And the tea party shitshow fail parade continues at full speed:
House Speaker John Boehner’s proposal to avert the looming fiscal cliff’s automatic tax increases has failed to get enough Republican support, throwing yet another monkey wrench into the contentious debate.
Boehner said earlier Thursday that he was confident that his so-called Plan B — which would extend tax cuts that are set to expire at year’s end for most people while allowing rates to increase to 1990s levels on income over $1 million — would pass the House, and in the process put pressure on President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate. But that gambit seemed in doubt Thursday, as Republican leaders struggled to get all their members to sign on, knowing the chamber’s Democrats oppose it.
GOP leaders could be seen working the House floor earlier Thursday, trying to convince their party colleagues. Sen. Rob Portman was one of them, telling reporters that he and other Republican senators had been asked to come over and make their pitch.
Around 8 p.m., House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced that the measure would not go up for a vote as planned. His office later said legislative business was finished for the week and could return to work after Christmas if needed.
Boehner’s days as speaker are numbered, and the best part of all of this is that we will go over the cliff and all the leverage will be in Obama’s court.
cathyx
Do you think he will cry if he has to leave?
Baud
This is going to be the best New Years Eve ever!
Liquid
“…and all the leverage will be in Obama’s court.” Why does that not make me feel as happy as I should be?
the Conster
I’m sure that it’s all Obama’s fault, and that both sides do it, and that this is great news for John McCain.
cathyx
So the Mayans were right about it being the end for Boehner.
Corner Stone
Thank goodness.
Reasonable 4ce
John Boehner is the tax collector for the welfare state.
[\wingnut]
Suzanne
You know, the Republicans, as truly horrible as they are, used to at least pull off competent. But these days, the Fail Parade goes on forever.
I am interested to see what the NRA has to say tomorrow.
Scotty
If the Republicans only had guns they could protect themselves from themselves.
jl
I recall some commenter said something like the House can’t do anything but pass gas at this point. Make that commenter a pundit right now.
I suggested a parody film noir elegy for the cheap two-bit hood John Boehner. I guess this thread is the right place to repeat that request. I got nothing on it right now.
Baud
This whole thing is so bizarre. I just heard Howard Dean saying he wants to go over and stay over the cliff in order to deal with the deficit — even though not too long ago the progressive view was that deficits didn’t matter and we shouldn’t do austerity.
And of course, all the pro-austerity folks are running around crazy because we might go over the cliff and get austerity.
Weird.
the Conster
@Reasonable 4ce:
Those were the exact words I heard this morning, plus job creators and taxing $1MM earners hurts small businesses.
jp7505a
Given that the Repubs hate Obama more than they love their kids and want to ensure that he goes down as a failed president, what better wy to ensure that then go over the cliff and give the country Great Recession – The Sequel
Liquid
@Scotty: I stumbled across that animated short from “Bowling for Columbine.” While it was way oversimplified my head kept nodding along in agreement.
The Dangerman
Is it me or is this site slower than
MolassesTunch on a cold winter’s morning?ETA: Although, to be fair, I’m sure he’s quite quick over a short distance.
ETA2: A very short distance.
Woody
Scarborough and Halperin are busy bees tonight, trying to affix Boehner’s failure to the Democratic Party.
Dollars to doughnuts they will emphasize Obama’s unreasonable refusal to compromise with Boehner — after all, if Cantor or another Teaparty nut gains the Speakership, well, then, they’ll be sorry!
bleh
First, can we soften the metaphor? How about “Plan B Self-Deports”?
And second (and sorry for double-posting), but can we PLEASE get over the “cliff” thing? It’s NOT a “cliff,” except insofar as our expectations make it so.
— Tax rates can always be reduced retroactively, at least until the end of 2103.
— Expenditures will not be cut all at once; they depend on annual budgets, which spread cuts over the year.
— Actual cash flow — and thus economic effect — lags still further, by 30, 60, even 90 days.
Bottom line: there is no “cliff.” There is not even a step down for at least a few weeks after the new year, and after that it is gradual steps.
Urgency makes for bad policy, and there is no need for urgency — much less hysteria — right now.
PeakVT
The Tan Man Can’t.
hoodie
They probably think that by “showing resolve,” they’ve gained leverage, but all they did was cut Boehner’s balls off. He was always weak, but this is ridiculous. Expect complete capitulation on the Senate plan for under 250k in January as Reps in not so safe districts peel away in a hope of not being punished in 2014.
BlueDWarrior
So Cantor is going to ride the bomb all the way to the prospective ground-zero like Maj. Kong?
PsiFighter37
Maybe my last election prediction of the night will come true after all.
If it comes to pass, I would like some heavy-duty Internets mailed to me. Kthxbai
jl
@bleh:
I agree with that. I told some friends it is really a fiscal slope that will gradually steepen. There will be time to deal with it.
I’ve been figuring that one good thing about starting down the fiscal slope is that it will have some effect on GOP sugar daddies, and squeaks and pressure from that quarter may be the only thing that moves the nutcase House GOP.
Edit: I could be wrong but that is what I have been figuring.
Soonergrunt
@cathyx: Is a bear Catholic? Does the Pope shit in the woods?
Of COURSE he’ll cry. It’s what he does.
Liquid
I ask myself — Does MSNBC persuade Rachel Maddow to have Luke Russert as a guest to share his laughable take on things?
It’s a far more reasonable explanation than Rachel actually respecting the opinion of Mrs. Greenspan or Son of Pumpkinhead.
ChrisNYC
Luke Russert has tears in his eyes. He referred to, in his recap, both “the REAL right,” i.e., Heritage Action fund, and how tonight illustrates “the growth of the Republican party,” as in the GOP is totally on the upswing because they get bossed around by crazies. Now we’re hearing about what conservatives will find troubling.
Raven
@Liquid: He’s there, she doesn’t have any control over who is on the scene.
jl
@ChrisNYC: Lil’ Luke is awfully young for the mind to just fall apart like that.
PsiFighter37
@ChrisNYC: Russertbthe Lesser’s tears don’t taste as sweet as Russert the Slightly Mightier’s did. That must’ve not gotten passed down in the gene pool.
Too soon?
Baud
Ho-lee shit. There was just an anti-Hagel ad during Rachel’s show. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.
TS
@Suzanne:
What was competent about WMD and 2 wars and the reaction to 9/11 and the reaction to massacres directed at a congresswomen & her constituents – and school children. What was competent about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer – allowing Wall Street to bring down the country?
They haven’t pulled of competent since 1955.
Liquid
@PsiFighter37
Besmirching the name of All Mighty Pumpkinhead! You Sir/Madam shall never taste the sweet nectar of bipartisanship!
Also, didn’t someone say the only ‘ship’ worth a damn was ‘friendship?’
Oh wait, that was Monty Burns in one of his patented “unpredictable changes of heart.”
Hill Dweller
@Liquid: Maddow inexplicably has Andrea Mitchell and Dan Rather on her show regularly. Hell, last night she said it was an honor to have Mitchell on her show. I nearly projectile vomited.
Maddow(and Chris Hayes) is the best thing on cable, but some of her regular guests leave a lot to be desired.
Raven
HAHAHAHAHA< fucking alchy!
karen marie
@Suzanne: I’m not. They can suck a bag of salted dicks, as the kids say.
gussie
@TS: Back in the days of Poppy Bush, though, they pulled off competent-looking.
Liquid
@Raven:
I can picture Boehner taking a nice, long swig from his flask before convening. Probably on the floor itself as, by now, it wouldn’t surprise anyone.
Though I can’t really blame him. What better way to deal with the House than with BOOZE!
Geoduck
I’d still be mildly surprised if Boehner actually lost the speakership. Can’t believe that Cantor wants to get up there in the crosshairs when he can keep skulking the shadows.
Just Some Fuckhead
@karen marie: Eat a bag of salted dicks.
Raven
@Liquid: I wouldn’t be surprised if he did a little bump too.
Smedley the Uncertain
And so they reap as the teabaggers have sown.
The 82 one note Republican freshmen planted the seed…
Ken
Sen. Rob Portman was one of them, telling reporters that he and other Republican senators had been asked to come over and make their pitch.
I was under the impression that the House members really, really hates it when the Senators try to tell them what to do.
Todd
Like the idea of Orange Creamsicle begging Nancy for help.
Spaghetti Lee
I’ll confess, I’m a bit confused. This blog has detailed the many, many ways that the media and the Republicans have been able to blame Obama for things that aren’t his fault. But this time it’s different? He won’t be labeled “The president who raised taxes in a recession” and every gooper running for office in ’14 and ’16 will use that? Seriously, can someone explain this?
I also hate the term ‘fiscal cliff’-needless alarmism that it is. The way some media people talk about it we’re going to all suddenly be wearing sackcloth and eating from the trash on January 1. Allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire would be a return to sanity in fiscal policy. There’s no need to adopt this OMG SCARY CLIFF language.
Suzanne
@TS:
Oh, nothing they did or stood for was competent. But they used to be in better command of their caucus, and they didn’t elect the totally-obviously unelectable to represent them in general elections, and they just in general had their shit together. The current incarnation of their party is just a complete shit show.
Liquid
What might turn out to be really hilarious would be clamoring, on the Democratic side, for Boehner to remain Speaker.
As long as it would prevent that snake in the grass Cantor from getting his hands on it.
jl
@Liquid:
” What better way to deal with the House than with BOOZE! ”
If Johnny has a sturdy hip flask, I can think of some methods that would come in handy. Teabagger heads are so hard, the flask would get beat to shreds in a few minutes, but it might get their attention.
Hill Dweller
@Spaghetti Lee: The CBO estimates the economy will shrink 3.9% in the 1st quarter of ’13 if all the various tax cuts expire and the sequestered spending cuts take place.
Jared Bernstein thinks we’ll have a double-dip recession, with unemployment going back up to 9%.
chopper
my god, it’s almost as if the president actually knew what he was doing.
The Moar You Know
When these guys wreck a clown car, they don’t fuck around. Intestines, wigs, and rubber noses all over the fucking road.
Cantor fucked up big time here. This has his patented bullheaded stupidity written all over it.
jl
@Spaghetti Lee:
” This blog has detailed the many, many ways that the media and the Republicans have been able to blame Obama for things that aren’t his fault. But this time it’s different? ”
You believe all the things ‘this blog’ says?
I’d like to business with you, I got some land to sell.
Edit; will require utmost discretion.
Texas Dem
Now we know what the Mayans were talking about:
Has someone checked the Mayan glyphs to see if they said anything about Boehner?
Hill Dweller
@Geoduck:
This is devastating for Boehner. He is the worst Speaker I’ve ever seen.
karen marie
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yeah, well, eat, suck — when you are old enough, they’re the same thing.
Rosie Outlook
@cathyx: He might cry if he has to stay.
Liquid
@chopper:
Now he just needs to use all of that leverage and steamroll the Republicans.
I remember reading somewhere (defintely not here) that since Dubya ran riot over the Dems, even if they made it easier, we should not respond in kind.
The arguement was that crushing the last remnants and putting this insanity to bed would bring us down to their level. Then it’s “lose moral ground/bipartisanship/yadayadayada/sameoldcrap.”
The Moar You Know
@Liquid: Cantor doesn’t want it, and the only acceptable candidate for this Dem is Pelosi. Otherwise I’m perfectly content to let them kill each other for the job.
Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)
@The Moar You Know:
This has his patented bullheaded stupidity written all over it.
That’s my thinking; plus his rank temerity. In addition, I hope he gets a lexicon of grief and a skin-flailing lesson in being cautious about what one wishes for
The Dangerman
@Spaghetti Lee:
Obama didn’t raise them; Bush designed them to expire.
As for message in 14, don’t think it matters much; GOP has gerrymandered the House such that it ain’t flipping any time soon. As for 16, Obama ain’t running.
Meg
@Hill Dweller: She laughs at the beltway pundits, but she never criticizes dancing Dave. It is her contractual obligation to show great admiration for her colleagues.
One thing we should be grateful about is that she no longer invites “uncle Pat” on her show anymore.
sylvan
Yesterday on Tea Party Nation, the top story was a call for scenarios that would prevent President Obama from taking the oath of office.
Seriously. These are the people our president is negotiating with by proxy.
Liquid
@The Moar You Know:
I agree but there isn’t much chance of that considering the current state of the House.
But then I’m probably overlooking something obvious.
Tripod
@Raven:
Someone picked the wrong day to quit huffing gasoline.
PeakVT
@Liquid: I think Cantor as Speaker would be fantastic tfor the Dems. Everything about the guy just screams “peckerhead.” I’d much rather him be the face of the Repukes than Boehner.
Hill Dweller
Boehner reportedly kept repeating “I don’t have the votes!” while crying.
Raven
OK, Lawrence has Luke on too. It’s obvious that Luke is on the shit shift and that’s all they have “on the ground” ( a phrase I hate as much as “at the end of the day”, “sort of” and “on set”!
ShadeTail
@Spaghetti Lee: You’re exaggerating pretty badly about what this blog has been saying on that subject. But that aside, polls show that the clear majority of Americans are *already* blaming the GOP for this. So it’s really not a matter of what the GOP and the “liberal” media can convince people of; they’ve already failed at that.
Pinkamena Panic
@bleh: And ruin the metaphor to spare your pweshus widdle fee-fees?
Your draw offer is declined. Play on!
Mike E
@TS:
Not that anyone could notice, having teh media prop them up all pretty-like for a couple of generations now.
JoyfulA
The new Congress in 2013 will have more Democrats and fewer Republicans.
bemused senior
All I want for Christmas is foreknowledge that 20 Republicans will defect and vote for Nancy Smash for speaker.
coral
Too bad our negotiator-in-chief is Obama. He is a master at pulling defeat from the jaws of victory.
TS
@Suzanne:
I can agree with that
Anya
I feel so sorry for lil Luke. He’s such an idiot. Why does MSNBC tolerate him? He’s on the Last Word and he said: If you know conservative history and American governance this is everything conservatives stand for. WTF does that mean? He was talking about how the deal had cuts to food stamps, cuts to meals on wheels and tax cuts.
Comrade Jake
I almost feel bad for Boner. Being top dick at the dick factory is not much fun.
NR
@Liquid: The appropriate response in this situation would be for Obama to say “I made a more than fair offer to the Republicans and they rejected it. So now I’m pulling the offer off the table. Let’s see what they come up with.”
But what will likely happen is an offer for more Social Security cuts.
Howard Beale IV
If Boehner loses his Speakership, then who’s next in line? Cantor? Ryan? Bachmann?
Spaghetti Lee
Isn’t the deciding factor here whether Boehner cares if we ‘go over the cliff’ or not? I mean, nothing was stopping him from going to Pelosi and saying ‘we need to make a deal’, and Pelosi spelling out the terms and then getting just enough Dems to vote for it. Nothing but his pride and reputation, of course. I wonder if he’ll stop giving a damn now that his own caucus has publicly humiliated him.
Mike in NC
@chopper:
Yeah, but TIME magazine just named Eric Cantor their choice as “Person of the Year”. Oh, wait that was in an alternate universe.
JustAnotherBob
Bohner comes off as completely incompetent.
At a critical point in very important negotiations he creates “Plan B” as some sort of technique to accomplish something, it’s not clear what. Give his people cover?
And then he rolls it out in public without not having the votes firmly in hand to make sure it passes.
It simply says that he does not understand.
Comrade Jake
In other words, the Morning After Bill is An Abortion.
TS
@Mike E:
Ensuring a dem government has no funding while building mass deficits in GOP times never seems to get noticed by the media. I will never understand how George Bush and the media got the UK to go to war with them. I have NEVER seen such a virulent attack on any President than has happened in the past four years.
For 12 years the media has failed – they make themselves the news, they spread absolute lies – and what is worse they believe their own lies.
mclaren
Wrong on all counts. Boehner will still be in office long after Obama has left the White House. We will not go over the fiscal cliff because Obama will waffle and fold and capitulate to all the Repubs’ demands. And since Obama is incapable to showing any spine, he has zero leverage.
Another day, another betrayal by Obama. Ho-hum. Same old same old.
Corner Stone
@NR: We’ll be told that if more was not offered from our side then would we rather deal with a Speaker Cantor?!
Suffern ACE
@Hill Dweller: He has absolutely no constituency. None. I bet he couldn’t bring five members to vote to put Ronald Reagan’s head on Mount Rushmore if Obama said “that’s a great idea” and Nancy said she had all the votes.
Smiling Mortician
@bleh: First, can we soften the metaphor? How about “Plan B Self-Deports”?
You realize that Plan B isn’t actually an immigratifacient pill, right?
gbear
@sylvan: How many people suggested assassination?
sylvan
@mclaren:
Who would you like to see elected as president in 2016?
If you have any convictions at all besides trolling, you should get started on that.
Spaghetti Lee
@sylvan:
“Yes, freedompatriot217, tyrannosaur-mounted laser guns would probably slow down the proceedings, but we’re trying to look more into, er, legal tactics.”
“YER ONE OF THEM, AINTCHA?! RINO! RINOOOOOOO!!!!”
Aries Moon
Yay GOP, way to tip your hand and let America know that you’re incapable of compromise even on your own terms.
Suffern ACE
@Baud: You know, I hate the idea of giving that post to a Republican again, but the Post’s editorial board’s rant against his nomination kind of convinced me to hope he gets nominated. They absolutely deplore the idea of a defense cut or anyone not bellicose enough about Israel’s enemies. The guy has voted for every damn war we’ve had for the past 40 years, and they’re worried he’ll be too soft when the time comes to have a war. You’d think he’s Gandhi or something. Chuck Hagel, Surrender Monkey.
The Moar You Know
@mclaren: do you ever get tired of being wrong? I don’t mean a little bit wrong, or in error, but grossly, willfully, “saddam has weapons of mass destruction” wrong?
Ha, I jest of course. You never get tired of it.
PsiFighter37
@Corner Stone: Yes, because at least there won’t be any pretenses. Everyone knows that shithead Orange Julius has as much power as a boy emperor does.
gbear
I wonder how long it will be until ‘both sides do it’ refers to the opposing factions within the GOP?
FormerSwingVoter
@Liquid: Same here. What leverage, exactly? The nutbags in the GOP wouldn’t even vote for massive gifts for the ultra-rich. Nothing will get passed no matter what. They won’t compromise now. They won’t compromise in January. They will simply tank the economy – AGAIN – and shriek over and over and over that it’s Obama’s fault.
driftglass
Self-Destroying Machines
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/12/fundraiser-continues-self-destroying.html
Mike E
@TS:
Sinclair Lewis comes immediately to mind here…12 years, heck, it’s going on an even hundred.
Gex
@Suzanne: Though they don’t believe in evolution, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. If you actively select for stupid people, you shouldn’t be surprised that after a few generations your party is too stupid to function or appear sane.
Anya
@mclaren: I am convinced you’re Jennifer Rubin masquerading as a disaffected liberal.
Mandalay
@Liquid:
Potato Head jr. was just on Laurence O’Donnell as well. He was “reporting” on the Republican discussions/meltdown, and mentioned totally gratuitously that “both sides” do it.
Either he has been taken over by the evil spirit of the rotting Broder, or he is a totally useless wanabee hack. I cannot fathom why Maddow and O’Donnell have this imbecile on their shows.
Mike in NC
@mclaren: Fucking firebaggers, how do they work?
AHH onna Droid
@mclaren: Was there a two-for-one special, physics and political science at the drive through degree hut?
No? You do realize that other disciplines and skill sets exist beyond ‘ setting up initial conditions’ on H atom interaction problems and going to the lab to play with lasers?
Gex
@Mandalay: If they are NBC properties, this is driven by cross-promotion/product placement. They can have a guest AND promote another one of their properties at the same time. As Jack Donaghy would say, “Synergy!”
Donut
@Liquid:
Probably because Obama will end up throwing Orange Julius a lifeline, so Obama can try to get some shit done that needs to get done. Most of it will be the Good Shit, and some of it will be Some Bullshit we are going to have to tolerate until we can replace said Bullshit with said Good Shit.
I mean, we have seen this before. Nothing is shocking with Barack Obama now. I don’t love it. I don’t like some of it at all. I feel angry that he would put Social Security and low-ish middle class tax rates as risk by changing CPI. I wish he had stayed in campaign mode and had continued to pound on Boehner in pubic. But I also accept that the man’s philosophy of governing is what it is. It yields more good than not, IMO. If, at this late stage, people profess to be surprised by Obama’s style and methods, you’re freakin hopeless. He is what he is, and far better than the alternatives in the GOP.
If anyone can find a more progressive prez than Obama, yet who can also win a presidential election, I’m all ears. Until then we’ve got Obama.
Bubblegum Tate
@Liquid:
“Ah, bourbon. Brownest of the brown liquor. What’s that? You want me to drink you? But I’m in the middle of a speech!”
El Caganer
@Comrade Jake: I sense a ripped-from-the-headlines series here: “Agent Orange, Top Dick.”
Ruckus
Boehner’s days as speaker are numbered
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Hope the asshole the rethugs replace him with has just as much style, charisma, power and negotiating skills.
Roger Moore
@Liquid:
I think DROOOONEZZZZZZ might be a better way of dealing with the Republican caucus.
Anya
@Mandalay: You give lil Luke a lot of credit. I don’t think it’s broderism but he was dropped on his head when he was little so he can only retain small doses of information.
cmorenc
If the huge tea party faction within the GOP house caucus is this mulishly stubborn in its refusal to even agree to what amounted to nothing more than enabling Boehner to play plan ‘B’ as a political gambit he knew Obama and the Democrats in the Senate would refuse…then they’re not only willing to take us over the cliff, they’re willing to take the country into the galactic black hole of fiscal default over the debt limit.
Hopefully the GOP house is so badly overplaying their hand that even with gerrymandered districts, they’re in for a terrible counter-historical whipping in an off-year election in 2014. The problem is that even if they’re fucked when November 2014 comes around, in the meantime ALL of us are going to be terribly fucked as the country tumbles into a deep recession.
GregB
Does anyone know if the NRA is holding their press conference in a beer hall tomorrow?
Roger Moore
@coral:
You do realize, don’t you, that the current situation is a direct result of the last round of negotiations? Obama didn’t take his winnings directly then; he took them as groundwork for a favorable position now. It’s called planning and foresight.
MikeJ
@The Dangerman:
Anybody else getting the smuss.net header? Mix fixed it over the weekend and the site seemed to be doing much better, but I’ve gotten the bad header again and the site is slow again.
sylvan
@GregB:
General Steiner won’t be there.
Joel
“Plan B failed to implant.”
Would be a more accurate metaphor.
cmorenc
@Hill Dweller:
Back in the old days, Speaker Sam Rayburn would have had the recalcitrant members of his caucus over for a barbeque, and he’d have cajoled them into line as he roasted their balls over an open fire, basting with turpentine.
JustAnotherBob
@Donut:
PBO won the popular vote by only a couple of percentage points while running against a total POS candidate from the right.
If you think there’s a more prog, er, blatant liberal who could possibly win dig ’em up.
In this universe someone who sends the “progressives” into joy spasms is not going to get elected. Best to go with someone who has the same goals but a better idea of how to actually accomplish something.
Like what we’ve got. Moving forward. Progress.
sylvan
@Bubblegum Tate:
I get sympathetic shivers for Boehner’s liver.
No one pays attention to the liver until it all goes wrong.
Suffern ACE
@cmorenc: what tea party faction. They all voted for the Ryan plan. There aren’t non tea party members at this time.
driftglass
@Mandalay: You don’t say “no” to the dauphin and remain at court for long.
Villago Delenda Est
Boner can negotiate just fine. The problem is, he’s got no control over the whining babies who elected him Speaker.
JustAnotherBob
@Villago Delenda Est: Not really.
To be a good negotiator you have to know what you can deliver.
He’s trying to sell a wheelbarrow of potatoes when he doesn’t have a wheelbarrow of potatoes. He can’t produce what he promises.
Lol
The key is to find 20 Repubs willing to vote one of the 20 for speaker with Dem support. It won’t be a real majority but it would give us control of committes and reel in the fishing expeditions.
peorgietirebiter
@driftglass: I wake up a little simple from time to time and can’t tell the players without a program. Who’s playing the Dauphine?
General Stuck
Obama has a 56 percent approval from Gallup right now.
so FUCK ALL EMO PROGS AND FIREBAGGERS AND THEIR REPUBLICAN FRIENDS THEY CARRY WATER FOR!
John Weiss
The clown show continues. Gods above!
NR
@JustAnotherBob:
Cutting Social Security is not progress. It is the opposite of progress.
e.a.f.
When I watched the American news I kept hearing about the American government going over this financial cliff. I looked on a map and there is no place called Finanical Cliff. I gave up worrying about it. Kept seeing the guy with the bad tan going on & on about protecting the money of all those rich people. Turns out he is a Republican. I thought maybe some one was trying to hold them up. Turns out no one was, it was all about rich people having to pay taxes like they used to.
Then I saw the news about all those little kids and their teachers being murdered & that guy with the funny tan, oh ya, he’s republican, kept talking about that financial cliff. I decided the guy has to be not only a republican but crazy. When 20 little kids get murdered, along with their teachers people need to focus on how that happened and not be so concerned about people having to pay taxes.
I’d suggest the Republicans get rid of Boehner. The man says some of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. He is even dumber than the Prime Minister of Canada & that is saying something.
Gian
what strikes me is the speaker has a rebellion in the GOP ranks.
but the rebellion has no plan to actually accomplish anything other then obstruction.
they think that Obama will fold. and they will get their wishlist of tax cuts for the rich and screw the rest of you (and wasn’t that the main push of “plan b” anyway?
they remind me of the stories about WWII japanese soldiers being discovered on remote islands years after the war ended and not knowing they’d lost.
SOme of the MSNBC talkers that I could catch in between kid chasing were discussion the fact the GOP holdouts were listening to hard right think tank lobbyist types and in their heart of hearts think the president is bluffing.
lamh35
I just watched the video of Cantor as he was leaving the meeting after the vote was tabled. People are labeling it the “walk of shame”, but from the smirk on Cantor’s face, I don’t think he is “shamed” at all. I think Cantor’s perfectly happy with the knife he put in Boehner’s back. He literally looks like the cat that ate the canary.
Seriously look at the video and tell me that Cantor looks doesn’t look like a cat who sees a bowl of cream right within this reach.
http://youtu.be/F56fEyNOTVM
I’m not up on my Bible lit, but would Cantor not be Boehner’s Judas?
R-Jud
@e.a.f.:
He makes David Cameron look like a towering figure of statesmanship.
JustAnotherBob
@NR:
One of the reasons that “true progressives” can’t make progress is that they don’t understand that progress means sometimes you have to take a step backwards.
Two forward, one back, two forward and you get somewhere.
Standing still, waiting for the perfect forward step gets one nowhere.
Cacti
Can Bohner’s official title be changed to Lame duck Speaker, or (R-walking dead)?
Plan B was a gambit to hold onto the Speaker’s gavel. He failed utterly.
Cacti
@lamh35:
I think of it more like Cantor is Michael to Bohner’s Fredo.
rikyrah
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Shorter Boehner to Pres. Obama: “Screw you, I’m going with Plan B.” Shorter Pres. Obama: “Please Proceed, Mr. Speaker.”
General Stuck
@JustAnotherBob:
NR is no progressive. It is a racist Paultard.
pattonbt
I think Boehner survives easily because who else is there and who else would want it? Cantor doesnt want it (at least I wouldnt think right now) and who’s next? They have no real bench, just a bunch of insane tea-baggers. Who has the votes to topple Boehner or bring the factions together – especially considering one faction, the largest faction, is demostrably insane – to try and govern? They don’t want to govern, they want to make things burn.
I think as far as they are concerned it’s best to let Boehner take all the heat because it’s going to be shit-fail parade from here on out. They can just throw purity tea-bagger bombs (meaning whatever Grover, Rush and Freedumbworks decides is the stance of the day) from the sideline and sidestep (with a nice assist from the media) and blame or scrutiny for their actions. It’s worked so far so why stop now?
I really believe the incoming congress (R’s particularly) will make the last congress look fucking awesome in comparison.
So they let Boehner flop-sweat for 2 years and get run out of town on a rail and then tea-party primary every R who tries to do good, then lose the house, then profit!
I truly think they may not get anything done on the cliff or ceiling. In order to do that now, they need D’s. And any R who sides with a D is 100% wingnut primary meat, say goodbye to your seat. So thats not going to happen.
El Caganer
It would be truly sweet if they dumped the orange guy in favor of their darling Paul Ryan. Given the way Biden devoured him without breaking a sweat, it would appear that young Ryan doesn’t respond well to pressure.
Narcissus
I still pronounce Boehner as boner.
Speaker boner
GregB
@lamh35:
I’m with you.
Eric Cantor wants to be a first. He’d be the first Jewish-American Speaker of the House in US history.
digitals3rf
Congressional approval was at 7%. Can it get down to (ahem) 1%? Could the GOTP fuck up so badly that they flip the house in 2 years? I say POTUS should just openly insult them by name every day in ’13 and ’14 if need be. They’re like a Monty Python sketch without any laughs. What kind of jellybrain do you have to be to vote for these douchenozzles?
Joseph Nobles
@lamh35: To my eyes, that grin is for camera consumption only. It’s not in the eyes, he’s barely speaking, he’s trodding past the press gauntlet, and he loses the grin before the video ends. He’s not a happy camper, for whatever reason.
BruinKid
I see people are making Mayan apocalypse jokes like there’s no tomorrow.
(OK, OK, I didn’t come up with that line.)
Xenos
@Narcissus: When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.
AHH onna Droid
W@Donut: Wow, after all this time, just can’t warm up to the guy. Hell, love him less. Certainly don’t trust him.
With Obama’s name on the biggest liberal legislative accomplishment in decades, have we been sold a bag of goods with progressive? Not a high tech, rebranded, 21st century liberal but the same old emotional racist populism with all the baggage that implies? At least the Communists believed in social equality (code for interracial s e x). You know, like civilized people.
JS
@Anya:
Have you ever seen “National Lampoon’s Animal House”? Luke Russert is the legacy hire like Delta House was obligated to take in Flounder.
nellcote
Now would be a good time for Pelosi to force a vote on the Senate bill.
Donut
@JustAnotherBob:
I don’t see how anything I wrote is contrary to your points.
Donut
@AHH onna Droid:
I don’t have a fucking clue what your post means. Sorry.
Donut
@JustAnotherBob:
Also, too: I’ve not suggested replacing Obama with anyone.
I am an Illinoisan and have supported the guy’s career since he ran for Senate.
My meaning was toward 2016, in saying if anyone knows of an electable progressive, I’m all ears. I’m happy Barack Obama is our president.
TS
@Aries Moon:
Letting the world know – way past America – if they EVER try to talk democracy to any other country – wait for the backlash. The GOP sees democracy as “our way or no way”
JustAnotherBob
@Donut:
And I’m saying that there are no electable progressives.
Make too much noise about achieving all the liberal goals “right now!” and you spook the herd. Got to be acceptable as a slightly left of center in order to get enough of the center.
What the left wants is new stuff and change. New stuff and change scares a lot of people. Progressives, IMO, have it dialed up a bit too high.
mai naem
@lamh35: I am not sure why he would want to be the Speaker right now. I don’t think he’s going to be able to control the teabaggers that much better than Boehner. I kinda feel sorry for Boehner. Also, I think as much as possible in her relatively weak position, Pelosi will run rings around Cantor.
LAC
@NR: found your organ, ready to grind?
Donut
@JustAnotherBob:
Well, I guess we disagree to,some extent about dialing it up. I don’t understand the attitude that one can’t find some flaws in a politician, and discuss them openly, yet still support that person and their larger goals. I’ve always said I would support the president, even when I didn’t like what he was up to, 100%. I gave him time and money, going back to his Senate campaign, right up through Nov of this year. I also don’t understand how people can seriously always agree with everything the guy does.
I mean, fuck, do you agree all the time with ANYONE else in the world? No. You don’t. It is not possible. And that’s okay. It’s NORMAL and healthy to have disagreements within a political party.
To wit, I don’t like seeing the CPI change offered up on a damn deficit reduction package. It defies budgetary logic, seeing as how the CPI change impacts Social Security the most, and SS adds nothing to the deficit. And fhe CPI offer doesn’t raise much revenue, either, though technically it could alter or affect tax brackets, I guess.
So why offer it? Well, I can answer that…it’s to get a deal done. Duh.
But why does it get you automatically labeled as an evil Firebagger emoprog (by some), when some of these points are simply things that reasonable people can disagree about?
Anyway, the point is, not everyone who has a critical thing or two to say means the president harm, nor wants him to fail.. Occasionally we could all stand to consider this notion.
JustAnotherBob
Are there any Republicans in the House who might be willing to break away from the extremists?
Some people who might put country first and take their chances that the electorate is going to be thinking differently in 2014?
Mnemosyne
@Donut:
I think part of the problem may be that you’re walking in on Act III of a five-act drama. This is not the first time that we’ve heard the Chicken Littles of the left screeching that Obama is totally going to kill Social Security. I think it’s either the fifth or the sixth time, starting with the declaration that Obama was going to announce Social Security and/or Medicare cuts in his first State of the Union address, but honestly I’ve kinda lost count of how many times Obama has supposedly sold us out in his quest to kill the New Deal.
It makes it difficult to have a rational conversation about the different negotiating approaches when you keep being interrupted by people who demand that you acknowledge that this time they were totally right and all of their predictions are coming true. Until yet another done deal falls apart. Again.
bemused senior
@JustAnotherBob: Obama won by closer to 4%: 51.0% to 47.3%. They’re still counting provisional ballots, I believe.
JustAnotherBob
@bemused senior: “a couple” is sort of generic for “not a lot”.
He didn’t win by the sort of 10% – 20% margin that indicates that the center of the country is far left of him.
Full Metal Wingnut
@PsiFighter37: The other Russert was pretty overrated himself.
? Martin
@Donut:
I know this was an aside, but there are reasons:
1) SS is currently paying out $50B a year more than it’s taking in. The only thing keeping it off the general budget is that it earns more than $50B in interest, but SS needs that interest to cover future payments, but it’s been eating into it’s reserves for 2 years now. That’s $50B per year that is deficit spending, even though it’s not in the budget. The problem there is SSDI is broke in 3-4 years. Nobody has a plan to fix it, other than to take the money out of retirement, and find a way to replace that money. That’s what C-CPI is designed to help address. In terms of the deficit, it helps significantly. In terms of the budget, it doesn’t make much difference.
2) We don’t know what else is tied to C-CPI. In all previous discussions of C-CPI, it was partnered with increasing the minimum SS payout to some % of the poverty level – 125% was the recommendation, but even 100% would be a massive improvement. Right now ⅓ of all unmarried women and minorities over age 65 live at or below the poverty line. They don’t get enough SS income to pull them above that line. The trade was that C-CPI would flatten the growth of payments in the future to keep them stable relative to poverty (under CPI they grow faster than the poverty rate, which your first clue that CPI overestimates inflation) which would really add up over the course of the 75 year solvency model in exchange for a near-term increase in benefits for poor people. The near term increase would make SS look worse for about 5-10 years, then the C-CPI would overtake it, and SS would start looking better and better. We help poor people now, and we extend the life of the program. And by doing this, we shift money out of the budget under things like TANF and into Social Security, so that immediate floor to benefits give you an immediate means to cut the budget.
3) C-CPI was also supposed to apply to tax brackets, so people would more quickly fall into higher tax brackets, raising yet more revenue. Again, it doesn’t make much difference on the budget, but it really adds up on the baseline for calculating the deficit.
That one change gets you money counted 3 ways:
1) eliminate the long-term deficit spending needed to keep SS solvent, due to SSDI being broke
2) shift some money out of programs for the needy by having SS pay out a minimum
3) further reduce the deficit by showing more rapidly growing tax revenues over time
You’re probably talking about close to a trillion dollars in deficit savings and in return, you get a really big benefit for poor retirees that not only costs you nothing, saves you money out of the discretionary budget.
Because it’s almost certain that C-CPI isn’t alone in this deal. It’s almost certain that there are things we’d really like that are tied to it. But the only bit being leaked and discussed are the C-CPI and so people are freaking out because they can only feel the elephant’s tusk and aren’t aware of the rest of it. We can be fairly certain that there are good parts to this if Nancy says she’s okay with it. She’s not going to go along with C-CPI alone if it’s coming out of her party. I think on that we can all agree.
So, let’s turn this issue around:
If not C-CPI, how would you fix SSDI? It is seriously out of money in 3-4 years. Not just earning less than it pays out. Out. Of. Money. Payments will be cut about 20% in 2016 in order to balance outflows with inflows. There will be no reserve left. It will only have as much money as it brings in each year to pay out. If more people qualify for SSDI, those payments will need to be cut further. So rather than complain about C-CPI – how do you fix that? I’ve not heard one single idea out of this board, other than those I’ve offered up.
And SSDI aside, what positive things would you need to see to make C-CPI palatable. What about a minimum benefit?
JustAnotherBob
@Full Metal Wingnut: Least rotten apple in the barrel….
Full Metal Wingnut
@mclaren: A defeat for Obama on the day the Republican Speaker humiliates his fellow House party members? Load up another bowl and troll harder.
Full Metal Wingnut
@cmorenc: And as for the Senate, I shudder at the thought of what a Majority Leader LBJ would do. We need more Dems doling out the Johnson Treatment.
JustAnotherBob
Mitt gets ready to set off the fireworks but finds that his numbers have been cooked.
McConnell miscalculates and has to filibuster his own bogus bill.
Then Bohner makes a threat but forgets to load his gun first.
Things just haven’t been going well in Publican World.
Must be about time for Tony to soil himself in public….
Chris T.
@JustAnotherBob:
I think you’re probably right—but at the same time, we really need a strong “progressive” movement to keep the ol’ Overton Window from racing rightwards, making people comfortable with change in the wrong direction by making them think it’s “status quo”.
Calouste
@TS: The world has known to American comments about democracy with a dump truck or two of salt ever since the CIA started rigging the elections in Greece and Italy in the late 1940s to prevent the communists from getting into government.
hoodie
@? Martin: Which indicates that the next logical step will be some more sweeteners in SS and maybe cap gains and dividend rate increase or something like that, paired with making tax cuts permanent for under 400k, and get a combination of House Dems and non-TP Repubs to pass it. That would be a reasonably good deal, and has the added PR value of giving the Villagers the bipartisan sauce they so love. After reflection, it looked to me like Boehner’s people were setting up the hard core teatards for ritual execution last night, based on what LaTourette was saying. He basically has about 40 of them lined up for isolation. Maybe Boehner didn’t screw up here, and Cantor is the one that ultimately gets hosed because he couldn’t deliver his people. All depends on whether Boehner can get a majority of his caucus to go along with a deal, so it looks like he still has more power than any other pretenders.
Lojasmo
@NR:
well since Obama didn’t do what you claim, yet got a lot of other good shit done, I’d call it progress.
chopper
so i wonder what now. boner just up and walked away and the house left for the rest of the year.
i guess the president could knock out a deal with reid, a solid democratic bill and watch it die in the house if the house even takes it up for a vote. just to make completely sure that the GOP takes the fall for going over the cliff.
next up: republican civil war heats up.
Paul
@mclaren:
And another day when mclaren, for whatever reason, gives Congress a FREE pass. You do realize that Congress, especially the Democratic senate could block this? No? Well, they can.
Are you one of the 7% in this country who still approve of Congress. One can only assume since your postings blame Obama for everything on the planet, yet you always give Congress a free pass. Why is that?
I hate the Chained CPI. But I understand fully why Obama offered it. Democratic voters were too damn lazy to be bothered to vote in 2010 and so Obama is stuck with a GOP House. And thus he is forced to negotiate with these anti-American “reps” (they are anti-american as they willfully are pushing this country into a recession). Don’t blame Obama for that. Blame the Democratic voters.
I already contacted my Democratic senator about this. He can stop this if he wanted to. That’s where you should put the blame. Then again, I’m not one of the 7%…
Donut
@? Martin:
I apologize, I have a ton of work to do today and not much time to respond.
My biggest problem with chained CPI is that it just doesn’t have much bang for the cut. All the estimates I’ve seen say somewhere in the $200 billion range, over 10 years. So, $20B per year. That’s a drop in the bucket of the federal budget over that time window. It impacts low income older people in a way that makes me nervous, as a person in my 40s whose parents are elderly and who collect SS benefits. We already have an issue for my family in that mom and dad both earned a pension from the state that is now being squeezed, as well. Scary stuff.
Maybe we are going to have to accept the cuts to fix the shortfall, I get that, and I can swallow chained CPI if we get the other stimulus (see, it is possible to not like a policy, but accept it), but I would like to see other revenue raisers in the mix, too, and no one in the legislative or executive branches seems to be talking a lot about those options, at least not in public.
dww44
@? Martin: Thanks so much for this. It really was helpful in understanding the yelling about chained CPI. I, too, can go along with this, but now will it matter at all given the implosion of the Republican House, cheered along by the many sane (not) conservative voices out there in pundit land?
Cermet
@Paul: mclaren is just a typical asswipe troll; ignore the dumb shit. We (and it IS we) won the presidential election AGAIN; gained in the house, improved in the senate and just won BIG time with bone head losing this vote. The cliff is our friend and already, one thug (R-KY?) has conceded that they will vote President’s Obama’s way after the cliff … need very few thugs to pass a bill that will get us 90% of what we need (not nec. what we want) and better still, they will get even less than what they think they are getting – sweet.
dopey-o
@Donut: If anyone can find a more progressive prez than Obama, yet who can also win a presidential election, I’m all ears. Until then we’ve got Obama.
we don’t need no stinkin’ REALITY!
dopey-o
>Donut: If anyone can find a more progressive prez than Obama, yet who can also win a presidential election, I’m all ears. Until then we’ve got Obama.
we don’t need no stinkin’ REALITY!
dopey-o
>Donut: If anyone can find a more progressive prez than Obama, yet who can also win a presidential election, I’m all ears. Until then we’ve got Obama.
we don’t need no stinkin’ REALITY!
dopey-o
Donut: If anyone can find a more progressive prez than Obama, yet who can also win a presidential election, I’m all ears. Until then we’ve got Obama.
we don’t need no stinkin’ REALITY!
dopey-o
@JustAnotherBob: Donut: If anyone can find a more progressive prez than Obama, yet who can also win a presidential election, I’m all ears. Until then we’ve got Obama.
we don’t need no stinkin’ REALITY!
Bulworth
Plan B failed? But didn’t the Post’s J Rubin say this was a super duper smart move by Boner and the GOPteabag and that the vote on Plan B totally screwed the WH and the Senate Dems? How could she be wrong? Not understanding here.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
@Baud: That’s what I find so confusing. The DC punditry are full of deficit fetishists and austerity fans, yet here comes a big deficit reduction program that’s full of austerity, so what do they do? They label it the “fiscal cliff” (with fear quotes) and say it would be the worst thing ever. If nothing happens on Jan. 1 they get exactly what they’ve been pining for for years and they’re nothing but disappointed.
virginia
NBC-MSNBC needs to get over its grief over Russert and install a real correspondent on the Hill. Luke is well positioned to pursue some other line of work. Time to cut the cord and encourage the young man to branch out on his own. Ridiculous. One can hope that critical mass is accumulating on that minor branch as well. If he wants to come back legitimately some years from now, okay, but this ain’t the moment for what he has to offer. And insisting on making him happen is annoying.
It was perverse fun to see Speaker BAIN-er looking ashen just a few minutes ago. Let’s hope Cantor takes his place so that he too can be escorted gently out the door by the elbows well before 2014. John the mongoose to Eric’s snake.
These TeaParty folks are really just light fascists. They know the left, center-left don’t have the courage to just haul off and use the term and so they keep on pushing and, in their minds, putsching. They really do believe, I suspect, that they are revolutionary heroes daring the USA to go there.
And, thankfully, it would appear that the majority of Americans are opting to go there and say, in the real speak of real housewives, Are you ****ing kidding me right now?
I LOVED the Speaker trying to say “avert” and having to catch himself saying “abort” — and his Merry Christmas was also a classic. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
...now I try to be amused
Has there ever been a multi-party coalition leading the House? If ever it was time for one, it’s now.
MCA1
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ): Because their deficit fetishism stops at the shores of their personal income tax rates. Per Beltway CW, deficit reduction is good solely to the extent it can be achieved through reductions in the non-military discretionary spending budget that accounts for maybe 15% of the overall federal budget and has been a carcass getting picked over for 30 years already. Oh, and Social Security. Otherwise, “deficits don’t matter” is a legitimate stance in their world because anything that addresses the revenue side of the equation impacts wealthy pundits individually. They’re the epitome of modern Republicanism – “I disagree with the GOP’s stance on pretty much every social issue and all the warmongering gun humping, but a 3% increase in my taxes trumps all of that every day and twice on Sundays.”
Maude
This proves that the Republican Part is splintered.
johnny aquitard
@Liquid:
You oughta know by now that Obama doesn’t do steamroller. He hands his opponents their hats and they squat and shit in them to spite him. He gives them the waistband to their own undies and they yank hard and give themselves a vicious wedgie, just to show the magic negro who’s boss.
He’s maneuvered them to the edge of a cliff and these dumb mutherfuckers are throwing themselves over it like the stupid lemmings they are, if lemmings were capable of flipping the bird at the same time.
I’ve a hunch the man they call ‘Barry’ does steamroller quite well, when he wants to, that is, when publicly doing so actually gains more than it loses.
johnny aquitard
@Roger Moore:
When Obama did this, that was when my old man told me he began to understand that BHO was one of the shrewdest presidents he’d seen.
Hell, the old man positively cackled and told me Obama had ’em by the nuts now, you just wait and see, and they didn’t even know it. Well I said I didn’t know either. He told me Obama doesn’t have to do a thing. That’s the beauty of it. They thought they won and they were so full of themselves, and all they really did was swap places on the Hindenburg for the Titanic and chain themselves to a lead-encased anchor to boot.
He was right.
nemesis
You know, no one has gone under the bus yet for the loss in November.
But Orange Foolius cant be busted-down while the fiscal curb negotiations are on-going, can he? Wouldnt the optics of that be too much even for the firebaggers? And, in the end, the baggers may desperately need someone they can point to as needing to go under the bus. Foolius is an easy target.
I still cant wrap my head around the failure to whip enough votes after making such a dramatic stand on Plan B less than 36 hours ago. Did ewic kanker fuck with Foolius by saying the votes were there, when they werent? Did Foolius call for the vote knowing it would fail in order to cast light on the clusterfuck of a caucus he has to battle daily? A way to show the world the shit he has to deal with daily? A possible last fuck you to the baggers? Or is he just desperate?
prankster
@? Martin: That was a better explanation of reason behind the C-CPI than I’ve read *anywhere*.
Not trolling, but do you have links that talk this through further? I’ve only seen the doomsaying analysis of this gambit, and would welcome a more wonky take on it.