With less than 48 hours to go before the fiscal cliff, President Obama claimed that his side has the backing of “the majority of the American people including close to half of Republicans” as it pushes a “sensible deal” to raise taxes on upper-income brackets.
“I think it’s important for the American people to understand exactly what this fiscal cliff is because it’s actually not that complicated,” Obama said this morning on NBC’s Meet the Press. “…If we’re serious about deficit reduction, we should make sure that the wealthy are paying a little bit more and combine that with spending cuts to reduce our deficit and put our economy on a long-term trajectory of growth.”
The president said the onus is on Congress to arrive at a last-minute deal.
“You know, we have been talking to the Republicans ever since the election was over. They have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers,” he said. “Yesterday I had another meeting with the leadership and I suggested to them if they can’t do a comprehensive package of smart deficit reduction, let’s at minimum make sure that people’s taxes don’t go up. And that two million people don’t lose their unemployment insurance. And I was modestly optimistic yesterday.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), in a statement responding to Obama’s appearance, said, “Americans elected President Obama to lead, not cast blame.”
“The president’s comments today are ironic, as a recurring theme of our negotiations was his unwillingness to agree to anything that would require him to stand up to his own party. Needed cuts and reforms that the president agreed to just last year were no longer on the table, as he cited an inability to sell them to Democrats,” Boehner said.
“We’ve been reasonable and responsible. The president is the one who has never been able to get to ‘yes,’” he added.
This morning on CNN’s State of the Union, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said he’d been in touch with negotiators, who have been working all weekend.
“There is no deal yet. I continue to hope for a bipartisan agreement today,” Barrasso said.
“What we’re seeing here is a monumental failure of Presidential leadership. The President is the only person with a pen to sign this, and it’s the President’s responsibility to work on something that the House will pass, the Senate will pass, and that he will sign, but he is outsourcing this,” the senator added. “He continues to campaign and lecture when he ought to be focusing on the number one problem that hurts us as a country, which is our debt.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on ABC’s This Week that there’s “a real possibility of a deal” even though there have been no breakthroughs yet.
“I’ve been a legislator for 37 years, and I’ve watched how these things work. On these big, big agreements, they almost always happen at the last minute. Neither side likes to give up its position. They eyeball each other until the very end,” Schumer said. “But then, each side, realizing that the alternative is worse, comes to an agreement. So while an agreement is hardly a certainty, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out at this last minute.”
There is no reason whatever for the government to be operating at all; it has not passed a budget in four years, and therefore no money has been allocated. Obama has no right to spend anything.
If John Boehner had any nerve, he’d be standing tall and running the government, with Reid and Obama crawling to him over broken glass to implement things in dribs and drabs.
And maybe Boehner should also act like he’s the reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte?
The GOP (not just Boehner) is in a very weak negotiating position right now, having just lost a major election and with polls showing that Obama’s approval rating is now thirty points higher than that of Congress.
If Boehner started acting like he’s in charge, half the psychiatrists in Washington DC would say that his mind has snapped due to emotional stress.
You gotta know when to hold ‘em, and know when to fold ‘em. Obama won this round; no point in denying this reality. The GOP should cut its losses, fold on this hand, and try again in 2013.
No.
All revenue bills must originate in the House, under the Constitution.The House has passed bill after bill, budget after budget, and the Senate has refused to vote on them, and Obama has rejected these bills out of hand.
Fine. That means there is no government funding. The Senate has been delinquent in its obligations for four years under Mr. Reid, and Obama has been delinquent for four years—first, by not insisting that a budget be presented to him for signature, and second, by not stomping on Harry Reid until he does what he has been paid to do and has not done.
Barack Obama was not elected Dictator of the United States. His job is to be the errand boy of Congress; to execute the laws that Congress has passed. He has, instead, spent four years on the golf course while spending money he has had no right to touch—the tax money of the citizens of the United States. If Obama cannot get what he wants, if Harry Reid cannot get what he wants, then their job is to come to the Republicans and work out a deal—not to hand out ultimatums which demand that the Republicans fold, as if the mere fact that the Republicans do not control both houses of Congress renders their stance somehow illegitimate.
The Republican candidate for President lost, and the Republicans did not take the Senate. That does not mean that the Republican-held House does not represent the People, nor that the Republican Senators do not represent the legitimate concerns of their states. The notion that the Republicans, by virtue of their not having the Presidency and a veto-proof majority of both houses, do not have legitimate views which must be acquiesced to by the President and the Democrat leadership of the Senate, is nonsense.
Watch the fireworks with the debt ceiling , that’s where we have the cards.
I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that Boehner folds once again.
Between Ol’ Weepy and Chinless McConnell, it doesn’t seem to matter that they can block EVERYTHING by just not going with a CR. DEMAND a budget! Or shut it down!
“Oh, but then people might not like us!!!!”
Well, I sure as hell ain’t in love with you now, and I vote for you idiots! Maybe, for just this once, you should be afraid of me.
The brazenness in which Obama lies still amazes me. You’d think I’d be used to it by now.
I don’t think Obama cares one way or the other. As long as republicans get the blame.
Forward indeed, to Detroit on a federal scale.
America, we have an Obama problem. He is poison for us all.
And why should we care one way or the other?
Just tell us when the deal is reached. This is no fiscal ‘cliff’. This government is on automatic pilot. In two or three months we’ll reach the ‘debt limit’ and it will be summarily raised. Why should I give a rat’s behind what happens this weekend?
Happy new year!!!
Has anyone here actually delved into to what obama has on the table as a “solution”?
In obama’s world the way to decrease the deficit is to lay a 1.2 trillion spending bill on the table of which 75% is new spending. This despite every federal agency we have now is defacto bankrupt.
As a bonus there is 50 billion of new “stimulus” spending, or in obama’s world known as “walking around money” This is a line in the sand? Really? Of course none of the money here goes to people who produce anything of value in the economy. And we all know how well the last stimulus went.
If history is any lesson at all here, then we all know that raising taxes on the source of virtually all the liquid capital creators has a 100% success rate in lowering tax revenue.
What could go wrong?
For years the ‘really big deals’ were made by promising particular votes some bacon. Since we have no bacon any longer its nothing but scraps being offered for votes rendered. That makes deal making more difficult since quite often the votee has to go against the grain of the voters back home – causing consternation amongst them – and no payoff for the vote given. This has the effect of polarizing the congress further. I don’t look for this trend to change any time soon.
On that note the collective noun for a group of baboons is called a congress. No kidding! When you view the entire congress – president – and the MSM in this light it all begins to make sense. We are being ruled by a bunch of baboons! Baboons are about the dumbest of all primates! All the sudden things begin to make sense to me!
The one thing we have learned about O over the past four years is that his word is worthless. If the Republicans want something concrete out of this deal with regard to spending they better get it as part of the law, not something to be “discussed” in some indeterminate future.
The Republicans laid H.R. 8 on the Senate’s table in July. That would have prevented all of this falderol. However, Senator Reid refused to allow it to go to committee, much less come up for a vote on the Senate floor.
Is this necessary, because we are broke! US deploying troops to 35 African countries
http://rt.com/usa/news/us-deploying-troops-order-749/print/
This does however reflect the goals of the Pentagon!
What’s O’Dismal’s plan? Trillion Dollar deficits as far as the eyes can see, no cuts to anything, except pershaps to groups who voted against him, downsizing the military, and unemployment benefits for two years. Oh, and tax the rich so he can take the “capital” out of capitalism. A leftist home run.
and while the pubes bend over and say “thank you sir, may i have another” they should be calling out harry reid as the main culprit in this entire fiasco
no budgets in years
never brings house legislation the the floor
blames mitt romney for being mormon
and on and on…
as far as obama is concerned– he only speaks to his derp voters in words which appeal (via poll-testing) to them so there is no need to get worked up over this
Our govt. has become an overbearing, wasteful,inefficent tyranny of the bureaucrats and the ruling elites; a govt. of, by and for the ruling elites.
Regardless of what the idiots in congress decide, and regardless what our marxist-leninist hate american firster president says or does, the end result will be that the citizenry gets totally screwed over.
Frankly, the states of our union need to begin the process of secession, for that is the only way remaining to remove the tyranny under which we all live.
The ruling elites live by their own “lawful” rules that exempt them from the laws they impose upon the citizenry. They have bankrupted the USA – the country is BROKE, BANKRUPT !!!! and the govt exists solely to futher the power and wealth of those in government.
The Supreme Court invents new ways to “legalize” the unconstitutional acts of our govt.
Secession is now the only path to return to a system in which individual liberties are paramount.
Agreed! But have you read any of the writers here even suggest such a thing. Just like this article…more bitching about how bad the WON is and how such spineless numbnuts the GOPers are but not a thing mentioned as to how this nation can continue going forward…
There is NO answer other than what you suggest or a civil war (which may break out of the WON begins to take away our right to self defense).
Even the threat of secession from the Red States would probably lead to, at least, a Constitutional Convention, in order to iron out differences. No member of Congress should be allowed to be a delegate. What ever they came up with could be accepted by each state, or not.
I’ve been calling for this for forty years, because every step on this path has been so utterly predictable.
What cannot proceed, must fail.
It’s just a matter of when, and how cataclysmically.
I have considered The Won as a domestic terrorist before he took the oath 4 years ago. That is if we can consider him as domestic. Harry Reid is a communist with a bitter attitude, Nancy is a puppet with a big gavel. Someone, fill me in what 90 percent of Congress can be defined as? Why the hell do I go and work my ass off every day?
I think Obama keeps auditioning for a Saturday Night Live gig. He keeps getting disappointed as the entertainment industry doesn’t appreciate his humor, no skits, only an occasional joke, but he keeps plugging along.
If The Stupid Party would have demanded that absolutely all negotiations be carried live on C-SPAN, Obama would have a harder time making his claims.
Instead, The Stupid Party helps him tie the noose around their necks.
I’m starting to see John Belushi smash a beer can against his forehead everytime I see Mitch McConnell or John Boehner on TV.
here is an explication of the “fiscal cliff” that is simple enough that even an affirmative action president can understand it:
http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/2012/12/if-only-congress-understood-the-fiscal-cliff-so-well/
There is a different between wealty, rich, and prosperous. One good year does not a Rockefeller make. The President should learn that. He should also spend more time executing the laws–as Fast and Furious showed–and less time trying to be a unilateral legislature. Unless he is proposing unilateral control over finances, which, as far as the debt ceiling goes, he did.
Charles I would have approved.
– the GOP could oust Crybaby as Speaker.
Democrats think its fair to increase both taxes AND spending, the ones that’re unhappy about it getting irked because half the military budget isn’t be put toward entitlements (and then some). Sorry, folk, we can’t afford it.
If we only raised taxes on the greedy billionaires high enough we could not only fulfill all existing obligations easily but provide food, health care and housing for all.
The greedy 1% have not paid a cent in taxes since the disastrous tax cuts Ronnie Raygun pushed through in the 1980′s at behest of those billionaires who own his party.
Now,if we could only overcome the obstructionist greed of the billionaires this problem we are facing now due to those tax cuts would be easily fixed.
So.
I guess they have email in mental hospitals, now.
What are you in for?
Mathemosis?
Or memory loss?
Yea John J, I wonder if the Throbbin one knows that we provide food stamps, heaith care, heat assistance, etc.,etc. to the populace as it is. Maybe that is why we are in the mess we are in. I hope he actually pays taxes.
This Kabuki theater is getting expensive. Oh the drama! *yawn* Go over the imaginary “cliff” and then get to work. The ONLY way America will wake up is when the pain of actually paying for Øbama is felt. Øbama is expensive. You voted for it, now pay for it.
What is so bad about default anyway? After all,most of the savings bonds and T-Bills are owned by the greedy 1%. Very few of the needy 99% have any assets at all.
I think a good plan would be to demand any money “owed” to the greedy billionaires with their T-bills instead be turned into tax obligations imposed on them. That we, we would not only eliminate the fiscal cliff but we would be on the road to a compassionate society where health care housing, and food would be inalienable rights for all.
I suppose all the smart people are out celebrating New Years Eve about now, and I’m here trying to make some sense of it all. OK Trobbin Yobbin, you do have the right to move out of the country if you so desire, OK?
We all know that the USURPER and his Left Wing moonbat supporters are insane and that their Keynsian economics just do not work. But why are the Repubs playing their moronic games.
The USA has a SPENDING problem not a REVENUE problem that can be solved by increasing TAXES on a select few. With a yearly $1 TRILLION deficit no amount of Tax increases will even come near to reducing that figure.
But they still continue to discuss Tax INCREASES which will have the effect of slowing the economy and making the deficit LARGER. They also insanely and illogically call reductions in the GROWTH of spending CUTS. They are not CUTS it is just INCREASING spending a little slower.
We know moonbats are uneducated morons and swallow this BS hook line and sinker but what hope is left if the Washington Republicans simply follow the FALSE logic and negotiate what would just be a SLOWER death of the US economy.
We can all see what we are up against when you look at the uneducated, uninformed, moronic bleatings of ‘Throbbin Yobbin’ on here. To post the insanity that he does he must firmly believe that ALL money belongs to the Government and that it is only their benevolence that allows you to keep SOME of it. If he does not think this then his posts are just the illogical nonsensical bleatings of a deranged mind. If he does think that ALL money belongs to the Government of course he is living in the WRONG country and should move to North Korea or China ASAP.
But lets examine this further Government is totally funded by direct and indirect Taxation from the public and this wealth is then used to fund Government spending. But wait LESS than 50% of people pay ALL the Income Tax but the MORE than 50% of NON Tax payers get to vote on who the Govt is and how they spend the ‘Makers’ money. Is it any wonder these feckless ‘Takers’ vote such as the USURPER in to power to act as their Santa Claus.
I propose that ONLY Income Tax payers be allowed a vote after all its THEIR money and THEIR property that is at stake.
I don’t see why these Obama loving, Obama voting, ballot stuffing stooges are complaining about the “fiscal cliff.” Shouldn’t they be rooting for us to drive right over the cliff?
For years, all I’ve heard is:
(1) The Bush Tax Cuts put the nation in the ditch
(2) The Bush Tax Cuts only benefited the rich
Lying has become second nature with these useful idiots.
They can tell the difference any more?
Winter comes every year. In Greece, normal folks are burning wood. Everywhere. The normal heating fuel is oil; electricity is also used. Both are in adequate supply, but the cost of energy has recently sky rocketed. Nobody can afford it. Unemployment is high, people do not have the money to heat their homes and work places. So trees are being sawed down in parks, old furniture is being burned in fireplaces.
It is a 19th standard of living. This is what happens when an economy collapses. We elect leaders to prevent this disaster.
But we elected the wrong people.
So over the cliff we go.
This is only because greedy German plutocrats, who are ultimately the cronies of the even greedier, richer plutocrats on Wall Street have imposed a brutal austerity program on the Greek’s once compassionate welfare state. If the Greeks would simply tell the greedy Frankfurt toadies to go to Hell they could once again provide their people with all of life’s necessities.
I would guess that you didn’t pay a dime of taxes last year. Please prove me wrong.
I wish the people of Greece well in 2013. But I care about the USA. We, and the Greeks, have been spending far more than we take in, for decades. At some undefined point, perhaps precipitated by another country, with hostile intentions, the bubble pops. Then brutally hard economic realities crash in, often very quickly, and often very painfully.
Today Greece.
Soon the USA.
The big difference is that billions rely on the military power of the USA, to remain at some level of freedom. There will be a new world order if the US collapses. With 23 million unemployed, with half of our college graduates unable to find work, and of those that can, one half are working at jobs which do not require a college education, e.g. waiting tables, the US is facing real problems.
The fatal weakness of a democracy is that, at some point, we elect the wrong people. The fiscal cliff is simply the result of our November elections.