In spite of President Obama's continued snow job about how he's 'open to negotiation' to avert the coming 'fiscal cliff' , the stark reality is that he and Harry Reid have no intention of doing anything unless they get everything they want ... a huge $1.6 trillion tax increase (and don't think its going tobe limited to 'the rich'), an additional demand for $50 billion in infrastructure spending and new powers to keep raising the credit card limit (AKA, the debt ceiling) ad infinitum.
Spending cuts? Are you joking?
So when President Obama complains that he's 'tired of negotiating with himself' he's simply lying. He's actually not negotiating at all, the way the term is normally used.The House republicans have put a modest tax increase on the table. They've gotten nothing in exchange form this president except 'not good enough'.
I never thought Mitch McConnell had much of a sense of humor, but he proved me wrong when he laughed out loud at when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined the administration proposal for averting the fiscal cliff...a hard line on huge tax increases and no real solid proposals for spending cuts.
I doubt they'll be any either. After all, this is the administration that couldn't even produce a budget in four years.
This president and his minions absolutely can't get their heads around spending cuts, because to do so would go against their entire worldview and ethos, that all things come from government. It's like asking a junkie with a ready supply of dope paid for by someone else to quit cold turkey.
Another reason it won't happen is that regardless of the dislocation to the economy and the misery it's going to cause for the barely affluent middle class the president claims to be so fond of, he sees it as good politics. Because he feels he can successfully blame the Republicans for it, and given the partisan media, it's not a bad gamble on his part.
This would be the time for Majority leader John Boehner - or somebody - to go public and make a decent speech to the American people explaining this in terms they can relate to and telling them exactly why the Republicans simply can't go along with this. Because it's unsustainable.
I rate the odds on him doing that successfully at maybe twenty percent.
If I were the majority leader, the main thing I would be concerned with is putting the results of whatever happens solely on the president. There's no 'negotiating' with him. Advance a proposal that's iron clad and calls for a fair measure of spending cuts. That way, I could at least say I tried one last time.
When President Obama turns it down, I'd just end it. Let him take the onus for what comes next.
The entire debt ceiling deal that went down the last time this happened was ridiculous anyway, as I said at the time. Basta. No Mas.
If the House Republicans have any leverage, let the president come to them. If not, let's go over that fiscal cliff...but let's make sure there are no Republican fingerprints on it by telling the American people in clear terms why it happened. At this point, deference and courtesy goes out the window.
Either that, or I'd even consider the idea of having every Republican in the House and Senate vote present along with a strong and uncompromising statement of disavowal warning the country exactly what's coming and letting President Obama have exactly what he wants.
Let the people whom voted for this president see what happens.
First of all Rob, you need to stop giving the "American People" any credit at all, as if they were actually "American" or paying attention. Now that "Jersey Shore" is giving way to "Buckwild," there are a new group of nubile hotties and studs to follow and admire on TV. The mainstream media, as you well know, will only report what conforms to the Whitehouse talking points. No hard questions or legitimate analysis will follow. The only option, and I mean only, is to go over the cliff, not raise the debt ceiling, and let the chips fall where they may. I recently read in Inc. Magazine how banks cut off credit lines to entrepreneurs they had long term relationships with because they needed to reign in risk; nearly sinking the businesses in question. The banks cutoff the credit card. Congress owes it to the American people to cut up the credit cards. The Republicans will be blamed, but 100 speeches and press conferences wouldn't change the outcome or public's perception. When bubbles burst, be it tulips bulbs, internet stocks, or government bonds, it just happens one day. No one knows when. You just go to work one day, and the auction fails. And that's it. No one buys. Then all buyers disappear. The shit hits the fan, and prices free fail. Markets freeze. In my tender young age of 48 I have seen this twice in the US stock market. It has happened in Russian bonds and South American currencies. And many other markets. This is what is coming. I can't say exactly when, but please remember you read it here. The crash must happen before things can get fixed. I do hope the crash occurs during Obama's reign, so he can own it. God bless you. And remember to stockpile drinking water, canned goods, dried beans and rice, and ammunition.
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