen) – “immediately enacts a 10-year discretionary spending caps generating nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction; balanced between defense and non-defense spending.”
The “deal” authorizes the President (by Congress – if it passes) to increase the debt limit by at least $2.1 trillion, eliminating the need for further increases until 2013. Everyone needs to understand that the financial side of all things in government originates in the United States House of Representatives – currently controlled by the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) – and it’s upon their collective shoulders that debt originates from. The President can’t spend a dime without Congressional – particularly the House – approval.
The “deal” creates a bipartisan committee (also being dubbed the uber-committee) process tasked with identifying an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, including from entitlement and tax reform. Committee is required to report legislation by November 23, 2011, which receives fast-track protections. Congress is required to vote on Committee recommendations by December 23, 2011. This is something never done before; it’s extra-constitutional in nature and will prove interesting to see how – or if – it functions, and to see if its creation – or decisions – isn’t soon challenged before the Supreme Court.
The “deal” also creates an “enforcement mechanism” established to force all parties – Republican and Democrat – to agree to balanced deficit reduction has been put in place so that if the uber-committee fails, then the enforcement mechanism will trigger spending reductions beginning in 2013 – split 50/50 between domestic and defense spending. Enforcement protects Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries, and low-income programs from any cuts. It’s the Terminator for budget reduction; of course once it is released it will be fascinating to see if it can be controlled, or if it will simply run a muck through the halls of Congress saying “Hasta la vista, baby”.
The bi-partisan “deal” – if approved – supposedly removes the cloud of economic uncertainty until 2013, eliminating the economy to move forward without the mill stone of the Tea Party Congress dragging it down; which is a good thing since most independent analysts, economists, and ratings agencies – meaning anyone not on the payroll of FOX PAC and the Heritage Fundation (yes it’s a deliberate misspelling) – have all made clear that a short-term debt limit increase would create unacceptable economic uncertainty by risking default again within only a matter of months and as S&P stated, increase the chance of a downgrade. By ensuring a debt limit increase of at least $2.1 trillion, this deal removes the specter of default, providing important certainty to our economy at a fragile moment. The plus side is – if Congress approves it – that this puts the crazies in the closet until after the 2012 election when hopefully most of them have been defeated and the Congress can reach a normal level of grid-lock as compared to the Mad Hatter’s Wild Tea Cup Ride we’ve all been exposed to of late.
The “deal” is supposed to provide more than $900 billion in savings over 10 years by capping discretionary spending including savings of $350 billion from the base defense budget; which are the first defense cuts since the 1990s and which are supposed to be implemented based on the outcome of a review of our missions, roles, and capabilities that will reflect the President’s commitment to protecting our national security. Which means these cuts may never happen at all. To be sure the war rabid Tea Party members of Congress will never vote to cut defense spending, not while the specter of “Islamic Fascism” is repeatedly resurrected whenever FOX PAC needs a ratings boost.
But it doesn’t just cut defense spending; the other $550 billion will be taken from domestic discretionary spending, which will – if approved – drop to the lowest level since Dwight D. Eisenhower was President (1953-1961).
Allegedly the “deal” is designed to achieve balanced deficit reduction, consistent with the values the President articulated in his April Fiscal Framework. The discretionary savings are spread between both domestic and defense spending. And the President will demand that the uber-committee pursue a balanced deficit reduction package, where any entitlement reforms are coupled with revenue-raising tax reform that asks for the most fortunate Americans to sacrifice. The fact the President will have the option to push for tax increases may be the deal breaker for the Tea Party Freshman, who claim they will never vote for any tax increase. This appears to be the spoonful of sugar meant to help the medicine of domestic cuts easier to swallow by the Democrats.
Additionally, it appears that the Terminator enforcement mechanism complements the forcing event already in law which is the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts; it appears it will force the uber-committee’s hand into allowing the Bush tax cuts to finally expire on 1 January 2013. In effect, if the uber-committee fails to come up with balanced deal, it would enable the President to use his veto pen to ensure nearly $1 trillion in additional deficit reduction by not extending the high-income tax cuts. If the President is re-elected – with seems entirely possible – it is certainly probable that the Bush Tax Cuts will expire, with or without a deal from the uber-committee as nothing says the President has to allow them to continue.
While there will be cuts in domestic spending, it appears the President stood firmly against proposals that would have placed the sole burden of deficit reduction on lower-income and middle-class families. This includes not only proposals in the House Republican Tea Party Budget that would have undermined the core commitments of Medicare to our seniors and forced tens of millions of low-income Americans to go without health insurance, but also enforcement mechanisms that would have forced automatic cuts to low-income programs. The Terminator enforcement mechanism in the deal exempts Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare benefits, unemployment insurance, programs for low-income families, and civilian and military retirement. It will be interesting to see where the uber-committee finds places to cut considering all the programs protected. Of course all of this is dependent on whether or not the severely weakened Speaker – John Boehner – has the political muscle to force it through the House.
