From TPM
Showing posts with label John Boehner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Boehner. Show all posts
When a Teabagger or rightwinger starts bitching about Hillary's "brain damage" and how unfit she is for office, show them these pics
Overweight
Overweight
Migrane headache sufferer
Thoughts on the shutdown
As you all know the shutdown is bullshit. A small minority is crippling the government. A minority so extreme in their beliefs they are willing to destroy the economy their way then let the economy flourish President Obama's way.
It's funny these small government people want the whole thing shut down but cry when their favorite benefits are taken away. See World War II Monument. Is the Monument critical to running the government? No but it's a wonderful tribute to our men who stormed the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, one that they deserve. And it's sickening that bitches like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin grandstand and grift off the situation.
As for the barricades, they were put up because of Republican lawmakers showing up and making a scene. I bet none of them know what years WW2 was fought. Crazy Shelly doesn't.
It's obvious the Republicans do not care. One guy says he needs his paycheck to pay for his nice house. Asshole. Rep Kevin Cramer of North Dakota also says he is keeping his check. Another one harassed a ranger at the World War II Memorial.
Obamacare is the law. Deal with it. If you are so concerned about it failing just sit back and watch it fail. Then you will have reason to repeal it.
It's funny these small government people want the whole thing shut down but cry when their favorite benefits are taken away. See World War II Monument. Is the Monument critical to running the government? No but it's a wonderful tribute to our men who stormed the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, one that they deserve. And it's sickening that bitches like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin grandstand and grift off the situation.
As for the barricades, they were put up because of Republican lawmakers showing up and making a scene. I bet none of them know what years WW2 was fought. Crazy Shelly doesn't.
It's obvious the Republicans do not care. One guy says he needs his paycheck to pay for his nice house. Asshole. Rep Kevin Cramer of North Dakota also says he is keeping his check. Another one harassed a ranger at the World War II Memorial.
Obamacare is the law. Deal with it. If you are so concerned about it failing just sit back and watch it fail. Then you will have reason to repeal it.
New Congress convenes today
Even though the Democrats picked up 7 seats in the House and two in the Senate and President Obama is still the president, it's going to be the same old bullshit, different day, and here is why:
FUCK YOU JOHN BOEHNER!
FUCK YOU JOHN BOEHNER!
The job outlook is bad because Republicans are making it that way
From Colorlines (July 9, 2012)
Last week the United States celebrated the 236th anniversary of its independence and self-rule with joyous gusto. Days later, after the smoke from the fireworks and grills had cleared, the government released its latest jobs report. Unfortunately, it left little to cheer.
In June, just 80,000 jobs were created. That’s only 11,000 more than in May and still below what’s needed to keep up with population growth. As a result, the overall unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent.
Black unemployment climbed to 14.4 percent. Latino unemployment remained in the double digits. Youth unemployment is still the highest in decades. One out of six Americans is underemployed. Five million Americans have given up looking for jobs and just disappeared from the workforce all together. If they were back in the jobs market, the unemployment rate would stand at over 11 percent.
In sum, the economy is wounded and struggling against increasing odds to repair itself. Though it’s not forecast to happen, the risk of sliding back into recession is greater than at any point in over a year.
What’s troubling is that the anemic jobs number and fragility of the overall economy are the result of an utterly broken political process in Washington—specifically, amongst Republicans who dominate the legislative branch.
To the detriment of us all, the GOP has opted out of taking any responsibility for fixing the entirely solvable problems of employment and economic growth.
At every turn, congressional Republicans have stonewalled President Obama on jobs. But if his proposals were fully implemented, our economy would have added 257,000 jobs more in June. That’s three times greater than what we actually added and close to the 300,000-jobs-a-month mark we must hit to put a real dent in joblessness.
Moreover, if Congress had passed Obama’s job program and extended his 2009 initiative to prevent up to a 100 percent of the public sector job losses at the state and local level, unemployment would fall below 7 percent. That’s pre-recession territory. And overall economic growth would be at 4.5 percent. Notably, fixing the public-sector employment crisis would solve much of black joblessness.
The bottom line is that we remain in recession because Republicans have chosen to gum up the political process during a time of national crisis. Washington guru Thomas Mann calls what they’ve done “hostage taking.”
In 2010, Sen. Mitch McConnell told the conservative Heritage Foundation, “The single most impost important thing [Republicans] want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
According to Gallup, the most important thing to Americans every year since 2008 is for Washington to fix the economy.
These two things are at cross purpose: what’s in the best short-term political interest of the Republican Party is not what’s in the best interest of most Americans.
Economic growth is no mystery. Since Adam Smith published his rulebook in 1776, we have spent centuries getting better at figuring out how to make poorer countries wealthier. China, Brazil and now some African nations are but the latest examples.
Essential to each come-out-of-nowhere success story is a government focused on improving the living standards of its people. They do so through policies that have the biggest impact on employment. The number one goal is to benefit the maximum number of citizens in the shortest amount of time. Nations that do this effectively make it.
Countries centered on the opposite—government-sponsored wealth transfers to the few over the benefit of the many—remain poor.
From his first day in office, President Obama has tried to get the economy right for most Americans. Though sometimes too tepid, badly sold, or disappointingly weakened in an attempt to get non-existent Republican support, Obama has in fact pushed policy after policy to turn the economy around. He needs to do even more.
But like Destiny’s Child, Republicans have taken every opportunity to say “No, No, No”: “no” to the stimulus bill, “no” the health bill (which will create 400,000 jobs a year when fully implemented, according to the Center for American Progress), “no” the climate change bill (1.9 million jobs over 10 years, according to University of Berkeley researchers), and “no” to the jobs bill (almost 2 million jobs in 12 months, according to Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi).
Three out of four of these bills received not one Republican vote. The stimulus garnered just three Republican votes in the Senate.
The GOP answer to the jobs crisis is, instead, a retread of the policies that broke the economy in the first place. They center on trickle down economics, which: 1) have concentrated wealth amongst the top 5 percent through tax cuts and 2) rolled back government oversight of key areas of the economy, such that Wall Street was able to transform itself into a ring of trillion dollar betting casinos.
The Republicans are so committed to their orthodoxy of lower taxes for the wealthy that they were willing to take the country to the brink of default last summer—and risk another recession—to extend Bush-era tax cuts for millionaires. Facing united Republican opposition, the president agreed.
The Republicans and their wealthy backers won that battle, but the country lost. Their antics cost the country its “AAA” debt rating for the first time in history.
The problem is that this is not your father’s Republican party. The GOP of Eisenhower, Ford, and George H.W. Bush has been hijacked by a small group of anti-government diehards and radical social conservatives, funded by dark pools of money.
Through the Tea Party network of secretive political action committees, the monied few have been successful at remaking the GOP; so much so that former Gov. Jeb Bush declared himself “uncomfortable” in the hardened party that they’ve fashioned. Colin Powell has long alluded to the same.
The takeover of the GOP led Norman Ornstein, a fiercely non-partisan congressional watcher at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, to conclude that, “We have a Republican party that has two elements: one is an extreme element and other is ruthlessly pragmatic—Mitch McConnell embodying them—which put blocking policies and embarrassing the party of the president ahead of solving problems that are immediate and deep. It’s just outside the bounds.”
Ornstein is right and Americans are living the result.
If things have any hope of getting better the Republican Party needs to get serious about governing again.
America wasn’t designed to function with one grown-up party and the other a bomb- throwing one. It only works when you have people from different political backgrounds who fight hard but act in the best interest of us all.
A small group of people pushing a narrow agenda was the greatest fear of the Founding Fathers. They worried that it could sink the country and ruin the democratic experiment.
James Madison, Declaration of Independence-signee, warned against the “violence of the faction,” which could wreck the system of governance. He defined this group as “a number of citizens … united by [a] common impulse of passion or of interest [that is adverse] … to the rights of … the aggregate interests of the community.”
What Madison described sounds a lot like the Republican Party we’ve got right now.
But we can turn this situation around. In an election year, each of our voices matters more. We need to use them to demand a credible plan from the Republican Party to fix the chaos that it helped to create. It’s actually the only way things will get better.
Last week the United States celebrated the 236th anniversary of its independence and self-rule with joyous gusto. Days later, after the smoke from the fireworks and grills had cleared, the government released its latest jobs report. Unfortunately, it left little to cheer.
In June, just 80,000 jobs were created. That’s only 11,000 more than in May and still below what’s needed to keep up with population growth. As a result, the overall unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent.
Black unemployment climbed to 14.4 percent. Latino unemployment remained in the double digits. Youth unemployment is still the highest in decades. One out of six Americans is underemployed. Five million Americans have given up looking for jobs and just disappeared from the workforce all together. If they were back in the jobs market, the unemployment rate would stand at over 11 percent.
In sum, the economy is wounded and struggling against increasing odds to repair itself. Though it’s not forecast to happen, the risk of sliding back into recession is greater than at any point in over a year.
What’s troubling is that the anemic jobs number and fragility of the overall economy are the result of an utterly broken political process in Washington—specifically, amongst Republicans who dominate the legislative branch.
To the detriment of us all, the GOP has opted out of taking any responsibility for fixing the entirely solvable problems of employment and economic growth.
At every turn, congressional Republicans have stonewalled President Obama on jobs. But if his proposals were fully implemented, our economy would have added 257,000 jobs more in June. That’s three times greater than what we actually added and close to the 300,000-jobs-a-month mark we must hit to put a real dent in joblessness.
Moreover, if Congress had passed Obama’s job program and extended his 2009 initiative to prevent up to a 100 percent of the public sector job losses at the state and local level, unemployment would fall below 7 percent. That’s pre-recession territory. And overall economic growth would be at 4.5 percent. Notably, fixing the public-sector employment crisis would solve much of black joblessness.
The bottom line is that we remain in recession because Republicans have chosen to gum up the political process during a time of national crisis. Washington guru Thomas Mann calls what they’ve done “hostage taking.”
In 2010, Sen. Mitch McConnell told the conservative Heritage Foundation, “The single most impost important thing [Republicans] want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
According to Gallup, the most important thing to Americans every year since 2008 is for Washington to fix the economy.
These two things are at cross purpose: what’s in the best short-term political interest of the Republican Party is not what’s in the best interest of most Americans.
Economic growth is no mystery. Since Adam Smith published his rulebook in 1776, we have spent centuries getting better at figuring out how to make poorer countries wealthier. China, Brazil and now some African nations are but the latest examples.
Essential to each come-out-of-nowhere success story is a government focused on improving the living standards of its people. They do so through policies that have the biggest impact on employment. The number one goal is to benefit the maximum number of citizens in the shortest amount of time. Nations that do this effectively make it.
Countries centered on the opposite—government-sponsored wealth transfers to the few over the benefit of the many—remain poor.
From his first day in office, President Obama has tried to get the economy right for most Americans. Though sometimes too tepid, badly sold, or disappointingly weakened in an attempt to get non-existent Republican support, Obama has in fact pushed policy after policy to turn the economy around. He needs to do even more.
But like Destiny’s Child, Republicans have taken every opportunity to say “No, No, No”: “no” to the stimulus bill, “no” the health bill (which will create 400,000 jobs a year when fully implemented, according to the Center for American Progress), “no” the climate change bill (1.9 million jobs over 10 years, according to University of Berkeley researchers), and “no” to the jobs bill (almost 2 million jobs in 12 months, according to Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi).
Three out of four of these bills received not one Republican vote. The stimulus garnered just three Republican votes in the Senate.
The GOP answer to the jobs crisis is, instead, a retread of the policies that broke the economy in the first place. They center on trickle down economics, which: 1) have concentrated wealth amongst the top 5 percent through tax cuts and 2) rolled back government oversight of key areas of the economy, such that Wall Street was able to transform itself into a ring of trillion dollar betting casinos.
The Republicans are so committed to their orthodoxy of lower taxes for the wealthy that they were willing to take the country to the brink of default last summer—and risk another recession—to extend Bush-era tax cuts for millionaires. Facing united Republican opposition, the president agreed.
The Republicans and their wealthy backers won that battle, but the country lost. Their antics cost the country its “AAA” debt rating for the first time in history.
The problem is that this is not your father’s Republican party. The GOP of Eisenhower, Ford, and George H.W. Bush has been hijacked by a small group of anti-government diehards and radical social conservatives, funded by dark pools of money.
Through the Tea Party network of secretive political action committees, the monied few have been successful at remaking the GOP; so much so that former Gov. Jeb Bush declared himself “uncomfortable” in the hardened party that they’ve fashioned. Colin Powell has long alluded to the same.
The takeover of the GOP led Norman Ornstein, a fiercely non-partisan congressional watcher at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, to conclude that, “We have a Republican party that has two elements: one is an extreme element and other is ruthlessly pragmatic—Mitch McConnell embodying them—which put blocking policies and embarrassing the party of the president ahead of solving problems that are immediate and deep. It’s just outside the bounds.”
Ornstein is right and Americans are living the result.
If things have any hope of getting better the Republican Party needs to get serious about governing again.
America wasn’t designed to function with one grown-up party and the other a bomb- throwing one. It only works when you have people from different political backgrounds who fight hard but act in the best interest of us all.
A small group of people pushing a narrow agenda was the greatest fear of the Founding Fathers. They worried that it could sink the country and ruin the democratic experiment.
James Madison, Declaration of Independence-signee, warned against the “violence of the faction,” which could wreck the system of governance. He defined this group as “a number of citizens … united by [a] common impulse of passion or of interest [that is adverse] … to the rights of … the aggregate interests of the community.”
What Madison described sounds a lot like the Republican Party we’ve got right now.
But we can turn this situation around. In an election year, each of our voices matters more. We need to use them to demand a credible plan from the Republican Party to fix the chaos that it helped to create. It’s actually the only way things will get better.
My thoughts on the debt agreement-Update
The debt ceiling agreement passed the House last night and will likely pass the Senate today and President Obama will sign it.
Personally I think this debt agreement is terrible. While the debt ceiling is raised, the cuts are too deep and there is no tax increase for the wealthy.
I realize compromise is not perfect but this is terrible. It's not compromise when one side gets much more than the other. That is called taking it in the ass.
The Republicans in both houses of Congress should be tried for treason. In my opinion the real reason they dragged this out is because they want the economy to tank so the voting public has a reason to elect a Republican for president in 2012. Wanting the president to fail is treason. As much as I despise George W. Bush I never wanted him to fail, but I knew he would, and he did. Much more than I imagined he would.
The Democrats need to fight harder and all liberal voters need to get their ass to the polls in 2012 and vote them cousin loving Teathuglicans out.
What debt ceiling agreement would be complete without the Big Mouth flapping her jaw?
Joe Biden is absolutely correct. The Teabaggers are terrorists.
Update-I would be remiss to not mention I was inspired by Gabby Giffords return to the House Floor, even if she is not my Congresswoman. Another poster on another blog mentioned she is the Real Undefeated. Yes my friend that is absolutely correct.
Personally I think this debt agreement is terrible. While the debt ceiling is raised, the cuts are too deep and there is no tax increase for the wealthy.
I realize compromise is not perfect but this is terrible. It's not compromise when one side gets much more than the other. That is called taking it in the ass.
The Republicans in both houses of Congress should be tried for treason. In my opinion the real reason they dragged this out is because they want the economy to tank so the voting public has a reason to elect a Republican for president in 2012. Wanting the president to fail is treason. As much as I despise George W. Bush I never wanted him to fail, but I knew he would, and he did. Much more than I imagined he would.
The Democrats need to fight harder and all liberal voters need to get their ass to the polls in 2012 and vote them cousin loving Teathuglicans out.
What debt ceiling agreement would be complete without the Big Mouth flapping her jaw?
Joe Biden is absolutely correct. The Teabaggers are terrorists.
Update-I would be remiss to not mention I was inspired by Gabby Giffords return to the House Floor, even if she is not my Congresswoman. Another poster on another blog mentioned she is the Real Undefeated. Yes my friend that is absolutely correct.
Breaking News-President Obama announces deal
From CNN
Washington (CNN) -- Two days before the deadline for a possible U.S. government default, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reached agreement Sunday on a legislative package that would extend the federal debt ceiling while cutting spending and guaranteeing further deficit-reduction steps.
The proposed $3 trillion deal, which still requires congressional approval, brought some immediate relief to global markets closely watching the situation play out and a nation filled with anger and frustration over partisan political wrangling that threatened further economic harm to an already struggling recovery.
However, there was no guarantee the plan will win enough support to pass both chambers of Congress.
Democratic and Republican leaders in both the House and Senate were briefing their caucuses about the agreement on Sunday night or Monday.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, earlier told CNN that cuts to military spending were a final sticking point.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, told reporters that she needs to see "the final product" in writing before she can decide if she supports it.
Pelosi said she would meet with the House Democratic caucus on Monday to discuss the matter.
"I don't know all the particulars of what the final product is in writing and what the ramifications will be," Pelosi said, noting the measure will have an impact for a decade or more. Asked about the outcome, she warned: "We all may not be able to support it or none of us may be able to support it."
In the face of an August 2 deadline to get new authorization to borrow money or face a possible government default, congressional leaders and the White House were trying to complete the agreement that would extend the debt limit through 2012 -- a presidential election year.
Earlier, Reid's Republican counterpart in the Senate said the two parties were "very close" to reaching a deal that would bring $3 trillion in deficit reduction.
"We had a very good day yesterday," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told CNN, adding that the two sides "made dramatic progress" in negotiations on a deal that would cut government spending and raise the federal debt ceiling.
Another Republican senator, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, later told reporters he expected a Monday vote on a compromise.
"It feels like they're going to finish the deal today and then we'll have the vote tomorrow," Isakson said, adding he supports the plan under discussion.
Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration agreed that progress has been made.
"If there's a word right here that would sum up the mood, it would be relief -- relief that we won't default," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said on CNN. "That's not a certainty, but default is far less of a possibility now than it was even a day ago."
If Congress fails to raise the current $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by Tuesday, Americans could face rising interest rates and a declining dollar, among other problems.
Some financial experts have warned of a downgrade of America's triple-A credit rating and a potential stock market plunge. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped for a sixth straight day on Friday.
Without an increase in the debt limit, the federal government will not be able to pay all its bills next month. President Barack Obama recently indicated he can't guarantee Social Security checks will be mailed out on time.
In Afghanistan on Sunday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen was unable to assure U.S. troops they would get their paychecks following the August 2 deadline without a deal. Mullen said August 15 would be the first payday jeopardized if the United States defaults.
Last week, a Department of Defense official told CNN on condition of not being identified that "it's not a question of whether, but when" military pay gets withheld if no agreement is reached.
Vice President Joe Biden arrived at the White House on Sunday morning, though no additional formal talks involving the administration and congressional leaders have been announced. A Democratic source told CNN on condition of not being identified that Biden was engaged in behind-the-scenes negotiations with both congressional legislators and the administration.
Initial news of a possible deal came shortly after the Senate delayed consideration of a debt ceiling proposal by Reid late Saturday night, pushing back a key procedural vote by 12 hours. When that vote occurred on Sunday afternoon, Republicans blocked a Democratic effort to end debate on the Reid proposal and move to a vote, extending consideration of the plan while negotiations continue.
The vote was 50-49, short of the super-majority of 60 required to pass.
Reid plans to insert a negotiated final agreement into the proposal once a deal has been reached. When it became clear that Democrats would lose Sunday's vote, Reid voted against his own plan in a procedural move to preserve the ability to bring it up again.
According to McConnell and other congressional and administration officials interviewed Sunday, as well as various sources who spoke to CNN on condition of not being identified, the deal under discussion would be a two-step process intended to bring as much as $3 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years.
Some sources provided differing targets for the total, ranging from $2.4 trillion up to $3 trillion.
A first step would include about $1 trillion in spending cuts while raising the debt ceiling about the same amount. The proposal also would set up a special committee of Democratic and Republican legislators from both chambers of Congress to recommend additional deficit reduction steps -- including tax reform as well as reforms to popular entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
The committee's recommendations would be put to a vote by Congress, without any amendments, by the end of the year. If Congress fails to pass the package, a so-called "trigger" mechanism would enact automatic spending cuts. Either way -- with the package passed by Congress or the trigger of automatic cuts -- a second increase in the debt ceiling would occur, but with an accompanying congressional vote of disapproval.
In addition, the agreement would require both chambers of Congress to vote on a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Such an amendment would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers to pass, followed by ratification by 38 states -- a process likely to take years.
Schumer told CNN that a main sticking point still under discussion was the trigger mechanism of automatic spending cuts in case Congress fails to enact the special committee's recommendations.
According to sources, cuts in the trigger mechanism would be across-the-board, including Medicare and defense spending, to present an unpalatable alternative for both parties in the event Congress fails to pass the special committee's proposal.
"You want to make it hard for them just to walk away and wash their hands," Gene Sperling, the director of Obama's National Economic Council, told CNN. "You want them to say, if nothing happens, there will be a very tough degree of pain that will take place."
Preliminary reaction showed sensitivity to that pain. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, said the automatic spending cuts under a trigger mechanism should not affect Medicare benefits for senior citizens.
"The way we understand it's going to be worded is it does not affect beneficiaries. It would affect providers and insurance companies," Levin said. "That should be the case, because if it hits beneficiaries, you're going to lose lots of Democratic votes."
Meanwhile, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, an aide to former Republican President George W. Bush, warned that automatic spending cuts for the military under the trigger would put national security at risk.
"By exposing critical defense programs to disproportionate cuts as part of the 'trigger mechanism,' there is a clear risk that key defense programs will be hollowed out," Bolton said in a statement.
Overall, the agreement under discussion would increase the debt limit in two stages, both of which would occur automatically -- a key Democratic demand that would prevent a repeat of the current crisis before the next election.
McConnell, who appears to have become the lead Republican negotiator, said he is "very, very close to being able ... to recommend to my members that this is something that they ought to support."
The deal will not include tax increases, McConnell added, expressing a key demand of Republicans. Obama has pushed for a comprehensive approach that would include additional tax revenue as well as spending cuts and entitlement reforms to reduce budget deficits.
Reid, D-Nevada, said Saturday night that the delay in considering his proposal was additional time for negotiations at the White House.
His announcement capped a day of sharp partisan voting in the House and extended talks behind closed doors between congressional and administration officials. Concern continued to grow that Congress will fail to raise the nation's debt ceiling in time to avoid a potentially devastating national default this week.
Earlier Saturday, the Republican-controlled House rejected Reid's plan -- partisan payback for the Democratic-controlled Senate's rejection of Boehner's plan Friday night.
House members rejected Reid's plan in a 246-173 vote. Most Democrats supported the measure; every Republican voted against it.
For their part, Republicans continued to trumpet Boehner's proposal. The measure won House approval Friday, but only by a narrow margin after a one-day delay during which the speaker was forced to round up support from wary tea party conservatives.
Boehner's deal with conservatives -- which added a provision requiring congressional approval of a balanced budget amendment in order to raise the debt limit next year -- was sharply criticized by Democrats, who called it a political nonstarter.
Democratic leaders vehemently object not only to the balanced budget amendment, but also the GOP's insistence that a second debt ceiling vote be held before the next election. They argue that reaching bipartisan agreement on another debt ceiling hike during an election year could be nearly impossible, and that short-term extensions of the limit could further destabilize the economy.
Leaders of both parties now agree that any deal to raise the debt ceiling should include long-term spending reductions to help control spiraling deficits. But they have differed on both the timetable and requirements tied to certain cuts.
Boehner's plan proposed generating a total of $917 billion in savings while initially raising the debt ceiling by $900 billion. The speaker has pledged to match any debt ceiling hike with dollar-for-dollar spending cuts.
His plan would require a second vote by Congress to raise the debt ceiling by a combined $2.5 trillion -- enough to last through the end of 2012. It would create a special congressional committee to recommend additional savings of $1.6 trillion or more.
Any failure on the part of Congress to enact mandated spending reductions or abide by new spending caps would trigger automatic across-the-board budget cuts.
The plan also calls for congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment before the second vote to raise the debt ceiling.
Reid's plan, meanwhile, would reduce deficits over the next decade by $2.4 trillion and raise the debt ceiling by a similar amount. It includes $1 trillion in savings based on the planned U.S. withdrawals from military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Reid's plan also would establish a congressional committee made up of 12 House and Senate members to consider additional options for debt reduction. The committee's proposals would be guaranteed by a Senate vote with no amendments by the end of the year.
In addition, it incorporates a process based on a proposal by McConnell that would give Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling in two steps while providing Congress the opportunity to vote its disapproval.
Among other things, Reid has stressed that his plan meets the key GOP demand for no additional taxes. Boehner, however, argued last week that Reid's plan fails to tackle popular entitlement programs such as Medicare, which are among the biggest drivers of the debt.
A recent CNN/ORC International Poll reveals a growing public exasperation and demand for compromise. Sixty-four percent of respondents to a July 18-20 survey preferred a deal with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. Only 34% preferred a debt reduction plan based solely on spending reductions.
According to the poll, the public is sharply divided along partisan lines; Democrats and independents are open to a number of different approaches because they think a failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause a major crisis for the country. Republicans, however, draw the line at tax increases, and a narrow majority of them oppose raising the debt ceiling under any circumstances.
Bout fucking time! And to all you 535 members of Congress, vote yes!
Washington (CNN) -- Two days before the deadline for a possible U.S. government default, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reached agreement Sunday on a legislative package that would extend the federal debt ceiling while cutting spending and guaranteeing further deficit-reduction steps.
The proposed $3 trillion deal, which still requires congressional approval, brought some immediate relief to global markets closely watching the situation play out and a nation filled with anger and frustration over partisan political wrangling that threatened further economic harm to an already struggling recovery.
However, there was no guarantee the plan will win enough support to pass both chambers of Congress.
Democratic and Republican leaders in both the House and Senate were briefing their caucuses about the agreement on Sunday night or Monday.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, earlier told CNN that cuts to military spending were a final sticking point.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, told reporters that she needs to see "the final product" in writing before she can decide if she supports it.
Pelosi said she would meet with the House Democratic caucus on Monday to discuss the matter.
"I don't know all the particulars of what the final product is in writing and what the ramifications will be," Pelosi said, noting the measure will have an impact for a decade or more. Asked about the outcome, she warned: "We all may not be able to support it or none of us may be able to support it."
In the face of an August 2 deadline to get new authorization to borrow money or face a possible government default, congressional leaders and the White House were trying to complete the agreement that would extend the debt limit through 2012 -- a presidential election year.
Earlier, Reid's Republican counterpart in the Senate said the two parties were "very close" to reaching a deal that would bring $3 trillion in deficit reduction.
"We had a very good day yesterday," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told CNN, adding that the two sides "made dramatic progress" in negotiations on a deal that would cut government spending and raise the federal debt ceiling.
Another Republican senator, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, later told reporters he expected a Monday vote on a compromise.
"It feels like they're going to finish the deal today and then we'll have the vote tomorrow," Isakson said, adding he supports the plan under discussion.
Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration agreed that progress has been made.
"If there's a word right here that would sum up the mood, it would be relief -- relief that we won't default," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said on CNN. "That's not a certainty, but default is far less of a possibility now than it was even a day ago."
If Congress fails to raise the current $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by Tuesday, Americans could face rising interest rates and a declining dollar, among other problems.
Some financial experts have warned of a downgrade of America's triple-A credit rating and a potential stock market plunge. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped for a sixth straight day on Friday.
Without an increase in the debt limit, the federal government will not be able to pay all its bills next month. President Barack Obama recently indicated he can't guarantee Social Security checks will be mailed out on time.
In Afghanistan on Sunday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen was unable to assure U.S. troops they would get their paychecks following the August 2 deadline without a deal. Mullen said August 15 would be the first payday jeopardized if the United States defaults.
Last week, a Department of Defense official told CNN on condition of not being identified that "it's not a question of whether, but when" military pay gets withheld if no agreement is reached.
Vice President Joe Biden arrived at the White House on Sunday morning, though no additional formal talks involving the administration and congressional leaders have been announced. A Democratic source told CNN on condition of not being identified that Biden was engaged in behind-the-scenes negotiations with both congressional legislators and the administration.
Initial news of a possible deal came shortly after the Senate delayed consideration of a debt ceiling proposal by Reid late Saturday night, pushing back a key procedural vote by 12 hours. When that vote occurred on Sunday afternoon, Republicans blocked a Democratic effort to end debate on the Reid proposal and move to a vote, extending consideration of the plan while negotiations continue.
The vote was 50-49, short of the super-majority of 60 required to pass.
Reid plans to insert a negotiated final agreement into the proposal once a deal has been reached. When it became clear that Democrats would lose Sunday's vote, Reid voted against his own plan in a procedural move to preserve the ability to bring it up again.
According to McConnell and other congressional and administration officials interviewed Sunday, as well as various sources who spoke to CNN on condition of not being identified, the deal under discussion would be a two-step process intended to bring as much as $3 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years.
Some sources provided differing targets for the total, ranging from $2.4 trillion up to $3 trillion.
A first step would include about $1 trillion in spending cuts while raising the debt ceiling about the same amount. The proposal also would set up a special committee of Democratic and Republican legislators from both chambers of Congress to recommend additional deficit reduction steps -- including tax reform as well as reforms to popular entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
The committee's recommendations would be put to a vote by Congress, without any amendments, by the end of the year. If Congress fails to pass the package, a so-called "trigger" mechanism would enact automatic spending cuts. Either way -- with the package passed by Congress or the trigger of automatic cuts -- a second increase in the debt ceiling would occur, but with an accompanying congressional vote of disapproval.
In addition, the agreement would require both chambers of Congress to vote on a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Such an amendment would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers to pass, followed by ratification by 38 states -- a process likely to take years.
Schumer told CNN that a main sticking point still under discussion was the trigger mechanism of automatic spending cuts in case Congress fails to enact the special committee's recommendations.
According to sources, cuts in the trigger mechanism would be across-the-board, including Medicare and defense spending, to present an unpalatable alternative for both parties in the event Congress fails to pass the special committee's proposal.
"You want to make it hard for them just to walk away and wash their hands," Gene Sperling, the director of Obama's National Economic Council, told CNN. "You want them to say, if nothing happens, there will be a very tough degree of pain that will take place."
Preliminary reaction showed sensitivity to that pain. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, said the automatic spending cuts under a trigger mechanism should not affect Medicare benefits for senior citizens.
"The way we understand it's going to be worded is it does not affect beneficiaries. It would affect providers and insurance companies," Levin said. "That should be the case, because if it hits beneficiaries, you're going to lose lots of Democratic votes."
Meanwhile, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, an aide to former Republican President George W. Bush, warned that automatic spending cuts for the military under the trigger would put national security at risk.
"By exposing critical defense programs to disproportionate cuts as part of the 'trigger mechanism,' there is a clear risk that key defense programs will be hollowed out," Bolton said in a statement.
Overall, the agreement under discussion would increase the debt limit in two stages, both of which would occur automatically -- a key Democratic demand that would prevent a repeat of the current crisis before the next election.
McConnell, who appears to have become the lead Republican negotiator, said he is "very, very close to being able ... to recommend to my members that this is something that they ought to support."
The deal will not include tax increases, McConnell added, expressing a key demand of Republicans. Obama has pushed for a comprehensive approach that would include additional tax revenue as well as spending cuts and entitlement reforms to reduce budget deficits.
Reid, D-Nevada, said Saturday night that the delay in considering his proposal was additional time for negotiations at the White House.
His announcement capped a day of sharp partisan voting in the House and extended talks behind closed doors between congressional and administration officials. Concern continued to grow that Congress will fail to raise the nation's debt ceiling in time to avoid a potentially devastating national default this week.
Earlier Saturday, the Republican-controlled House rejected Reid's plan -- partisan payback for the Democratic-controlled Senate's rejection of Boehner's plan Friday night.
House members rejected Reid's plan in a 246-173 vote. Most Democrats supported the measure; every Republican voted against it.
For their part, Republicans continued to trumpet Boehner's proposal. The measure won House approval Friday, but only by a narrow margin after a one-day delay during which the speaker was forced to round up support from wary tea party conservatives.
Boehner's deal with conservatives -- which added a provision requiring congressional approval of a balanced budget amendment in order to raise the debt limit next year -- was sharply criticized by Democrats, who called it a political nonstarter.
Democratic leaders vehemently object not only to the balanced budget amendment, but also the GOP's insistence that a second debt ceiling vote be held before the next election. They argue that reaching bipartisan agreement on another debt ceiling hike during an election year could be nearly impossible, and that short-term extensions of the limit could further destabilize the economy.
Leaders of both parties now agree that any deal to raise the debt ceiling should include long-term spending reductions to help control spiraling deficits. But they have differed on both the timetable and requirements tied to certain cuts.
Boehner's plan proposed generating a total of $917 billion in savings while initially raising the debt ceiling by $900 billion. The speaker has pledged to match any debt ceiling hike with dollar-for-dollar spending cuts.
His plan would require a second vote by Congress to raise the debt ceiling by a combined $2.5 trillion -- enough to last through the end of 2012. It would create a special congressional committee to recommend additional savings of $1.6 trillion or more.
Any failure on the part of Congress to enact mandated spending reductions or abide by new spending caps would trigger automatic across-the-board budget cuts.
The plan also calls for congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment before the second vote to raise the debt ceiling.
Reid's plan, meanwhile, would reduce deficits over the next decade by $2.4 trillion and raise the debt ceiling by a similar amount. It includes $1 trillion in savings based on the planned U.S. withdrawals from military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Reid's plan also would establish a congressional committee made up of 12 House and Senate members to consider additional options for debt reduction. The committee's proposals would be guaranteed by a Senate vote with no amendments by the end of the year.
In addition, it incorporates a process based on a proposal by McConnell that would give Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling in two steps while providing Congress the opportunity to vote its disapproval.
Among other things, Reid has stressed that his plan meets the key GOP demand for no additional taxes. Boehner, however, argued last week that Reid's plan fails to tackle popular entitlement programs such as Medicare, which are among the biggest drivers of the debt.
A recent CNN/ORC International Poll reveals a growing public exasperation and demand for compromise. Sixty-four percent of respondents to a July 18-20 survey preferred a deal with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. Only 34% preferred a debt reduction plan based solely on spending reductions.
According to the poll, the public is sharply divided along partisan lines; Democrats and independents are open to a number of different approaches because they think a failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause a major crisis for the country. Republicans, however, draw the line at tax increases, and a narrow majority of them oppose raising the debt ceiling under any circumstances.
Bout fucking time! And to all you 535 members of Congress, vote yes!
Sarah disrespects President Obama, again on Facebook
From Facebook
Let me correct some things here, there has been a budget deficit since 2001, the year George Dumbya Bush took over, not 800 days. We had a budget surplus during most of the Clinton administration and Bush wiped it out in less than a year. Bush also raised the debt ceiling 7 times
Bush also promised to pay off the debt, which he never did. And he cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
Saint Ronald Reagan raised it 18 times.
Bill Clinton? Four times
The tax raises President Obama wants is for the people making over $250,000 a year. That is about 2% of the population.
If anyone here is a lame duck, it's John Boehner and Eric Cantor. Also the rest of the Republican lawmakers who say no to every proposal the President makes.
After listening to the President’s press conference today, let’s keep in mind the following:
This is the same president who proposed an absurdly irresponsible budget that would increase our debt by trillions of dollars, and whose party failed to even put forward a budget in over 800 days! This is the same president who is pushing our country to the brink because of his reckless spending on things like the nearly trillion dollar “stimulus” boondoggle. This is the same president who ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations and demonized the voices of fiscal sanity who proposed responsible plans to reform our entitlement programs and rein in our dangerous debt trajectory. This is the same president who wanted to push through an increase in the debt ceiling that didn’t include any cuts in government spending! This is the same president who wants to slam Americans with tax hikes to cover his reckless spending, but has threatened to veto a bill proposing a balanced budget amendment. This is the same president who hasn’t put forward a responsible plan himself, but has rejected reasonable proposals that would tackle our debt. This is the same president who still refuses to understand that the American electorate rejected his big government agenda last November. As I said in Madison, Wisconsin, at the Tax Day Tea Party rally, “We don’t want it. We can’t afford it. And we are unwilling to pay for it.”
Now the President is outraged because the GOP House leadership called his bluff and ended discussions with him because they deemed him an obstruction to any real solution to the debt crisis.
He has been deemed a lame duck president. And he is angry now because he is being treated as such.
His foreign policy strategy has been described as “leading from behind.” Well, that’s his domestic policy strategy as well. Why should he be surprised that he’s been left behind in the negotiations when he’s been leading from behind on this debt crisis?
Thank you, GOP House leaders. Please don’t get wobbly on us now.
2012 can’t come soon enough.
- Sarah Palin
Let me correct some things here, there has been a budget deficit since 2001, the year George Dumbya Bush took over, not 800 days. We had a budget surplus during most of the Clinton administration and Bush wiped it out in less than a year. Bush also raised the debt ceiling 7 times
Bush also promised to pay off the debt, which he never did. And he cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
Saint Ronald Reagan raised it 18 times.
Bill Clinton? Four times
The tax raises President Obama wants is for the people making over $250,000 a year. That is about 2% of the population.
If anyone here is a lame duck, it's John Boehner and Eric Cantor. Also the rest of the Republican lawmakers who say no to every proposal the President makes.
Update-An open letter to John Boehner, the GOP, and the Teabaggers
Update-
I wrote this letter yesterday before the deal went through, but I am leaving it up anyway,
Dear Mr. Speaker,
I am appalled that you would put the American people at jeopardy just because you do not agree with abortion. It is a constitutional right whether you like it or not. Shutting down the government over Planned Parenthood funding is selfish, immoral, unethical, hurftul, and stupid. The economy is still fragile, people are finally starting to find jobs and a government shutdown will hurt it.
Millions of people will be affected by this shutdown. A high school classmate of mine's husband is a federal employee and in the Army Reserve, and she only works part time. No full time paycheck will hurt them considerably. Our military men and women depend on their paychecks to support their families.
I plan on visiting some National Parks this summer for my vacation. Are you still going to shut the government down that long? Private concessioniers like Xanterra make a lot of money in the parks and provide jobs. Shutting the parks down will lead to layoffs.
You Mr. Boehner are selfish. You are willing to jeopardize the economy just to say fuck you to the President and the Democrats. This is the worst Congress I have ever seen. Remember what Newt did in 1996. He shut down the government and as a result Bill Clinton got re-elected.
Why are you listening to a minority group like the Tea Party? They may be vocal but they are also small. The majority of American people DO NOT WANT A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN. Start listening to them or you will be gone!
I wrote this letter yesterday before the deal went through, but I am leaving it up anyway,
Dear Mr. Speaker,
I am appalled that you would put the American people at jeopardy just because you do not agree with abortion. It is a constitutional right whether you like it or not. Shutting down the government over Planned Parenthood funding is selfish, immoral, unethical, hurftul, and stupid. The economy is still fragile, people are finally starting to find jobs and a government shutdown will hurt it.
Millions of people will be affected by this shutdown. A high school classmate of mine's husband is a federal employee and in the Army Reserve, and she only works part time. No full time paycheck will hurt them considerably. Our military men and women depend on their paychecks to support their families.
I plan on visiting some National Parks this summer for my vacation. Are you still going to shut the government down that long? Private concessioniers like Xanterra make a lot of money in the parks and provide jobs. Shutting the parks down will lead to layoffs.
You Mr. Boehner are selfish. You are willing to jeopardize the economy just to say fuck you to the President and the Democrats. This is the worst Congress I have ever seen. Remember what Newt did in 1996. He shut down the government and as a result Bill Clinton got re-elected.
Why are you listening to a minority group like the Tea Party? They may be vocal but they are also small. The majority of American people DO NOT WANT A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN. Start listening to them or you will be gone!
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