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

no he's referring to something in the more recently offered deal. why he thinks those cuts are "fake" is beyond me. They come from the budget, does that mean including them in the deficit is also "fake"?

Although I see some have attacked prior Obama claimed defense cuts as fake:

http://ij-poli-blog.blogspot.com/2011/06/obamas-deep-cuts-in-military-spending.html

this piece quotes the following from a Forbes blog:

Mr. Obama’s new and improved plan for slimming down America’s national-security posture likely will entail little sacrifice for the federal government’s biggest source of discretionary spending, the Department of Defense. It’s not that there isn’t plenty of wasteful spending to be found — the Army will spend over $2 billion during the period in question just on its music bands — but the way the President has couched his proposed savings minimizes their likely impact on security (and the deficit). Let’s take a look at some of the factors mitigating what seems like a very big cut in spending.

I'm guessing fake cuts means cuts that don't directly alter the nature of the service being cut. For example, cuts to Medicare will only be real when seniors are actually dying on the streets.

jonathan chait linked to this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/magazine/how-kevin-mccarthy-wrangles-the-tea-party.html

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that the government will be unable to meet its financial obligations by Aug. 2 unless Congress permits it to borrow more. The freshmen have not been shy on this subject, either. McCarthy informally polled them when they first came to town in November for orientation. All but four of them said they would vote against raising the ceiling, under any circumstances. Then McCarthy (along with Ryan and the House Ways and Means chairman, Dave Camp) began conducting more listening sessions. The whip recognized that it would be counterproductive to lecture the freshmen about the economic hazards of not raising the debt ceiling. He also realized that it’s one thing to pass a budget — which in the end is a nonbinding political document — and another thing to throw America into default. And so McCarthy has urged them to consider raising the ceiling under certain conditions and thus to view this moment as a golden opportunity to force significant changes from the White House. “We all ran for a reason,” he tells them. “What’s most of concern to you? What is it that we think will change America?”

As a result, the freshmen have begun to move away from a hard “no” on raising the debt ceiling to a “yes, if.” In the conference room, several freshmen have said they’ll vote to raise the ceiling only if the president agrees to repeal his health care legislation. Or if Obama signs into law a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, after all 50 states have ratified it. Or if he’ll agree to mandatory caps on all nondefense spending. Or if he’ll enact the Ryan budget. The whip writes down all their ideas on a notepad. He never tells them that they’re being unrealistic

Or if Obama signs into law a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, after all 50 states have ratified it.

okay if these ppl can go to Congress, why can't I

i cant believe im still shocked at how stupid our elected representatives are!

The whip writes down all their ideas on a notepad.

The whip recognized that it would be counterproductive to lecture the freshmen about the economic hazards of not raising the debt ceiling.

so responsible! whatta guy

Nobody told these fools that a balanced budget amendment would likely not pass constitutional muster.

i mean the guy basically set up a day-care for the tea party reps

kevin drum gets email from an i-banker

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/07/has-wall-street-given-boehner

or, less charitably, a group therapy session in a mental home

several freshmen have said they’ll vote to raise the ceiling only if the president agrees to repeal his health care legislation.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I'm choosing laugh.

Basically they have no concept of how politics actually work and the republican leadership is content with keeping them in the dark.

I really want these reps named

Me too, just googled, can't find them. But Bachmann's on board!

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/170847-bachmann-opens-door-to-raising-debt-limit-if-it-repeals-health-reform

House has always been full of morans

Mittens getting angry in Iowa.

A comment from Dan's post:

I LOVE this idea! Let's see how committed Obama is to getting the debt ceiling raised and "save our credit."

BTW, isn't this the longest amount of time Obama has spent in Washington since getting elected? I think so. If he stays in Washington until this is resolved, we will save tens of millions by him not using Air Force One and the entourage that goes with it.

I believe the correct term is "posse"

omg the comments on Dan's link are hilarious

xp: see?

Mittens is doomed

I hope conservatives appreciate how I defended Bush when libs got mad at his taking vacation time.

But sadly the mainstream media will phrase things using a false equivalency as "the principle-bound conservatives on the right" and the liberals on the left will not come together and agree to an adult compromise.

"alright, let's get down to business. let's fucking grow up and get serious. i agree to vote for this debt ceiling thing that must be done no matter what. but ONLY if you agree to repeal your signature accomplishment as president. i like toitles."

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/president-obamas-vacation-days/

I think the takeaway here is "ppl hate it when the President goes on vacation"

But sadly the mainstream media will phrase things using a false equivalency as "the principle-bound conservatives on the right" and the liberals on the left will not come together and agree to an adult compromise.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, July 13, 2011 2:30 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is like a mirror-world comment from redstate or something

That's what I was going for. Although I also had a discussion with someone who said "Obama is doing the right thing if both Bachmann and Kucinich are mad at him."

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/271742/ezra-klein-loving-it-michael-walsh

this just keeps getting weirder.

From Nate silver's article today:

If we do take the Republicans' no-new-taxes position literally, it isn't surprising that the negotiations have broken down. Consider that, according to the Gallup poll, Republican voters want the deal to consist of 26 percent tax increases, and Democratic voters 46 percent -- a gap of 20 percentage points. If Republicans in the House insist upon zero tax increases, there is a larger ideological gap between House Republicans and Republican voters than there is between Republican voters and Democratic ones.

This country is so fucked up

Lots of worthwhile stuff in that article btw

So it's come to this: the Republicans are divided and can't pick a candidate to back, so all Republican candidates are somewhat faltering when it comes to money, to degrees but especially compared to the fundraising juggernaut that is Obama. Which means more outlier right wing nuts will pick up local seats as Obama heads for a more and more certain second term (despite general dwindling of enthusiasm and support?). So we'll have a weak president, hopefully a familiar Dem senate (but who knows), and a House even more more definitively, defiantly Crazypants Republican. And hey, maybe at this rate another recession as well! If this first term was a frustrating mess, the second term will put it to shame on the dysfunctional front.

lolz with Lady Lindsey:

“Our problem is, we made a big deal about this for three months,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

“How many Republicans have been on TV saying, ‘I am not going to raise the debt limit,’ ” said Mr. Graham, including himself in the mix of those who did so. “We have no one to blame but ourselves.”

Problems, problems, problems. Everything's a problem with these guys.

Yeah but can't they just say "No, you're taking me out of context!" (a la Gingrich) in regards to those TV appearances?

They could, if they want to appear even worse

It looks like Cantor and the House crazies may not go along with the McConnell plan and so those heated discussions at the White House revolve around Cantor trying to push Obama into a 1.75 to 2 trillion cuts only package. Today they're supposed to discuss the revenue side. Obama will probably settle for closing of any deduction and declare it a victory.

cantor is such a gross human being

he even looks like a scumbag politician

that's right, in addition to smelling like a scumbag politician

President Obama may call lawmakers to Camp David over the weekend in order to continue debt negotiations, Business Week reports.

Pleeeez, make them stop...

I do enjoy seeing the big tent problem hit the other side for once.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says House Republican Leader Eric Cantor should not be part of the debt limit negotiations. He's calling the Virginia Republican congressman "childish."

Reid says Cantor's conduct during the sensitive White House talks have "shown, in Reid's words, "he shouldn't even be at the table." Reid says other congressional leaders are negotiating in good faith as an Aug. deadline approaches for raising the debt limit.

In other news, I wish Eric Holder would get the Justice Department to go after Rupert Murdoch:

from CNN:

On Wednesday, several senators sent letters to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to look into concerns that News Corp. violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, known as the FCPA. The law, enacted in 1977, makes it illegal for a U.S. person or company to pay foreign officials to obtain or retain business.

Potential liability flows from journalists at News of the World to its parent, News International, and to its parent, News Corp., which is a publicly held company in the United States.

Concerns that victims of the 9/11 attacks had their privacy violated appear to be traceable to a story published Wednesday by the Mirror, a British tabloid that includes a section it describes as "gossip gone toxic."

seems inevitable tbh

I mean the odds that the News Corp hacking of victims' stuff stopped at the water's edge is preposterous

odd idea

Concerns that victims of the 9/11 attacks had their privacy violated appear to be traceable to a story published Wednesday by the Mirror

i sort of love the mirror but they're not exactly paragons of reliability

them's some preposterous odds!