US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

"And I think at this juncture, what the American people need to be doing is getting plenty of exercise and eating right," McConnell said. "We"--he gestured to the hedge fund managers and high-level lobbyists surrounding the podium--"are going to eat them as soup, broth, a number of things. This is America, and we want them to be as tasty as possible."

we bill be eating a consummé of oxtail, topped by shaved leeks and freeze-dried fennel, flecked with 24 karet gold flakes

"The unemployed," said the Senator, "are welcome to come over to my house. Forty six acres of brush doesn't just clear itself, you know," as the room dissolved in mirth.

I like this Daily Beast item on the negotiations. Obama is prepared to screw students, Medicaid recipients, Social Security recipients, and seniors as long as the Republicans will agree to some token tax screwing of the wealthy:

As Monday’s White House budget talks got down to the nitty-gritty, Eric Cantor proposed a series of spending cuts, one of them aimed squarely at college students.

The House majority leader, who did most of the talking for the Republican side, said those taking out student loans should start paying interest right away, rather than being able to defer payments until after graduation. It is a big-ticket item that would save $40 billion over 10 years.

At one point, sources say, President Obama pushed back against the mounting menu of spending cuts while the tax column on the negotiating sheets remained blank. He asked the Republican leaders how they expected him to take their proposals seriously.

“I’m not going to do that,” Obama said. “I’m not going to take money from old people and screw students,” not without some compromise on the tax-increase side.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/11/debt-crisis-deepens-as-eric-cantor-gop-propose-new-cuts.html

if they're 'taking a semester off, they'll be better prepared to mobilize for him in '12, right?

paul retiring!

http://thefacts.com/article_1c9785ea-ac9d-11e0-b2df-001cc4c03286.html

good riddance. too bad he's left his son behind.

surely that district will put in someone worse

probably

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legislation_sponsored_by_Ron_Paul

Sanctity of Life Act of 2007. H.R. 2597 , 2007-06-06, originally H.R. 776 , 2005-02-10. For the purposes of statutory construction over the jurisdictional limitation imposed, declares that "human life shall be deemed to exist from conception". Removes federal court jurisdiction over abortion cases arising from state laws and effectively negates Roe v. Wade as binding legal precedent.[63] Such a law returns to each state the power to decide whether or not abortion should be allowed, banned, or regulated.

^^^dick move

hates the federal gov't, except for when it takes over women's uteruses

lol

The cover for the new transportation reauthorization bill put forward by house GOP.

http://streetsblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/cover-300x194.jpg

“If you approve our bill, then our highways will look like this … because we won’t be able to maintain them, and engineers will have to close them off because the overpasses are structurally unsound.”

At least Mac is honest!

The Senate's top Republican said Tuesday that he did not see a way for Republicans and Democrats to come to agreement on meaningful deficit reduction as long as President Obama remains in office.

"After years of discussions and months of negotiations, I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office, a real solution is probably unattainable," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in remarks on the Senate floor.

http://streetsblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/cover-300x194.jpg

no don't you see the gop is secretly pushing mass transit

'this can be our amazing future when everyone takes the train'

"Removes federal court jurisdiction over abortion cases arising from state laws"

OK gl trying to overturn Art. III of the Constitution let me know how that goes.

kind of a dumb idle thought here but, we shouldn't raise the debt ceiling, we should repeal it. we shouldn't have a 'debt ceiling'.

inclined to agree here

Obama seems to be taking a much harder tack, well aware of the political peril GOP is flirting with. but man if SS checks actually fail to go out, and interest rates skyrocket - even for a couple days.... hooboy

Here's why victory doesn't matter.

I don't care about the debt ceiling debate, which will get settled, as I do about taxes and SS.

uh aren't those things kind of all bound up together at the moment

No. That's what the GOP wants us to thin. Like I said, Kabuki.

*think

anyway what does it matter if Obama "wins" this fight if it means destroying Medicare and SS?

i might've said this before but "kabuki" is way too close to "bukkake" for me to feel comfortable reading the word

"ah you know, just the typical republican bukkake theater"

anyway, SOTO OTM

wait so Alfred you think the GOP is just going to vote to raise the debt limit and not get any concessions on SS/Medicare

xp

KABUKI, THE ART FORM, HAD ACTUAL MEANING YOU KNOW

it's a worse saying than "under the bus" imo

somebody mentioned this, right?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20078789-503544.html

Obama says he cannot guarantee Social Security checks will go out on August 3

that's playing some kind of card.

Of course they will! I gave up weeks ago. The Dems did too – it's their fault for allowing the two problems to get conflated.

KABUKI, THE ART FORM, HAD ACTUAL MEANING YOU KNOW

it's a worse saying than "under the bus" imo

yes but Boehner and Macca look like they're actually wearing makeup.

that's playing some kind of card.

otm

at first i was like, why not make that really clear a long time ago? but nobody was paying attention then

i feel like this dumb argument has been grinding on for like 6 mos but we're not exactly "normal"

I say Noh to all this Kabuki talk

"i think im turning japanese"

I can see them doing a smaller 1.2 trillion set of spending cuts now (with no revenue or a token small deduction to close in 2014 if it receives support from both houses in that year). That would include the medicare cuts previously agreed to but not Social Security cuts.

Then I picture the Dems not letting the Bush tax cuts expire in 2012 but a group of Bluedog and moderate Dems voting with Republicans to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, and Obama signing it.

The Social Security cuts will then come in 2013 because noone is courageous enough to suggest that we can get more payroll tax income by raising the rate from $105,000 or whatever it is now to say double that.

So the real kabuki theater will be dragged out for years and drip drip drip on us like water torture instead of all happening now.

So the real kabuki theater will be dragged out for years and drip drip drip on us like water torture instead of all happening now.

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, July 12, 2011 2:53 PM Bookmark

This combined with Jordan's bukkake mention produces a really horrible image.

BREAKING: McConnell Opens the Escape Hatch
from Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall

We're just getting the first word on this. So the details may be subject to clarification. But Senate Minority Leader has just suggested the GOP will give President Obama his debt limit increase without any spending cuts with a legislative maneuver that in essence allows Republicans to say it's all Obama's fault.

If that sounds bizarre, well, it is pretty bizarre. But that's what he said. More in a moment.

whaaaaat

eating peas at the kabuki theatre- my life under the bus

Seems like a huge loss for the gop tho?

not buying it

xxxpost

Just saw that too, not sure if I'm ready to believe it or not. Seems too simple and straightforward for republicans to agree to.

seems so painfully obv to me -- there's no way the GOP would let the country default

pretty sure the base would throw a shitfest if something like that happened

the funny thing is that if that actually happened, the storyline would not be "obama stands his ground, finally wins a negotiation!" but instead "wtf mitch mcconnell you incompetent idiot"

if we're looking at this purely w/r/t bargaining, it'd be true!

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/the-big-blink-mcconnell-proposes-giving-obama-authority-to-raise-debt-limit-alone.php

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has proposed a sort of escape hatch for Congressional Republicans, who have threatened not to raise the national debt limit -- and trigger a default -- if Democrats don't agree to trillions of dollars in cuts to popular social programs.

The plan is designed to give President Obama the power to raise the debt limit through the end of his first term on his own, but to force Democrats to take a series of votes on the debt limit vote in the months leading up to the election.

The development confirms suspicions that the GOP was unwilling to truly use the looming debt ceiling as leverage to force conservative-friendly changes to popular entitlement programs, but suggests strongly that Republicans plan to continue politicking on the issue of debt and deficits through the 2012 elections.

haha this is transparently cunty

"i'll give you what you want, but you have to... wear this stupid shirt!!!"