Instead of focusing like a laser on jobs, as promised, the House belched this up yesterday:
The U.S. House on Tuesday night passed the “cut, cap and balance” deficit reduction plan backed by tea party conservatives but dismissed by President Barack Obama, who offered strong praise for another proposal put together by a bipartisan group of senators.
For the party that seems to detest abortions, they sure do create a lot of them. This one is dead before the ink on it was dry.
BTW- for those of you interested, this DOA bill from the “fiscal conservatives” only reduced the debt by 3.7 trillion over ten years. The people’s budget reduces it by 5.6 trillion and runs a surplus in ten years.
General Stuck
This is the kind of cheap politicking bullshit I predicted when this first began, letting things go to the last second, then maybe getting serious with a serious vote to raise the debt ceiling, and something goes wrong, which is always normal.
Like maybe a single or group of members want this or that for their districts or states, or some other impromptu delay like a blown whip count, that could cause default and the chain reaction of disaster to start accidentally from stupidity, if nothing else.
Redshirt
Makes perfect sense to me. Since facts are what the Media makes them, this vote will morph into something real soon enough – PROOF that the conservatives are fiscally responsible, and that TAX n’ SPEND demoncrat in the White House is out to ruin America.
Only a small, small, small percentage of voters will remember it was all a fraud.
Poopyman
Oh! SNAP!
The only logical conclusion I can draw from this shit is that House Republicans truly are NOT concerned about hitting the debt limit, which, besides being totally consistent with who these faith–based assholes are, is about the worst possible scenario, since they’re not negotiating anything.
(I gotta order another shipment of commas after that.)
Ben Cisco (mobile)
Baggers gotta bag.
MattF
… and note this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/post-abc-news-poll-public-sees-dire-consequences-if-no-budget-deal/2011/07/19/gIQA4MQPOI_story.html
Looks to me like the ‘silent majority’ is getting the picture.
Han's Big Snark Solo
I know many here hate Tweety, but he did a pretty good job of destroying “Cut, Cap and Deceive” last night while simultaneously pushing back on the silly GOP talking point that Obama must put in writing all of his proposed cuts.
How? By pointing out that the “Cut, Cap and Deceive” bill has no cuts. None. It says, “We will cut this amount,” but gives no hint as to what, exactly, they were going to cut. You heard it right, not one single specific cut is spelled out in the GOP plan.
Remember when they couldn’t come up with the 2 trillion in cuts they were demanding? This is worse.
Shirt
Somewhat off topic but accarding to the RAW Story, 1 in 66 americans is psycotic. For all the racket they make, I honestly thought there were more TeaTards than that.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/20/an-unprecedented-1-in-66-americans-is-a-diagnosed-psychotic/
PoliticalHack
Call it for what it really is – “Cut, Crap (on the economy), and Bail (on the American people)”.
Poopyman
@Shirt:
Crikey! That means over 5 million! More than enough to fill Congress.
TK-421
We still don’t have a deal do we? /rhetorical
I would really like it if, oh I don’t know, EVERYONE in Washington DC would look at a calendar right effing now. There is no more time to do a deal. The only solution left is a clean vote, in whatever face-saving form Republicans want it to be.
It deeply disturbs me that the people in power are still trying to do a deal. Look, you failed. Now get over it, because we’ve still got this default thing looming over us. Maybe solve that problem? Pretty please?
I used to joke about checking the water in Washington DC. After watching many/all politicians slowly slip into the practice of Governing By Hostage Crisis, I’m serious- I think there’s something wrong with the water up there, and it’s making everyone insane. Seriously, somebody run some tests on that water.
TK-421
The threat of default (by House Republicans) is IMO credible and imminent. I wonder when Fitch, S&P, Moody’s, et al will start to agree with me. IIRC, it was Moody’s that said last week they’ll put the US under “credit review” if there isn’t a credible plan to raise the debt ceiling/pay our debts.
Their deadline was Friday.
Linda Featheringill
You know, if Obama chose the “constitutional option” this piece of theater about the debt limit would come to a screeching halt and not recur every few weeks or months.
And Congress could still wrangle with revenues and expenditures. In fact, they probably should. But life would go on for the rest of us.
Poopyman
@Linda:
Yes, and I’m wondering if, when it’s clear that time has expired and S&P and Moody’s are about to bring the hammer down, Obama calls a presser and makes the announcement. I don’t think he can do it any earlier without having serious blowback.
And I’m not sure what “serious blowback” is here. The House might want to impeach. The phones at the USSC would light up. Who knows what else.
Kirbster
I have “hostage fatigue”. Ever since the Teahouse of Terror was sworn in last January, every seemingly routine piece of maintenance legislation has become a manufactured crisis that will either shut down the federal government or destroy the economy. Are we really sure that the Tea Party isn’t an Al-Qaeda front group? Because they sure seem hellbent on killing the United States…
Pillsy
The serious blowback for Obama exercising the Constitutional option isn’t political. The Baggers will flip the fuck out the way they do about everything, of course, and there will be copious hemming and hawing from the Very Serious and maybe a few confused progressives who think all exercise of executive power are created equal. In other words, nothing new.
The blowback is that the same markets that are primed to go up in smoke when the US either defaults on its bonds or can’t meet its other obligations are unlikely to be thrilled about the idea of buying debt that is causing a Constitutional crisis by existing at all. It may well be the least bad option at this point, but without some sort of political cover from Congress (which really means the House Republicans at this point), it can hardly be called a good option.
datarat
There is a reason Obama is staying away from the so-called constitutional option…he knows damn well the Teatards would impeach him in a moment as the Kenyan Marxist Dictator. Impeachment would never survive in the Senate but it would make limitless political hay for the GOP, and especially the Tea Party, leading into 2012. Taking the option off the table also forces the House GOP to own their words and deeds leading up to the deficit bill.
Obama is playing this just right. Stay away from the 14th amendment and make the GOP own this issue all the way to the end.
ETA…both the CBS poll yesterday, and the ABC-WaPo poll today, suggest that Obama is indeed playing this just right.
aimai
I get that Obama, for whatever reason, can’t touch the progressive budget. But what the fuck is wrong with the entire rest of the democratic establishment that they can’t rally around the progressive budget and demonstrate to the now apparently receptive public that you could have fiscal sanity *and* grandma’s health care?
My principle objection to the way Obama and the top Dems have handeld this from the get go was buying into the Republican argument that a) debt and deficit were the biggest issues, b) that they couldn’t be handled without severe cuts to social services and entitlements, and c) that there was no way that we could even begin to deal with the problem at all without pain.
When you talk to ordinary people they just don’t get it–they don’t understand why this is happening and routinely think that Obama and the dems were “just not doing their jobs” (in other words, they don’t understand the house’s actual role in legislation on budgets. In addition, they operate on the theory that “there’s no free lunch” and they think that it is the dems who are offering a “free lunch” (no pain) while the Republicans are being responsible (suffering equals responsibility).
Hammering on the House role in this and pointing out that there’s a house alternative (the progressive budget) is somethign that the top dems refused to do. Even now you hear discussion of these last minute discussions the press (including NPR) are unable to point out to their listeners just how dumb this whole thing is, how fake the crisis is.
aimai
chopper
@16:
there’s also the dubiousness of the constitutional option. congress has been passing debt ceiling bills for almost a hundred years, and they’re the ones given the power of the purse by the constitution.
the text of the 14th amendment may sound clear, but it’s history belies something else and i’m sure the scotus would notice.
datarat
@aimai,
I would normally agree with you, but I think we’re seeing another lesson in 11-dimensional chess. It was obvious from the get-go that there were some fractures in the once-unified GOP, and I think that Obama and the Dems have done some very skillful exploitation of this. It’s the independent votes that count, and according to the polls they’re getting the message now…the GOP are the instigators of this wholly manufactured crisis, and the GOP are the ones who refuse to deal because they have a Grover Norquist pledge to uphold.
datarat
@chopper,
Yep. The power of the purse was inferred in my statement. The Teahaddis would be screaming “DICTATOR” at the usurpation of power…power they were willing to hand to Obama a few days ago by backing the McConnell plan.