John Boehner has given up, for now, trying to negotiate a debt deal with Obama because Obama is insisting on a tax increase as part of any deal:
“In the end, we couldn’t connect. Not because of different personalities, but because of different visions for our country,” Boehner said in a letter to colleagues. He said Mr. Obama ” is emphatic that taxes have to be raised” and “adamant that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs.”
TPM is reporting that Nancy Pelosi is moving towards a deal in which there would be significant cuts without tax increases, but no cuts to entitlements:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi acknowledged Friday that Democrats may reluctantly accept a last-minute compromise to avoid a default that involves up to $2.5 trillion in spending cuts — without agreed-upon new tax revenues — if Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are protected from the debt limit brinksmanship.
Oddly enough, I think Pelosi may be onto something. Cuts — more than Democrats want but less than Republicans want — while putting aside the hot button issues of taxes and entitlements, may be the only middle ground that can work. Both sides would get a small victory, and the issue would be front and center for 2012.
Here are the dueling press conferences:
What do you think? Will there be a deal, or no deal? And will Pelosi, of all people, be the one to get it done?
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The eyes of American turn toward Pelosi?
Really?
Obama doesn’t know how to legislate. Normally wouldn’t the Democrats taken the House bill, rewrite it with amendments and what-not to their satisfaction (I think they can change it so much that the only thing that really remains of the house version is the bill’s number) and then take it into the conference committee to thrash out the final bill?
Obama seems to think bills get written in Saturday meetings. He should lay out his red lines and back out of the process.
IOW, cut defense spending.
No deal until after Aug. 2, then some sort of face-saving arrangement. After tonight, I think Obama is scared. I think he’s been angling for the appearance of a brief technical default all along because he’s got a crap economy that is showing signs of only getting crappier, and he desperately needs a way to blame its continuance on the GOP (especially if, God forbid, we get a double dip). But the reality of actually doing it, with all the risks involved, is finally sinking in, and he’s praying the media will force the GOP to cave- which for the first time I can remember, it doesn’t look like they are going to do. So, he’s stuck with his original plan, which looks a little less hot with every passing hour.
Skydiving sounds really awesome, right up until you’re standing in the door. You have every reason to believe things will go your way, but damn, what if they don’t?
You may be on to something. This may be Obama’s best chance at reelection and the Republicans may help him if they don’t play their cards right. It looks like Republicans are too concerned about doing the right thing in the short run and are losing sight of the long run (November 2012 and beyond).
The Republicans understand that they campaigned on the promise of not raising taxes and if they break that promise, they are toast in 2012. The Democrats, on the other hand, never met a big-government program they didn’t love. Just create another agency to make a job for one of their big donors.
We are broke. What can’t Obama understand about that? If he doesn’t understand that we have no more money for his pet projects, then there is no doubt that he is/was never qualified to be president.
And who the hell does Obama think he is “summoning” the Congress to the White House tomorrow. Perhaps he should read that Constitution he has so much disdain for and learn that the Congress, and the office of President, are CO-EQUAL branches of the government.
Here Here! I don’t understand that either.. I would simply instruct my group to take the weekend off. If its not important enough for the Senate.. Why should the Speaker do anything with it over the weekend?
Its time the Congress did its own work. the President has no proper role here at all. He’s had his say.. quit wasting time with him and get the debate out on the house /Senate floors where it belongs. The House owes the President no Explanations.
If Fox News is any indication, the GOP establishment is in a panic even as they watch Obama falling apart. Everyone on Fox so far is arguing for the McConnell plan while attacking the Tea Party with “they don’t understand”. Boehner got NO support from these mostly Weekly Standard big government neocons. Let’s hope Hannity comes through.
The only things Boehner left out of his statement that I would have liked to see are a challenge to Obama to show the public those “records” he invited the reporters to look at claiming that they would prove that he IS negotiating in good faith and making substantial offers.
The other thing was that Boehner could have made a statement pointing out that the most transformative issues in our history are bypassing the constitutionally mandated bicameral process and being resolved in backroom deals where nothing is put on paper among a handful of elites and monied special interests and then presented to Congress for a vote at the last minute without proper scoring by the CBO, discovery and analysis by the elected officials, debate, and then voting.
It is important that now the Tea Party has driven the team to the goal line resist the establishment pod people who always insist on fumbling at the goal line and are now clamoring for us to back off and kick the can down the road. Make Obama cave. Say no to the dirty special interest money and make the decision to bring government back to how it was designed to work in the Constitution.
Besides, the McConnell Plan leads to an immediate downgrade on our sovereign debt. S&P has made it crystal clear that it is not default that they are concerned about but the ability of the US government to address its deep structural problems. Any deal that does not contain credible, long-term measures to reduce the debt and address the needs of the economy to grow will be received unfavorably.
So the bipartisan plan by the our entrenched criminal class is to position for the 2012 election at the expense of the economic catastrophe a credit downgrade would trigger.
I expect the McConnell Plan to die in the House and Obama will invoke the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling by fiat. We don’t have to go there but it’s up to the GOP to call not only Obama’s bluff, but that of the entire one-party establishment. It’s the right thing to do. Let’s not go down without a fight.
Sorry, I forgot that tonight is Hannity’s suck-up party for Jeb Bush.
RELATED: ‘Obama Losing Support From Progressives and Socialists’.
And you have progressive trolls? LOL!! Pasadena Phil. How about Pravda Phil?
You can always tell die-hard partisans, Republicans who hold on to their precious party like a security blanket instead of fighting for principals. Instead of articulating an argument, they issue personal ad hominems. You really don’t have anything important to say do you? Just links to dubious information?
Good Lord, Pelosi making something that approaches sense? Hard to believe, Harry.
“Oddly enough, I think Pelosi may be onto something.”
Don’t speak too soon!
But yes, now’s not the time for cuts in entitlements. Leave that for 2013.
We, myself included, have kept waiting for Boehner and the House leadership to fold on this, but after this week, I don’t think the leadership’s spine is a factor here. I think Boehner simply lacks the votes to do anything other than hold the line. The dems that survived the ’10 bloodbath are in pretty much bulletproof districts, so they have no reason to piss off their base and risk being primaried out by cutting a middle ground deal, allowing Boehner to bypass the TEA party caucus. (Which, by the way, if he tried, would cause an open revolt in his party that might very well cost him the speakership, something he has to know)
I think we are beyond questions of Boehner’s spine. What he’s doing may well be the only thing he has votes enough to do.
At this point, Obama really doesn’t care what he gets, along as it gets him past the election.
At this point, I don’t care what we get, as long as it doesn’t get Obama past the next election.
This says it all:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi acknowledged Friday that Democrats may reluctantly accept a last-minute compromise to avoid a default that involves up to $2.5 trillion in spending cuts — without agreed-upon new tax revenues — if Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are protected from the debt limit brinksmanship.
I can see the 2012 political ads now….Dems are willing to “cross the aisle” to save the country.
They tried, we didn’t, so it will be our fault when everything crashes.
Boehner and McConnell are the wrong “leaders” at the right time. They represent the establishment Republicans who will go along to stay in office. There is little risk to a so called default. Boehner and McConnell will fold because they are afraid of being blamed, while Obama plays golf and blames them at a 14th hole press conference.
Palin rips Obama as lame duck on the budget. http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150246675673435.
0bama will cave…
…he caves on everything…
if he wants a re-election…
….he can’t afford the economy to default and crash
on his watch.
There’s no way he can afford it in the election of 2012
just need to hold the line for like 11 more days. *ws*
1- Pasadena Phil IS a “progressive” troll. Mission is to dishearten non-Democrats. S/he is very good at what they do, and I admire them for that.
2- Q: so where heading? A: civil war over executive assertion of one-branch government. Democrats won’t do any better at this than they did last time. (Last time it was legislative dominion, now it is executive dominion.) But they will make every possible effort to succeed, bar none. They have excellent tactical leadership and a lock on seemingly all resources necessary to win the war. All except one: legitimacy. They are fundamentally lawless. That makes them losers. But not without their inflicting indescribable suffering near and far. This time, however, they have no Lee to surrender their intentions and powers, and there is no Grant to gift them their horses to plow and weapons to hunt.
3- I see nothing of concern and something to applaud: http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1852/article_detail.asp
I’ve seen a blog, Weasel Zippers, that says ‘Turbo Tax Timmy’ may be moving the August 2 deadline to August 10.
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/07/22/geithner-moves-the-goalposts-treasury-says-august-10th-might-be-the-drop-dead-date-not-august-2nd/
1. Sometimes it looks like Obama wants a crisis over the debt ceiling. As Cowboy Curtis says above, he has a lousy economy that will prevent his reelection and doesn’t know what to do except blame someone else.
2. Republicans must carefully consider the limits of their power and the extent of Obama’s power. This is a political battle at this point.
3. Winning, or at least not losing, this political battle is essential for the Republicans. The 2012 election hangs in the balance. Obama’s reelection would be disastrous for the Country.
4. At this point, the House should pass something simple and, if necessary, small. Get as many cuts as possible, make the debt limit increase the same amount, then pass it. Politically, that will put the pressure on the Democrats in the Senate and White House. This may be the best way to do the least damage to the Country considering the circumstances.
5. The only other option available to Republicans is the McConnell plan. It would be bad for the Country, bad for the Democrats, but would probably enhance Republicans’ chances in 2012, unless it angers the base so much that they stay home on election day.
I am SHOCKED that Boehner appears to be standing firm on principle. I was convinced he had fewer convictions than John Gotti.
There is still a lot of time for him to cave between now and August 2nd…
[…] enough, by Friday evening Pelosi was signaling it was heading that way: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi acknowledged Friday that Democrats may […]