I am really starting to enjoy this:
House Speaker John Boehner painted a bleak picture Sunday when talking about fiscal cliff negotiations between the White House and Republicans.
“Right now I would say we’re nowhere. Period. We’re nowhere. We’ve put a serious offer on the table by putting revenues up there to try to get this question resolved, but the White House has responded with virtually nothing,” Boehner said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Boehner said the reason negotiations are going so poorly is that Obama administration officials – in particular, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner – aren’t taking Republicans seriously. Boehner said he was shocked at Geithner’s proposal to Republicans last week.
“I was flabbergasted. I looked at him and I said, ‘You can’t be serious.’ I’ve just never seen anything like it,” Boehner said.
Geithner made the rounds of the morning talk shows and basically offered no quarter.
It would have been better if Obama proposed lowering the Medicare eligibility age, just to fuck with them (yes it’s good policy but obviously wouldn’t go anywhere at this time).
And a pony for the South Lawn.
Pony, yes!!! or unicorn
I think N. Korea found some unicorns so it is a possibility.
Malia would look good on it.
Good thought. Maybe he will do it, yet.
Absolutely! It should be the same as the minimum Social Security age. How can someone retire at 62 on a reduced annuity and still pay for health insurance?
theoretically raising the medicare age won’t have as much of an impact with Obamacare; if the person can’t afford the insurance, the subsidies would kick in.
But I’d rather lower the medicare age a few years just to get going on what will inevitably occur: medicare for all.
I think it’s a good idea because it would set the precedent to slowly lower the eligibility age. Any angle we can use the better to get Medicare for all.
They really should be taking the party of Fox News, diaper Dave Vitter and Freedom Fries more seriously.
“While Boehner admitted that going over the fiscal cliff would be detrimental to the economy, he said out-of-control spending is mortgaging the future of the next generation and must be reined in.’
Ok, orangeman. Show us your cuts.
Well said; I hope the Administration is taking notes.
Lovely, isn’t it?
So, if no deal is reached before the end of the year, will the GOP be willing to vote for tax breaks next year? Or will signing on to the OBAMA tax breaks be too much for them to handle?
I soooo hope you are right and that O is not getting ready to cave on earned benefits or taxes and call it bipartisanship.
and there’s precedent for that?
There’s gobs of precedent.
Oh, wait – did you mean Obama actually doing stuff like that, or people accusing him of it?
Sorry
yes, that’s my troll-response
That is so 2009. Get with the program, man.
George Stephanopolis tried to drag Geithner down into the pigpen by asking him not once, but twice, if Mitch Mc Connell actually laughed out loud when the offer was made. Geithner ignored the cattiness and went on to explain how the Obama plan was set up to work. George gave up and focused on other details of the deal, Jeez, what a dick Ol Stephanopolis is!
I think Republican constituents must be getting tired of this sad refrain. The Republican leaders didn’t know they would lose the election! The Republican leaders didn’t think the President would threaten to let them plunge over the fiscal cliff! They didn’t know their own party doesn’t have a plan for a budget! What do they know?
Well, for starters, Obama won. He’s got your party by the short hairs and your “leaders” had better start pulling themselves back to the negotiating table before they become totally irrelevant. No more capitulations and no more stalling.
I didn’t care to see any other talk show nonsense. One was more than enough.
George S works for ABC, enuff said.
But the republican party has no leaders, unless you count the Kochs, etc. it’s totally bizarre.
Remember, George Stephanopolis is a Rhodes Scholar. And the eight or so Rhodes scholars that I know in the public arena are all fairly accomplished people.
The way he talks I have a hard time thinking he’s a High school scholar.
It’s hard to believe that Snuffleupagus worked for a Democratic White House.
Why? Dick Morris worked for a Democratic WH, also, too. As smart as Clinton might be, he’s done some very stupid things in his day.
Morris was an acknowledged Republican hired for his supposed general political knowledge. GS (Hmmm same initials as Goldman Sachs) was supposed to be a Democrat and White House spokesman for a populist Democrat.
I can’t remember his name right now, the fat Republican guy yesterday (he’s a regular) on the McLaughlin Group sounded more Democratic with his “To Hell with the tax breaks at the top, they will still be rich, let’s go over the cliff. It’s better for Middle America.”
Mayhap the Clintonistas are jealous of the Obama administration’s accomplishments? Which is to say, Obama Derangement Syndrome doesn’t just affect Republicans.
When we had a fragile economy with an election on the horizon, the Republicans could obstruct with no penalty whatsoever while at the same time offering no alternative except for us to capitulate to their demands. The only way to break this is to call their bluff both on taxes and the debt ceiling. Having bad things happen if they refuse can be good if an organized effort is made in targeted Republican house districts to pin the blame for those bad things squarely on them, this time by name, to extract a real local political price. The individual house member then becomes more reasonable or simply gets voted out of office, either way, it’s a win. This could get ugly but maybe it needs to.
Yeah, that Geithner. What a joker!
Because, after all, who is more jovial than a banker?
On the first day of Christmas, Geithner came to say $1.6 T in taxes anyway.
On the second day of Christmas, Geithner came to say $1.6T in taxes and a 10% billionaire surcharge anyway
On the third day of Christmas, geithner came to say $1.6 T in taxes, a 10% billionaire surcharge, and financial transaction tax anyway.
On the fourth day of Christmas, Geithner came to say $1.6T in taxes, 10% billionair surcharge, financial transaction tax, and end the payroll tax cap anyway.
On the fifth day of Christmas, Geither came to say “Whee, the Fiscal Cliff”
End the payroll cap, financial transaction tax, 10% billionaire surcharge, and $1.6 T in taxes anyway.
On the sixth day of Christmas…
I like it, it’s catchy.
Me, too. It’s got a great beat, and I can dance to it.
Let me translate that:
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”
There, that’s much clearer.