U.S. Speaker John Boehner (RINO-Ohio) will permit the House of Representatives to pass a “compromise” debt deal with Democratic votes leading the way – his latest (and perhaps greatest) cave to U.S. President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.
The deal being negotiated in the Senate will reportedly fund the federal government (including all Obamacare-related functions) through mid-January and raise the federal debt limit enough to cover four additional months of unsustainable borrowing.
No spending concessions will be made in connection with this “compromise” – which carries an uncertain price tag.
Game. Set. Match.
Boehner now joins with fiscally liberal “Republicans” in the U.S. Senate – who caved to Obama before the so-called “government shutdown” began on October 1.
What happens in four months? We get to go through this same charade again – with Obama and the liberal mainstream media bashing “irresponsible” fiscal conservatives as courting Armageddon by having the audacity to suggest that the federal government stop spending trillions of dollars it doesn’t have on a “recovery” that clearly wasn’t working.
For those of you keeping score at home the last debt deal – reached in August 2011 – resulted in $2.4 trillion in borrowed money being blown by the federal government in just seventeen months. Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. were supposed to cut $2.1 trillion over a ten-year period as a way of countering this massive binge – but so far they have trimmed only $42 billion.
Democrats and fiscally liberal Republicans reneged on broader cuts when they passed the so-called “fiscal cliff” deal on January 1 – an agreement which included $620 billion in tax hikes.
47 comments
Just curious, but I’m compelled to ask what recourse did he have. Cruz, DeMint, and Tibbe led the Tea Party numbnuts right over the cliff.
the cliff is what we are now about to go over, dumbass.
We went over the Cliff in the 2010 elections when numbnuts like the aforementioned three above and pissant shills like you gained a nut-lock grasp on an ill-read and un-learned electorate.
the unlearned electorate? they’re the ones stuck w/ the payroll tax hike. Obama and the GOP are both rewarding the .07 percent that controls 41 percent of the world’s wealth. jesus man I’m more of a radical than you are …
The “payroll tax hike?” It was a temporary tax break that was allowed to expire. It was never meant to be permanent.
Well the payroll tax is a really fucking regressive flat tax with a yearly max so maybe Will wants to make it more progressive.
Eh, I’m fine with it being a flat tax. True, the poor are least able to afford it, but they ultimately benefit the most from the program (especially considering a vast majority of the poor have no retirement savings of their own). I’d rather help the poor through other programs, and not just standard welfare programs, ones that help them be self-sufficient. That would help them in the here and now.
I’d rather remove the cap on the payroll tax. That will fund Social Security for the next 75 years.
The payroll tax “cap” for millionaires should be REMOVED, and then Social Security will be solvent for the next 100 years.
To quote Ross Perot, you’d hear the giant sucking sound of the large number of millionaires leaving the country. Something they can afford to do, while you can not.
And where are all these American wage-earning millionaires going to move to?? The United States has about the lowest taxes in the world for rich people.
Just like the Bush Tax Cuts. Which should also have expired.
Now the asshole will claim he is “the man who saved America”!
Clunt
Sorry Folks, its time for the adults in the room to do some work
Hopefully the house won’t pass it.
That’d be a spank on the a$$.
Vote all the son’s a bitches out who go along with this load of crap. I’d be happy if the didn’t vote on a single piece of legislation until getting delays in the individual mandate requirements in obobocare and removing all subsidies for gov’t employees, along with reduction in spending on ALL entitlement programs as minimum requirements to move forward.
Dam Skippy.
$CF and FreedomWork$ cleaned up on cash and mailing lists, but Obama ad Reid played their numerical superiority like champs. Meanwhile, Cruz and Lee are AWOL after their unicorn-chasing gambit failed. THE GOOD NEWS? The hard right is dispirited and rudderless, which will allow the grownups to govern easier. Translation: Boehner played you guys.
I read something the other day from a house member that I thought was pretty interesting, paraphrasing it was:
“Congress will never pass a budget again, it will be CR’s and money printing until it doesn’t work anymore.”
Seems to me that is pretty much the case now. The days of “budgets” aren’t coming back until a final reckoning.
That may be true until two things happen. We reform the filibuster rules in the Senate and we eliminate the rules in the House (put in by Boehner) that all bills must be approved by a majority of the majority party or it will not be brought to the floor for a vote.
We have set up a systemof Government, whereby a minority of either House of Congress can block virtually all legislation. Essentially 117 of 435 Representatives and 41 of 100 Senators can block the enactment of most legislation. It is ultimately an unworkable, undemocratic, system.
It’s worse than that, Jan. H.Res 368 states that members of the House can no longer demand that a bill be brought up for a vote. Only Eric Cantor or his designee can do that. This impasse belongs to the Republican House leadership and no one else.
No. It’s true. Just true. Fracking Republikrats can not hide. 2014
Well, there was this notion that a Republic was supposed to have some defenses against the “tyranny of the majority”…really though…that’s mostly been dispensed with.
Hence our large debt & ongoing deficit spending.
I’m not arguing for against Republicanism or Democratic forms of government either btw, simply making observations.
We have a plutocracy in my mind…but the rules for that game vary.
Btw Jan, I’m curious as to your opinion on Congress exempting themselves from Obamacare.
What do you think of that?
We all know they currently have better insurance than most anyway, but I’m just curious on how that concept fits in with your view on Obamacare and if you think it’s fair for them to not only be exempt but also have us paying for their superior care.
Federal employees, including Congress and the White House have a parallel health insurance system to Obamacare. Their’s is not a “better” health insurance system than Obamacare, in fact, it is very similar.
Ha! Theirs completely subsidized and they are exempt from the mandate. If it’s so “parallel”, then why bother with writing in an exemption? Nice try.
I’m not sure what you mean by exempt from Obamacare.
I think congressional staff are government employees. I think, like all other businesses with group insurance the employees should be allowed to continue their group insurance. The ACA has no impact on full time employees with group insurance. Unless the employer changes the plan, it should stay the same.
As for congressmen, I think every American should have the right to the same health care coverage each member of congress has for the same price they pay.
Does that answer the question?
“As for congressmen, I think every American should have the right to the same health care coverage each member of congress has for the same price they pay.
Does that answer the question?”
I’m not sure. I can only guess that you don’t think Obamacare would go far enough based on the above because the congressmen getting better coverage for no cost.
If that is the case, I would assume you think it’s unfair. Correct?
Its fairer than we had before.
Cutting back on government spending when the nation is in a “demand shock” recession makes about as much sense as cutting back on your antibiotics when you have an STD.
The recovery from this recession has lagged from precisely this mindset. Ignorant and malicious Republicans have demanded austerity at exactly the wrong time. They made adequate monetary stimulus politically impossible. They demanded tax cuts for the wrong stratum of society — cuts for the rich “job producers”, but little for those without jobs.
Whining about Boehner caving is amusing in a twisted way.
At last, Boehner feels like doing his actual job as a member of the House of Representatives.
The ACA is a LAW. It shouldn’t be a tool used to hold Americans, the U.S. government, and U.S. economy hostage. If conservatives want to rid themselves of the ACA, win back the Senate & Presidency and repeal it.
Wow! way to go to rhetoric! ACA is unconstitutional, the government cannot force you to pay for any product or pay for not having it. Before you tell me the Supreme Court said it is constitutional, let me remind you that they ruled on the tax, not the act. Take ACA as a whole to the judiciary and let’s see where it goes.
Sean: You might have missed the fact that the US Supreme Court took the whole ACA to the judiciary and they ruled that the mandate was a “tax” and therefore, the entire ACA was indeed constitutional.
Sean, as a non-fan of the ACA, I am sorry to tell you that even if 26 states, a federation of businesses’ interest and many individuals were to challenge the constitutionality of every aspect of the law, I think they would likely loose. Seriously, on the invidual mandate, the severability issues, the expansion of Medicaid, the penalty provisions, everything – the only thing I could see them winning on is whether or not the federal government could tie continued Medicaid funding for a state to certain participation aspects of the Act by an individual state. I bet the Supreme Court would strike down that one small part as coercive…how could I know all this for sure? Well Sean, I read the future. I am also living in 2011 and have a pretty good feeling about how this divided court is going to rule. Hey if you live in 2013 can you tell me what actually happened?
I bet the opinion ends up being like 83 pages! Wild right, write back and let me know what the court actually did in 2012, I’d love to hear. Thanks! P.S. will you let me know if Obama gets overwhelming re-elected in 2012? It looks like Mit Romney is going to win the primary and it could be a close vote…you’re the best.
Doh!! gotta proof read! I meant to say BACK to the judiciary. They used Article I Section 8, “Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes… to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the united states”. The point I was trying to make (poorly) is that the ruling was based on the idea that failure to comply was not an unlawful act and merely a choice to accept the shared responsibility payment. However, as JJ and the President have both noted since, ACA, having officially been enacted, is now a law. Therefore, the shared responsibility payment is a punitive measure for noncompliance with the individual mandate and thus unconstitutional.
Yes yes yes!!!!!
Full and complete surrender!!
send up the white flag and prepare your resignation Mr Weeper of the House!!
I fail to see the “deal”, all I see is them kicking the can down the road to revisit later.
No win, whatsoever. Just more of the same in a couple on months.
We can end it. All we have to do is stop paying taxes. our forefathers did it when they were being taxed with no representation.
Did everyone read Boehner’s statement? He clearly thinks this is all about saving his and other politicians’ jobs.
Stop giving to charities that feed and clothe and house these immoral leeches that helped elect the people who are destroying our nation. It might sound cold, but the alternative is to give and give and give until you have nothing left for you and your family.
Can you see what the GOP is doing? They are helping Democrats win everything so that we will lose all hope and spirit. Then we will be owned by big government.
The puppetmasters of the GOP would never let the gov renege on its debts. It was all a charade.
Revenue, that’s what we need, revenue. Rah rah re kick em in the knee rah rah rass kick em in the other knee. We won, we won, we won.
This is all so much bull shit, in 1965 the debt was $317.2 billion today $17 trillion, taxes go up and down but spending increased forever. What the hell difference does it make, with all the PC out there we will all be Muslims one day anyway and then Obamacare won’t mean a damn thing and all you women, get in the kitchen and make dinner.
Spinelessness for the RePUBICicans started with Trent Lott. What’s new?
Cruz: “The Dream of Keeping Poor People from Seeing a Doctor Must Never Die”
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — Acknowledging that the government shutdown was coming to an end, an emotional Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took to the Senate floor today to make an impassioned speech, telling his colleagues, “The dream of keeping poor people from seeing a doctor must never die.”
His eyes welling up with tears, Sen. Cruz said, “I embarked on this crusade with a simple goal: to keep affordable health care out of the reach of ordinary, hard-working Americans. And while this battle was lost, that dream — that precious, cherished dream — will live on.”
Reflecting on the government shutdown and near-default that almost touched off a global financial apocalypse, Sen. Cruz said, “We’ll give it another try in a few weeks.”
Sen. Cruz’s closest ally, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) also spoke reverently of the shutdown, calling it “the most expensive Civil War reënactment in history.”
“Unfortunately, once again, the wrong side won,” he said.
Over in the House of Representatives, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) congratulated his colleagues on the deal to resolve the shutdown, telling reporters, “This proves that when we work together, we can come up with a totally unsatisfactory solution to a completely unnecessary crisis.”
But the last word belonged to Sen. Cruz, who ended his emotional speech with a quiet benediction: “Goodnight stars. Goodnight air. Goodnight noises everywhere.”
Sponge Bob Power
The trends that helped elevate a series of cartoonish Republican candidates in 2012, including Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann, have only grown stronger. It is instructive how easily Sen. Ted Cruz has managed to out-crazy Ron and Rand Paul. Who will be able to gather momentum to Cruz’s brand of crazy? Dr. Ben Carson? Allen West?
Republican primary voters have a tendency to make more sober political choices in the end, but the process itself creates a durable image of radicalism and instability. It hasn’t been that long since we had a pretzel-challenged President in the White House explaining that our children is not learning, ignorant of Islam, while waging a war based on lies on the credit card, trying to privatize Social Security and encouraging a greed-fueled, anti-regulation housing bubble as a campaign platform.
Miss him yet?