Why can't Boehner abandon tea party freshmen and do a last minute compromise plan with dems?

[Anonymous]

Seriously, why not? He can't work with the tea partiers at this point. Boehner actually seems like a reasonable guy. Why can't he accept that this group is crippling his party and turn the other direction? I'll bet if he modified the plan he already likes just slightly - just SLIGHTLY - he could get enough dem votes to pass it. And he'd come out looking the hero.

[Anonymous]

Ummm because he wants to keep his speakership???

[Anonymous]

I think his speakership is over if he can't pass a deal. How will failing - as he's currently doing - help him keep his speakership?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, why not? He can't work with the tea partiers at this point. Boehner actually seems like a reasonable guy. Why can't he accept that this group is crippling his party and turn the other direction? I'll bet if he modified the plan he already likes just slightly - just SLIGHTLY - he could get enough dem votes to pass it. And he'd come out looking the hero.

When John Boehner is what passes for reasonable in the GOP, we're in a lot of effin' trouble.

[jsteele]

Boehner has been severely hurt by this. But, I don't think he can lose his speakership until after the 2012 election. So, we are stuck with him for a while.

Also, we may as well get used to this bs because we will be facing the end of the continuing resolution on Sept. 30. I assume they won't get a budget done by then, so we will probably face a series of CRs. I have little hope for our economy at this point. Neither party cares about addressing the real problems. One party only wants to hurt Obama and Obama seem to want to let them do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think his speakership is over if he can't pass a deal. How will failing - as he's currently doing - help him keep his speakership?

Because many in his caucus will applaud his willingness to stick to TP principles - such as they are.

I think he's done as Speaker regardless of what happens, which is absurd, since looked at objectively he's consistently won the conflicts with the Senate and White House. But the House GOP wants everything! Right NOW! In that respect, the're like my 4 yo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Seriously, why not? He can't work with the tea partiers at this point. Boehner actually seems like a reasonable guy. Why can't he accept that this group is crippling his party and turn the other direction? I'll bet if he modified the plan he already likes just slightly - just SLIGHTLY - he could get enough dem votes to pass it. And he'd come out looking the hero.



When John Boehner is what passes for reasonable in the GOP, we're in a lot of effin' trouble.

Oh I absolutely agree. Absolutely. But compared to many of them . . . yeah. He seems reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Obama is going to crack the back of the GOP and I think it is for the good. They need to go back and figure out what they need to be. This is what they needed to do in 2008. Instead they let anger at Obama rule in the form of the tea party. It got them the house in 2010 but at what cost? Now they have a bunch of guys elected to represent that anger.

[Anonymous]

Neither party cares about addressing the real problems.

Oh please. I am so effing sick of this pretense that both parties are to blame. The Republicans made a deal with devil last fall and now we're all paying the bill. Can't blame them for taking the very last shot they had at power, but they sure as hell are to blame for the maneuvering (Citizens United, gerrymandering, voter registration tampering--only a a start of their malfeasance) that gave so much power to this tiny band of ego-driven knuckleheads. The objective of these revered freshman Republicans to derail the government is so transparent that they fall all over themselves to get on camera and gleefully admit that they have no idea how to conduct the job they were sent here to do, and there are citizens out there who cheer their ignorance! If there is no greater example of public education in the U.S. as a complete and utter FAIL, I don't know what is.

These morally bankrupt fools whine that spending is the one and only problem. Cutting spending is the one and only solution. But when presented with a deal that cuts 4 trillion they come back with lame-ass $956 billion? And then they want to bring us all back into this crisis scenario in six months. Indefensible. In-fucking-defensible. And let's not forget that a budget deal is NOT NECESSARY to raise the debt ceiling. It's another demand made by these economic terrorists.

It's Republicans. For the love of this country, please stop prentending otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obama is going to crack the back of the GOP and I think it is for the good. They need to go back and figure out what they need to be. This is what they needed to do in 2008. Instead they let anger at Obama rule in the form of the tea party. It got them the house in 2010 but at what cost? Now they have a bunch of guys elected to represent that anger.

Obama is basically just fine with instituting austerity measures in the middle of the worst recession since the 1930s. By next presidential election, things will be worse, not better (have you seen the latest BEA numbers?). I wouldn't be surprised if the GOP took the Senate and the White House next time around. Malpractice, pure and simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Neither party cares about addressing the real problems.

Oh please. I am so effing sick of this pretense that both parties are to blame. The Republicans made a deal with devil last fall and now we're all paying the bill. Can't blame them for taking the very last shot they had at power, but they sure as hell are to blame for the maneuvering (Citizens United, gerrymandering, voter registration tampering--only a a start of their malfeasance) that gave so much power to this tiny band of ego-driven knuckleheads. The objective of these revered freshman Republicans to derail the government is so transparent that they fall all over themselves to get on camera and gleefully admit that they have no idea how to conduct the job they were sent here to do, and there are citizens out there who cheer their ignorance! If there is no greater example of public education in the U.S. as a complete and utter FAIL, I don't know what is.

These morally bankrupt fools whine that spending is the one and only problem. Cutting spending is the one and only solution. But when presented with a deal that cuts 4 trillion they come back with lame-ass $956 billion? And then they want to bring us all back into this crisis scenario in six months. Indefensible. In-fucking-defensible. And let's not forget that a budget deal is NOT NECESSARY to raise the debt ceiling. It's another demand made by these economic terrorists.

It's Republicans. For the love of this country, please stop prentending otherwise.

The "real problems" are that we're in a recession, that we've been prosecuting two ruinously expensive wars simultaneously, and that we've had a massive tax break across the board for a decade ("to give back the surplus" I might add).

The answer to this is to increase government spending to make up for private demand, not decrease it. Anyone that doesn't understand this is economically illiterate.

Now, as far as the catastrophic possibility that the debt ceiling might not be lifted: this was something that was pretty much pro forma for the last, oh, half century. No one ever thought to hold the debt ceiling (which basically reflects spending that has already taken place) hostage to political interests. That's because it's fucking crazy to do so. It's the equivalent of Bohener being invited to the White House for a photo op, him stealing the launch codes for America's nuclear arsenal, and threatening to nuke France if we don't repeal the "mandate" portion of the Affordable Care Act.

It's fucking nutso. I mean, straight out of a movie nutso.

But, yes, I suppose you're right. Both sides are culpable if France gets nuked. After all, there's no reason that the President and the Senate can't do exactly what a small majority of the House tells them to do on pain of destroying the long-term fiscal solvency of the US.

[Anonymous]

If the GOP gets what it wants - a debt ceiling increase for only a few months, I think they lose this round. I think the American people are smart enough to recognize that for economic stability, this debate needs to be done for a while. Of course, that is precisely what they want so they can try to blame Obama in the 2012 election for all the ills.

All the ills are due to the extreme edges of both parties. I admire the gang of six and cannot figure out why the rest of the jerks can't figure it out.

I think Boehner failed to study what happened to the GOP presidential bid in 1996 after the govt shutdown. Oops.

[Anonymous]

Oh, just to be clear on how this plays out: my guess is that the Democrats will eventually cave to the full menu of anti-stimulative demands that the crazy TP rump of the GOP makes, the Senate will pass 'em, Obama will sign them into law.

That means the economy will be driven further into the shitter up to and beyond 2012, and the Dems will get creamed in the election, including Carter...erm...um...I mean Obama.

Good work guys!

Oh, one last observation, though this is so manifestly obvious that it hardly bears remarking on: the debt ceiling will be raised without a peep throughout the coming GOP administration(s). After all, it would be irresponsible (nay, treasonous!) for the Democrats to play around with the full faith and credit of the US.

[Anonymous]

All the ills are due to the extreme edges of both parties. I admire the gang of six and cannot figure out why the rest of the jerks can't figure it out.

Have you got an argument here, or are we just supposed to bask in the Solomonic wisdom of your cutting the baby in half? Seriously, I'm honestly intrigued...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All the ills are due to the extreme edges of both parties. I admire the gang of six and cannot figure out why the rest of the jerks can't figure it out.

Have you got an argument here, or are we just supposed to bask in the Solomonic wisdom of your cutting the baby in half? Seriously, I'm honestly intrigued...

Ah, the Cult of Balance! Basically a mental shorthand so that you don't have to either a) think; or b) read anything.

...News reports portray the parties as equally intransigent; pundits fantasize about some kind of “centrist” uprising, as if the problem was too much partisanship on both sides.

Some of us have long complained about the cult of “balance,” the insistence on portraying both parties as equally wrong and equally at fault on any issue, never mind the facts. I joked long ago that if one party declared that the earth was flat, the headlines would read “Views Differ on Shape of Planet.” But would that cult still rule in a situation as stark as the one we now face, in which one party is clearly engaged in blackmail and the other is dickering over the size of the ransom?

The answer, it turns out, is yes. And this is no laughing matter: The cult of balance has played an important role in bringing us to the edge of disaster. For when reporting on political disputes always implies that both sides are to blame, there is no penalty for extremism. Voters won’t punish you for outrageous behavior if all they ever hear is that both sides are at fault.

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. As you may know, President Obama initially tried to strike a “Grand Bargain” with Republicans over taxes and spending. To do so, he not only chose not to make an issue of G.O.P. extortion, he offered extraordinary concessions on Democratic priorities: an increase in the age of Medicare eligibility, sharp spending cuts and only small revenue increases. As The Times’s Nate Silver pointed out, Mr. Obama effectively staked out a position that was not only far to the right of the average voter’s preferences, it was if anything a bit to the right of the average Republican voter’s preferences.

But Republicans rejected the deal. So what was the headline on an Associated Press analysis of that breakdown in negotiations? “Obama, Republicans Trapped by Inflexible Rhetoric.”