**UPDATED**
House Speaker John Boehner’s new budget proposal would require deep cuts in the years immediately ahead in Social Security and Medicare benefits for current retirees, the repeal of health reform’s coverage expansions, or wholesale evisceration of basic assistance programs for vulnerable Americans. The plan is, thus, tantamount to a form of “class warfare.” If enacted, it could well produce the greatest increase in poverty and hardship produced by any law in modern U.S. history. – Robert Greenstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
by Boris Rasin
It’s worth challenging the crazies by invoking the 14th Amendment, but Pres. Obama doesn’t have that much game. In lieu of that he should simply demand a clean debt ceiling increase bill. We’ll see soon what he’s going to do. …[update] One thing Pres. Obama didn’t do tonight was make news. He explained again what was going on using cut, cut, cut, as his baseline, giving Speaker Boehner credit, then asked people to get in touch with Congress. Then he once again reiterated his intentions to tackle entitlements, which for those of you just tuning in is the whole ballgame for Democrats, even if Pres. Obama thinks he’s above these fundamental priorities.
The crawl beneath MSNBC’s coverage with Lawrence O’Donnell read that congressional servers crashed, though that can swing both ways.
In a note of color, Chris Matthews’ face after Obama spoke was priceless. He said “both sides blew it,” but kept talking about Obama’s lack of presidential stage craft. He even invoked Nixon as being an example of what Obama could have done but didn’t, never a good political bar to miss. Meanwhile Melissa Harris Perry seemed stumped to describe Pres. Obama as anything but a Republican. Quite a scene, indeed.
Speaker Boehner spoke afterward, but it really should be Eric Cantor in a clown suit instead. It’s never a good sign when you have to begin by telling people who the hell you are.
We need to find a new definition for the Republicans in the House Tea Party caucus. They’re not “conservatives,” but something akin to extortion artists.
What you think matters, so let me know in the comments.
A abhorrent situation. Reid offers the GOP what it wants- crippling cuts that will imperil the economy and Obama’s re-election. Tea Party and Boehner thus object to Reid’s deal. Never shoudl there have beena negotiation over the 90th vote on raising the debt ceiling. A clean vote or raise 14th amendment! The public is fed up and damage is done to both parties on this fiasco. Just raise it already.
Totally agree Art. Obama should never have joined the GOP in this faulty deficit argument, and should have demanded a clean debt ceiling vote. Plus he and Congress should have never agreed to extending the Bush tax cuts either. Both sides have utterly messed this up, and both sides have been completely disingenuous to the voters. Of course I blame the GOP for their usual anti middle class and entitlement stance, but that’s to be expected. More concerning is Obama’s lack of Democratic principles, and trying to sell his 3:1 Cuts to Revenue Plan a Balanced plan which it is not. He also assumes voters are most interested in a compromise. NO voters are most concerned with a focus on jobs not this faulty premise of cutting things to improve the economy. Having Obama as President is like having the fox guarding the chicken coop.
hah richard wolffe admits tea party saving dems
Wolffe actually got something right tonight. I almost fell off the couch!
http://twitter.com/#!/taylormarsh/status/95659298927034368
obama: cut cut cut. live within our means. what the hell is he doing? in grand bargain mode still
Cut, cut, cut, because that’s what “the greatest nation in the world” does?
bloomberg’s fantastic rebuke to dc- is someone dipping his toe in 2012 waters again?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59853.html
Hey, if there was a path Bloomberg would have been in already, but money politics keeps people who aren’t interested in a vanity candidacy out.
If this is true then we ARE screwed.
His speech last night made me nauseous, I couldn’t watch. It was a completely illogical mishmash.His grand bargain was for his reelection, not for us, and he’s too deft to know that it would have hurt him not helped him like Taylor and Wolfe have stated. He stated in an earlier press conference that entitlements had nothing to do with the deficit then preceded to say that he wanted to throw them on the table any way in order to do something BIG. What an idiot. I am so tired of having a moderate Republican in the White House. I think we’d be better with a real Republican nut in the White house and majorities in both houses.
Compromise has become a “dirty word,” like “entitlement” has become a way to reduce the “deficit” — both happened because that’s the game being played by both parties.
Then Boehner manages to make Obama sound quite reasonable.
It’s almost like they planned it out in advance.
That would have required a compromise, or cooperation even
why did obama want this primetime speech then? no i dont get this. what a waste fo time. i think the crisis just got worse with neither boehner or obama able to lead.
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melissa harris perry on msnbc said she cant tell which was a dem or a repub giving the speech! funny and true. she said the american people must be alarmed from they heard tonight- dc is broken on a false crisis. she said obama’s speech harmed him further- with no bold announcement. she then slammed his remark that people work hard all day and turn on their tvs for news. perry said people wish they were working hard all day and wish dc would wor for them!! perry will sit in for maddow this week!
The fact that Obama asked for time on the networks, but they gave time to Boehner as well, proved conclusively that they were betting Obama wouldn’t make news, so they didn’t want to get caught playing favorites.
What a missed opportunity.
Obama is still negotiating with the Democratic Party. Obama would sign Boehner’s deal in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it.
Obama’s speech made me want to vomit. Sadly, I’m sure his army of cheerleaders continue to get a thrill up their legs when they speak, even when he’s speaking about screwing them over.
It was rather interesting, psychodrew, to see Chris Matthews’ face afterward. He said “both sides blew it,” but kept talking about Obama’s lack of presidential stage craft. Jesus, he even invoked Nixon as being better at it.
Obama is not going to get a “clean” debt ceiling bill. He doesn’t have the game to go it along. Therefore, he is going to cave, exactly as the Republicans predicted. Obama has PPCD. Permanent Presidential Cave Disorder.
PPCD, too much. heh-heh…
as harris perry said on msnbc- obama is out of touch esp obama’s remark on the working guy tired and going home to watch the news etc.. she said obama should be worried about that owrking guy having no work for years! amen!
boehner is abhorrent and lied his ass off about obama incurring hte debt etc.. if thes e two felt they needed to break into live tv to announc enothing then dc is out of its mind!
It would be nice if the website problems for Congress, and WH, were because lots of people are expressing a plague on both the House and Senate, as well as WH, until they all decide to act like adults, much less leaders.
Twitter:
thegaranceGarance Franke-Ruta I had to Wiki this one. RT @AnnieLowrey: Sort of feel like Obama threw “Expelliarmus!” and Boehner threw “Avada Kedavra!”
If you aren’t a Harry Potter fan, that won’t be funny, but just in case anyone here (besides myself) is, I thought I’d share.
” The Candidate ” 1972, Robert Redford, Peter Boyle, Melvyn Douglas. A man with no great intellect or reason to run for office is pushed into a campaign for the Senate. On the night of his victory, with all his people celebrating, he looks at his campaign manager and says, ” What do we do now? ” If the movie had continoued past that point we would have the story of Mr. Obama’s presidency. He is adrift without advisors and being manipulated like a puppet by his political managers who have taken over the White House.
I disagree with those who say he is his own man and is doing what he wants to do; I don’t think he knows what to do or what he’s doing. Just as he cannot speak a sentence without a teleprompter he cannot think without an abundance of advisors. Those advisors, like Summers, are now speaking out against him. I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again, the man is not very smart, nor is he shrewd, nor does he know the art of the deal.
Comparing him to any other recent president is a waste of time, No matter what else they were, they were professional politicians. Mr. Obama is an amateur. He did not excel at any of his previous endevours and he will surely fail at this one. I predict he will be a one term president. He does, however, have one thing in common with Dick Nixon , he will soon be walking the halls of the White House talking to pictures on the wall.
these gop bastards have gone too far. im pissed at obama but hell the gop is out of its mind. maybe the truth is default cant be stopped bc the tea party wont permit anything else?
The GOP is going as far as their opposition allows them to go. They are completely sane (for their side). It’s the Democratic who are crazy because they do not have the fear of their voters in them.
poor ed- even joan walsh is getting mroe deflated these days. like she said- the working class and poor lose no mater what. and obama failed to change the dynamic for things to be better for them in any deal. poor ed cant rally troops these days
There isn’t enough money in all the world to keep spending the way we have been.
Reality. It sucketh all the way round.
Grown-ups find a way to live within it.
NOTHING sucks quite as much as that vacuum between your ears.
looloo – Like so many, many others you have bought into the exact wrong premise of government, which is to be able to spend in times like we’re facing today.
Austerity in times of recession and job shrinkage is a prescription for making things worse.
You’ve got it exactly backward.
Exactly Taylor. The President should have changed the narrative long ago, the focus should not be on cutting spending at this critical time, it should be on creating jobs and growing the economy. Like many have been saying in a vacuum it seems, is that we need massive stimulus, infrastructure spending and the like at a time like this to create demand. Deficit cutting is exactly the wrong premise at this time.
Didn’t watch either speech much. I figured i wouldn’t be learning anything new. I started to watch at the point where Pres Obama invoked the American people and how they want a balanced approach.It was at that point I almost threw a brick at the TV.
The American people do not want a balanced approach. They overwhelmingly want the Big 3 left alone, the Bush tax cuts on the upper 2% to expire, corporations to pay their fair share,want defense cuts and the Wars to end. Regarding specific policies such to reduce costs- drug reimportation or the Government to use its power to drive drug prices down, and a public option/singlepayer for reducing medical insurance. Most importantly they want JOBS.
All of the above are the exact opposit of what the Administration and Congress are doing.
Matthews , Ed , Harris-Perry, Walsh(water carrier extradorinaire for Pres Obama and charter member of the Veal Pen) are reacting as if they just got hit in the head and realized -Hey he really is a moderate Republican and could give a damn about the poor and working class.
TM -you meantioned earlier in a comment above about the speech being a missed opportunity. Hell, Pres Obama’s complete Presidency is one big missed opportunity. He moved right and embraced Repubs from the get go and went in the opposite direction the country wanted him to go ,expected him to go, after the election.
We keep screaming about Republican craziness, but thats what they have been doing for 30 yrs why is anyone surprised. What we should be really screaming about is the complete lack of courage and fight by the Democratic Party to uphold the New Deal and all the rights won and preserved over the past 50yrs.The lack of leadership by Pres Obama and the lack of spine by Pres Obama and DC Dems is indescribable. They all need to go.
I didn’t throw a brick, I just turned off the TV. By the time 2012 comes, many of us would have turned completely indifferent if not bitter to whatever this guy does.
Not much to add sadly…
LiberalJoe, I couldn’t have said it better. You are so right on. It makes me at least feel better to actually see others get this…I should probably stop visiting Huffpost, because folks on there by and large just go with the msm narrative of the day. It’s kind of pathetic.
The career liberal journalists have accessed themselves out of all credibility. Democrats have abandoned their base. The people have no representives, poor Bernie Saunders can’t do it by himself.
We have been dumbed down so much as a society via coporate journalism ( why is the hell is the Speaker of the House given as big a platform as the President, they are not equal! ) so much, that a group of know- nothings who have a cult like ” faith ” that they are right despite all evidence to the contrary have us all held hostage. The cartoon aptly captures this.
It kills me that boomers are the generation that are losing our democracy. As much as we want to deny it our parents were the adults when it came to the welfare of the country.
a true debacle with report today that credit rating will be downgraded no matter what bc of all this. wapo poll out today shows obama problem is with base- 22pt drop with base on jobs etc.. with liberals and blacks its esp bad news.
if we must take a deal reid’s i suppose is better in that the cuts are far less, half the savings are from getting out of iraq and afghanistan. it doesnt touch big 3. it does set up fiscal cmte though.
boehenr’s 2 step is a disaster bc in order to aise debt ceiling 2nd time CONGRESS MUST APPROVE FISCAL CMTE’S ENTIRE SLATE OF RECS! get that? so the big 3 etc would be ransom in the middle of 2012.
But Art why worry? We have Obama to protect the Big 3!!!!! I wish I could laugh at that. When I said to Obama bots during the primaries, that he was so full of it, I didn’t know how right I was.
I had already written my congressman, who is an idiot, over him voting for the cut, cap and balance bill.. I let him know I was fed up, most of America was fed up, that Congress had become nothing more than Romper Room and a 3-ring circus, and that we the people were at the mercy of a bunch of ideologues that couldn’t care less how that ideology affected us on a day to day basis. I accused him of only trying to secure his own re-election at the expense of all of the elderly and the poor and the disabled and reminded him the elderly and the poor vote too, I asked him when he and all of the other Congressmen had lost all their common sense, and when did he become a standard bearer for the Tea Party whackos? I also told him that there was a growing backlash in this country and that the people would not blame Obama, or the Dems, they are going to blame the Republicans and come 2012 I sincerely hoped he would be looking for another job. I had done this before Obama came on TV, and I quite frankly had not ever written my Congressman before, never had to actually cause it used to be Rick Boucher and he at least had an overflowing cache of good old fashioned common sense. To be honest with you, its a little scary to write in and complain, you always wonder if there is some sneaky way they can make your life miserable, but I was on a roll, so I also wrote the White House and told him to stiffen his spine, make Congress irrelevant and follow Bill Clinton’s advice, invoke the 14th and raise the debt limit and then watch Congress scramble to try and make themselves relevant in this debate again. I so hope Obama does that.I would lead a parade in his honor.