I’m not too informed about the other hostage situation involving the Federal Aviation Administration. But I do know that we cannot continue to reward the Republicans for acting crazy. It’s one thing to bend in order to save the global economy. But it’s quite another to bend in order to keep the FAA from furloughing employees and postponing planned projects. If the Senate folds on this, Obama should veto it. In fact, Obama should throw a raging tantrum and ask the House to come back from their recess to deal with the problem. Now is a perfect time to take a stand. The public is already fed up with Republican intransigence. They’re primed to take the side of aviation workers over these thugs who are compromising the safety of air travel.
Senate Ready to Cave on FAA
I was about to say: could someone explain this situation?
Two bills.
Long term funding bill ran into this:
So they tried for a short term stop gap. The house GOP stripped out the rural air service subsidies which pissed off fly-over Democrats in the Senate.
How much in subsidies are we talking about?
$16.5 million – which is to say nothing. They mean to ratfuck the unions one way or another.
Of course, this is costing millions in lost taxes. 4,000 FAA workers are still doing airport safety without pay.
I don’t know if the House can be called back for this. If it was, would the Repubs block funding the FAA?
Is that a stupid question? It’s why the FAA wasn’t funded last week.
I don’t know — Obama already is calling this “another Washington-inflicted wound on America.” If Obama can’t ever bring himself to tell it like it is, instead of covering for the real perps by blaming everything on a city, I don’t see where he leaves himself space to take a stand. If the villain is “Washington”, how does the public have a side to take? Obama is setting up government instead of rightwing ideology as the problem, thus once again undercutting the progressive message and advancing the GOP’s foundational meme.
Obama is speaking to the country. The mess has been happening in Washington. People don’t want to hear Obama blaming the Republicans. The Republicans aren’t perps. They are members of a US political party. They are US citizens. They aren’t an enemy, they have a radical point of view that is as old as the US. Obama is president of the entire country. I don’t like the Republicans and think they were trying to damage the country. I can say nasty things about them. I’m not in a position of responsibility like Obama and so it doesn’t matter if I… Read more »
HAHAHA.
You’re right, it’s NEVER a good idea to blame the actual culprits. Too partisan. Party politics should NEVER be partisan.
FDR never shied away from blaming republicans. ever. neither did truman. neither did clinton.
ahem:
ahem:
and by the way, the Republicans ALWAYS call out the democrats by name. ALWAYS. Yet somehow, that’s off limits to Obama? BULL. Fucking. SHIT.
Timing is everything. Both of these speeches occurred in conventions in which candidates were throwing red meat to the base. They were when Roosevelt and Truman were acting in their role as head of the party. Find some clips where they spoke to a general audience as President and spoke in a partisan manner. And just wait for when Barack Obama hits the campaign trail again and the people will allow him to speak in a partisan manner. The Republicans being able to do what they do depends on the enablement of the Village. Were Barack Obama to do this… Read more »
I like how you completely ignored the part about how “republicans ALWAYS attack democrats by name.” I’ll add “often in the most partisan language possible.”
This led to a Gore defeat, a Kerry defeat, and the 2010 debacle.
I didn’t ignore it. I said there was a double standard in how the media responds to them. IOKIYAR is a guiding principle in the Republican-controlled corporate media. Maybe you haven’t noticed that this is even true of MSNBC. Morning Joke has more “gravitas” with the network than the prime time lineup of liberal voices. We’re just a market. And you saw how it was OK to racially attack Barack Obama during the health care debate, even show up outside his Town Hall meetings packing heat. This was unprecedented in post-World War II politics. The media yawned. Just guess what… Read more »
Tell that to our only 3-plus term president, FDR; he was notorious for eviscerating the Republicans.
And that’s been Obama’s mistake from day 1. As Booman likes to say, ‘Now the stupid has been weaponized.’ But that’s as much Obama’s and the Democrat’s fault as McCain’s. They allowed it to metastasize without calling it out for what it truly was: batshit insanity.
So you’re saying Obama can’t do what Reagan and Bushes routinely did because he’s black? If that’s true, you’re saying the country made a mistake electing a black president — any black president. Would that apply to hispanics, asians, gays, and all other not-white heteros?
You really think Obama can’t tell the absolute truth that the Reps unilaterally created the “Debt Limit crisis” because he’s black? Wow.
So when he takes to the campaign trail it’s not going to be “Washington” (of which he himself is the most prominent resident) is not the problem after all, but the Repubicans? I don’t like it when my side puts all its bets on the American memory hole.
Interesting. Obama’s “base” scorns him for not calling out the culprits meanwhile his “base” blame him for Republican behavior and pretty much everything that’s wrong with the country. “Yeah Republicans do this, but its all Obama’s fault for not……” How does that work?
The base doesn’t blame him for what Republicans do. Some of us blame him for not blaming the Republicans for what they do. I don’t see the contradiction at all.
So how is it that Republican people love to hear the Dems blamed for pretty much everything, and are motivated to vote by all the angry rhetoric? But the Dems are supposed to just cover for the bad guys and pretend this is all some city’s fault? If Obama and the Dems are going to adopt no-fault politics they might as well just hang up the towel. This is not “one nation”, never was. Acting on the assumption that the silly myth is true is just self-defeating foolery. We are in the midst of a genuine class war in this… Read more »
. This is my earlier comment … FAA furloughs 4,000 workers after funding expires, congressional ‘inaction’ (The Hill) July 23, 2011 – About 4,000 FAA employees are now furloughed without pay, according to the FAA, as the Senate failed to approve a controversial House-passed extension of taxes that help fund the FAA. “The FAA employees who will be furloughed perform critical work for our nation’s aviation system and our economy,” FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement. “These are real people with families who do not deserve to be put out of work during these tough economic times.” Senate… Read more »
Now is a perfect time to take a stand.
We’ve had a lot of times over the past year when that was true. I’ll believe it when I see one.
It seems like it has been determined that the best time to take a stand is always “tomorrow”.
Democrats gotta keep their powder dry, Steven!!
president orphan annie and the Tomorrow party.
wasn’t that clinton’s theme too? don’t stop thinkin’ about tomorrow?
Yep, they is been fairly warned. Come tomorrow we gonna double-dog dare them Republicans. You just wait and see. Just wait till tomorrow. We’ll show ’em then!!
yeah, you just wait, we’ll show them.
really, THIS time, WE MEAN IT. Stop laughing at me, or I’m gonna… I’M GONNA STAMP MY FOOT AND POUT.
Obama should throw a raging tantrum
bwahahahhaha
Oh please Mr. Boo. Think Obama gives a frack about thousands of FAA workers laid off????
rriiiigggghhht. Where’s he been up til now on this thing? In his caving in, bipartianship little bubble.
So the title of the article is that Dems cave – which would mean that these workers get back to work and your comment is that Obama doesn’t care about FAA workers being laid off?
Where’s he been? WTF? THE ENTIRE GOT DANG MEDIA HAS BEEN CONSUMED BY THE DEBT DEAL. DO YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T SEE IT BEING REPORTED THAT OBAMA ISN’T DOING ANYTHING?
What the hell is wrong with people. Hello, LOGIC and SANITY?
Bet you never noticed that he signed a vitally important deal with the Auto manufacturers on Fuel efficiency last week.
Just because the media hasn’t bothered reporting it does not mean He is not doing stuff, ya know. And he is not the only person in the government with the power to deal with stuff.
I do believe in August it is time to unleash the Biden.
“As we learned with this big deal we’ve just done, sometimes you have to step back and find out what’s best for the country and not be bound by some of your own personal feelings.” – Harry Reid Lesson learned by the Democrats: We have to capitulate for the good of the country. Lesson learned by the Republicans: Hostage taking is a great strategy. They’ll have their entire agenda passed with Democratic votes by November 2012, after which they’ll quite probably win the presidency and the Senate. Lesson learned by the voters: Democrats are incapable of governing. It really doesn’t… Read more »
There ought to be a rule. When Fox says something and they are the only ones saying it ti should be checked for truthiness. Based on this statement to NPR I would say Harry is not about to cave. The Federal Aviation Administration has been in a partial shutdown mode since July 22. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the shutdown will continue, with some 4,000 federal workers remaining on furlough. “It’ll be closed until… maybe not September, maybe more than that,” he tells All Things Considered co-host Michele Norris. The FAA shutdown continues despite the end of weeks… Read more »
in the same paragraph?
“Senate ready to cave”?
Dude, what you mean is “senate engaged in Obama-style negotiation”.
“obama should throw a raging tantrum”?
Let me remind you about “no drama obama”.
“take a stand”?
HAHAHA. That would mean fighting and partisanship, and THAT we know, is a no-no.
keep keeping your powder dry, booman. keep your powder dry. It’s not the end of the world.
I mean, SOMEONE at this site has to be able to articulate why this is a win for the president too, right?
Losing is the new winning, get with the program
loserswinners!“Obama-style negotiation” – give the other guy everything he wants and then ask if he’s SURE he doesn’t want anything else.
Did you even read the piece posted by Oui?
You have to give Republicans credit for when they want their way, they do whatever it takes to get it. They want to screw unions so its go after rural airport funding for Rockafeller, Baucus, and Reid unless they cave on Union rights. This is how the game is played but we get “compromise is so awesome” kumbaya crapola instead. Obama veto and take a stand? Seriously? hahahaha His Administration can not even call out Fox News, the enemy pretending to be news, for more than a few days before they cave after all the other journalists started crying and… Read more »
when we got into the car to leave my father-in-law’s funeral, and it wouldn’t start. Tow truck man says it’s your timing belt, cost of repairs on whether we need a new engine. Turns out, we need a new engine… $5,600.
More than the car’s worth.
Not our best day ever.
I’m sorry to hear about your loss.
It might not be a bad idea get a second opinion on the car.
Well, we have broken timing belts in common. I hope that’s where the commonality ends, because our car is not worth that much either.
very sorry to hear, my condolences
Some interesting comments over at tpm: think there’s more to this than everyone here seems to be assuming (though not without cause). From the link kw87776 provided below (http://bit.ly/o4DesK – Aviation Week), it appears that part of the rural svc subsidy issue is for Nevada (“personal issues”), that the House put that in to get leverage on Reid, that Reid is willing to let go of that subsidy IF the House gives up the union issue (“…I’m willing to give that up, and I hope the other side will do the same.”). So, I may be wrong, but Reid may… Read more »
Reid is a union man.
But that story you linked to doesn’t say anything like that. It implies that he’s caving to the GOP.
it’s in the comments that I quoted, not in the story. the commenters say Reid’s offered to “cave” in exchange for deleting the union-busting provision (that a non-votes be considered a “no”). sort of like the Minnesota situation.
now I can’t even get the comments to show up so I understand why my point wasn’t clear at all. but looks like they couldn’t reach an agreement. I assume the dems will hold out against the union busting provisions; it’s clear all the “fiscal responsibility” talk is just a union-busting ploy as usual
Democrats Caving! I’m shocked! Shocked, I say.
This… Is… The Problem. Obama will not veto the legislation because he won’t risk alienating the Independent voters for whom he thinks he needs to win re-election, thereby alienating his base for whom he definitely needs in order to win re-election.
It’s madness… and suicide.
Warren 2012
Every time he concedes, and that’s been every time he’s had the opportunity, he sets up the next hostage crisis. This is exactly what we who are unhappy with Obama keep saying. It’s crisis after crisis, and it will just keep happening. The Repukeliscum know that they have a guy who is going to fold, and they set up the situation. Until Obama calls a spade a spade, mobilizes public opinion, and refuses to go along with blackmail, it will keep happening. This situation was caused by the tax deal, and by Obama’s frequent, unnecessary, and totally ineffective folds in… Read more »
. Congress Off on Vacation. REALLY? (ACI-NA Greg’s blog) – Let’s stipulate the two houses disagree about the National Mediation Board issue. Fine. But nothing is going to get done the next five weeks anyway. Why not at least extend the authorization till they get back to town? No one loses anything, they can resume the fight when they get back. But, as much sense as this makes, they didn’t do it. “REALLY???” They didn’t authorize the FAA so 70,000 workers are in danger of losing their jobs building the infrastructure everyone seems to agree we need. “REALLY?????” "But… Read more »
small regional airports who VOTE REPUKELISCUM.
Where is the effort to get the business community in those areas to call out the turds on the Repukeliscum side? In Sioux Falls, we are fixing our airport, and the snow begins in mid-October. We have 4 months of stuff to fix in 3 months, and this idiotic shit is killing us.
Why haven’t the Democrats, and Obama, gotten a conference call together about this?