John Boehner has parties to go to, my friends. This is New Year’s Eve, his most holy holiday. Eric Cantor just announced that the House isn’t waiting around to see whether or not the Senate can hash out a deal. They’re going to start drinking as soon as it gets dark outside. I suggest that you do the same. We’re going over the cliff. And we were SOOOO close to a deal.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Practically speaking, unemployment benefits will cease for a lot of people, right? May I suggest that those of us who can, take a box of food to the closest food bank.
I hope this drowns the teabaggers.
Could Obama call a halt to any home foreclosures for a period of time so the congressional shenanigans can’t cause anyone to lose their home?
No, only those mortgages owned by FNMA which the government owns. The others are privare contracts that the President has no authority to modify. The President isn’t a dictator, a Latin American El Presidente, not yet.
o/t but would like some good news…anyone heard who Obama will pardon this year?
Maybe he could pardon anyone who is in jail for possessing a small amount of marijuana. That would surely save the government some money!
Those of us unable to drink will keep an eye on things.
So, Booman, let’s pretend for a moment that everything we’re hearing about the deal is accurate. Would you vote for this deal?
Does not matter what was in the deal. The tea baggers have no intention of dealing with President Obama.
Sure, why not?
First off, every bit of history we have suggests the WH is lying its teeth off about how much revenue will ultimately be collected. They produce spending cuts that aren’t ever real, taxes that balloon depending on the benchmarks, they scam the GOP every time. Maybe it’s 600B, maybe it’s 900B. Or anywhere in between.
So the Republicans had to scrape to get their carveouts (of nebulous size) for the soon-to-be-deceased rich and the good people of Greenwich, CT. The Dems get their protections for the lower class and the out of work. That’s a more than fair trade. And us in the middle class? We get fucked no matter what they do or don’t decide on. Because contrary to the President’s lies, my taxes are and always were going up this Friday. And so is anyone else working. So it goes.
First off, every bit of history we have suggests the WH is lying its teeth off about how much revenue will ultimately be collected. They produce spending cuts that aren’t ever real, taxes that balloon depending on the benchmarks, they scam the GOP every time.
Remember the one from April 2011? The amazing disappearing $100 billion? There was a left-wing blogospere freakout for about 48 hours, and then silence as people started to realize what just happened.
Remember in 2009, when they hid a cut to military spending by brining some of the war spending into the Pentagon budget? “What do mean defense cuts? The DoD budget it even bigger than last year!”
I don’t know about “scam the GOP every time,” but they certainly do have some crafty accountants.
Fuck it. The rich see their tax hike expire, the public blames the GOP for everything, and we can pass a middle class tax cut.
Awaaaaaay we goooooooooo…..
Agree.
Tomorrow Pelosi puts up a bill with just tax cuts for up to 250k and for extending unemployment. Let the Repubs vote it down.
Then put another up on the 3rd. Let the Repubs put up their own bill.
Pelosi can no more put up a bill in the House than you can.
She can try and let the Republicasns block her.
That said, I was also in favor of a deal tha broke their will, for the reasons Booman articulated.
And the President’s campaign stunt was 100% designed to be the nail in the coffin. Anybody pretending otherwise is either a liar or a fool.
This is what they now indisputably wanted. So if you’re gonna bitch about the policy implications (which are hardly immediate anyway), you have to countenance the fact that this is what the White House, the House GOP, the House Dems, the Senate Dems and frankly everybody in Washington except for Mitch McConnell and a half dozen Blue Dog senators secretly wanted.
They can cut the same deal on Wednesday and call it a bazillion dollar tax cut. It’s all bullshit.
Who is Boehner kidding? He started drinking at 9 AM this morning. Assuming, that is, he ever stopped from last night.
ok. so I’m gonna be moving next week. so gonna have to try & spend as little money as possible so if my moms unemployment stops ill just have to tighten my belt a little. still at least I’m going back home to Louisiana (7 years after Katrina) & I’ll be closer to my moms too.
Happy New Year everybody!
Orange Julius’ most holy holiday..
BWA HA H AH AH HA HA HA HA HA
.
In 30 min. we’ll hit the New Year and join family and friends. I’ll leave the fireworks to the neighbors this year or the few Chinese families running a restaurant.
BEST WISHES TO ALL
Happy New Year, Oui!
Are we really upset that this is horrible deal, but it’s just posturing?
Or are we really, really, really upset it’s a horrible deal and that’s the truth?
There’s a very real possibility that the far right really believes driving everything into the ground is a good idea. They’re kind of hung up on end of the world stuff anyway.
It will be interesting to see the Bond Vigilantes show up at Speaker Cantor’s office.
Today would have been my grandmother’s 75th birthday. She died 7 years ago after Katrina. She’s buried in Thibodaux, La since at the time of her death no one was able to return to NOLA and the place where she had a plot was literally underwater.
Anyway, my fam visited her grave in Thibodaux and placed some flowers on her grave…so bittersweet today.
Happy New Year everyone and RIP and Happy Birthday to my granny Beulah.
Happy New Year and best wishes to you and your family.
I’ll drink a toast to your granny’s shade tonight. That is sincere.
Okay, so I guess 1 Jan 2013 is the official date when the GOP totem is changed from the ELEPHANT to the LEMMING.
And off of that cliff we go!
Since you posted why Obama thinks he’s winning, it’s only fair to post why Republicans think they’re winning:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/31/why-some-republicans-think-theyre-winning
-the-fiscal-cliff/?wprss=rss_economy&tid=pp_widget
I don’t suppose it occurred to them that Obama had a weaker bargaining position when he still had to win an election ostensibly as a post-partisan deal-maker, minimally as a non-scary, non-angry Black man. What potential consequences would he face now for telling the GOP to go Cheney themselves? Might that strengthen his position a tad?
Morans…
Democrats win key tax fights in emerging fiscal cliff deal
Question: so I thought the outrage was over cuts of SS/Medicare, but I don’t see those cuts. So that has been completely forgotten over the $400K bit?
Hey, if you’re gonna freak out over the Caver-In-Chief betraying the base yet again, you’ll toss aside all the clubs that have shattered in your eager hand and grab whatever remaining cudgel you can find.
The difference between $250k and $450k is one target of the freakout. Frankly, that’s small potatoes in terms of revenue.
Another argument I’ve seen is that there will be new negotiations over the sequester cuts between now and March, and the Democrats no longer have the leverage of the Bush tax cuts expiring.
That’s true, but on the other hand, the Republicans will not have the leverage of the middle-class tax cuts, the green energy tax credits, and the Unemployment Insurance extension expiring, so that looks like roughly a wash to me.
I like the analysis in an essay in DailyKos published today, 12/31/12 titled, “A dose of Reality; In other Words I trust President Obama”.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/31/1175122/-A-Dose-of-Reality-In-Other-Words-I-Trust-President
-Obama
I think Team Obama was worried that the fragile recovery could be sent into a tail spin with the double dose of 2 million jobless Americans being thrown off Unemployment Compensation at the same time middle class tax rates kick in. The Republicans know this too but the reality is today’s GOP is simply put vicious, immoral and really don’t care if the economy worsens.
Here’s the money quote from the article referencing Jonathan Chait’s essay on GOP “hostage taking”.
*And therein is the exact problem. President Obama does care more about damage to the country than the Republicans do. He would rather compromise on policy, and give Republicans some of what they want, rather than risk the greater, and immediate, harm that can easily occur if he refuses to yield. Simply put, as Matthew Yglesias explains in Slate, it’s the balance of potential harm in the future that can still be corrected vs. immediate harm that cannot*