First, the gridlock last summer over the Debt Ceiling, that was only broken by abrogation of Congressional responsibility, and dumping it off on the super-committee. Congress in effect gave the S-C a gun and said “shoot the Defense budget if we can’t get our act together.”
Quelle surprise…they couldn’t get their act together.
OK, that’s bad enough. These clowns could not do the one thing they were sent to Washington to do, so we get across the board meataxe cuts to the budget.
But now they want to take the bullets out of the gun, (dicking around with legislation to say “we didn’t really mean it”) which I think is the most cynical, farcical and criminally incompetent thing to come out of Congress in living memory.
I like E.J. Dionne’s “do nothing” solution to fiscal responsibility – if Congress remains completely deadlocked for another year the Bush tax cuts will expire and the deficit will shrink. Brilliant, and seemingly the most likely outcome.
I’m sure this will do wonders for investor confidence too. :rolleyes:
Seriously, who in their right mind wants to do business with a intolerant 4yo?
Also, I’m no politics expert but wasn’t the HoR put their for a reason? As in… Oh, I don’t know… TO REPRESENT THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES!!! Where the fuck was our voice in all of this?
And to make this even more disturbing, they knew this would fail. Both parties IMO just wanted to kick this can down the road to get past the next election cycle.
Honestly, is anyone surprised that a group evenly divided between two warring factions, one of whom has vowed to never, ever compromise, wasn’t able to reach a consensus? To tell you the truth, I would have been stunned had they been able to produce something of value.
The Republicans held the debt ceiling negotiations hostage for spending cuts. Obama said"OK- how about 4.5 trillion in cuts?" The Republicans said “No, just 1.5 trillion.” Obama said “OK, go for it.”…or else automatic cuts will take place.
Since the super commitee couldn’t agree (mostly over the Repulicans refusal to entertain reasonable tax increases and the closing of some loopholes for the wealthy), and now the automatic cuts will take place. This whole fiasco makes the Republicans really look like the weasels they are.
And, why not cut defense spending now? Aren’t the bulk of our military heading home right about now?
Because the vast majority of those dollars are spent in somebody’s district, and we would like to either hold on to a Democratic seat or dislodge a Republican seat, or secure them for Obama, and none of that will happen if we can’t pin the sequestration on the Republicans.
“Republicans cut your defense plant job instead of taxing millionaires.” I think that will about do it.
I don’t follow news much, and want to understand this supercommittee.
Did it only need 7 votes to pass a measure, so that any defection would have led to a proposal?
How were the members chosen? Were criteria like moderation or willingness to compromise used for the selection?
Why the lies, Ca3799? Toomey presented a reasonable plan that would’ve got the job done. It would have hit those “loopholes” a.k.a. deductions hard enough to matter. Those that take standard deductions, i.e. the poor and middle class, would see tax cuts. According to the article, that’s 2/3 of filers.
Democrats didn’t go for it. They won’t go for anything. Why? They can’t stand the cuts in entitlements. They’re too addicted to sucking the government teat to even think about bringing the budget under control.
I’m so sick of this board just outright lying about politics. Here’s a plan that does just what you said you wanted. The Democrats refused. Who’s the ‘party of no’ now?
~10% of active personnel and ~20% of the military budget if you don’t count future costs of healthcare and interest on borrowed money. I wouldn’t call that small.
$250 billion in new revenue over 10 years is peanuts, and will do nothing to reduce the $15 trillion debt. More Republican lies.
Entitlements are on the table, and Democrats are taking a lot of heat for daring to compromise on their core principles. Republicans are too far in the pocket of wealthy interests to put the millionaire tax increase on the table.
Then quit posting. That will reduce the lies by half in this thread alone.
$250 billion over ten years? Lies, lies, lies.
The Republicans. Come back when you get tired of taking orders from the 1%.
First, your cite says Republicans refused to consider anything that let even the all-time-stupid Bush tax cuts to the wealthy expire until the 11 and one half-th hour.
Second, your cite is all super committee member Pat Toomey, R-Pa, quotes. I’m sure he has no reason to try to blame the Dems.
Third, your article says Toomey’s late offered plan was the first Republican proposal to include tax increases.
Fourth, the tax increases they offered were bare minimum. What did they offer- 3 cents in taxes per dollar of cuts? Such a deal.
So, it seems all the R’s would consider was spending cuts until the very end when they made a last ditch offer of some paltry amount. And the Dems found the offer unacceptable. Who could have guessed that?