No plan, no problem

[michstfr]

Back in March of 2009 the White House demanded to see a budget plan by the Republican MINORITY in the House. Claiming that is the only way they, meaning the Republicans, can show they can be a responsible party that can lead. When the Republicans in the House produced a budget (again they were a minority party incapable of passing anything anyway)it was mocked by then White House Press Sec Robert Gibbs for being too vague. CNN reported Gibbs said this about the 19 page blueprint it "...has more pictures of windmills than charts."

Turn the clock ahead now 2+ years later. The Democratic majority in the Senate has not passed a budget in MORE then TWO YEARS. Furthermore the President's budget went down 97-0. And during the debt limit negotiations the President has not proposed 1 SOLUTION. Not one. Mind you the Republican House has passed a budget, and then passed a plan called Cut/Cap/Balance. And they are about to pass another compromise authored by the Speaker John Boehner.

The issue is how the White House now reacts to NOT HAVING A PLAN when the shoe is on the other foot. A couple of days ago Chuck Todd asked current WH Press Sec Jay Carney why hasn't the President produced a plan. Carney's response to that was: "That is just a Republican talking point."

Oh how convenient Jay, it is a Republican talking point to ask why the President has not produced a plan a few days from the debt ceiling being reached?

Today Ed Henry, formerly of CNN now at Fox News, asked Carney if both the House and Senate passed the Boehner plan would the White House veto it and cause a default. Carney's response: "I know you are creating a thing here for Fox."

In other words, "Debt Limit plan for Thee not for Me."
This post was edited on 7/28 1:45 PM by michstfr

 

[Merge]

It is a talking point. People are giving more credit to the group of partisan politicians who wrote a bill that has ZERO chance of passing than to Obama for sitting with Boehner and Mcconnell trying to find the room in the middle.

The new bill lets us have this fantastic debate again in 6 months.

Reid's plan is basically what republicans initially wanted and it is full of compromise. The left moved right and the right moved further, and only want to talk about how the president doesn't have a plan.

The presidents plan was to work it out WITH the republicans who walked away. His only failure of leadership here was expecting the republicans to work with him, and do what the far majority of the country thinks is the right thing to do.

 

[SPK145]

Originally posted by Merge:
The presidents plan was to work it out WITH the republicans who walked away. His only failure of leadership here was expecting the republicans to work with him, and do what the far majority of the country thinks is the right thing to do.

That depends on what partisan news media you follow. Others report it was Obama who moved the goalposts on already agreed upon revenue increases.

No plan = no leadership.
Bad plan = bad leadership

Both have gotten us to this point and ALL of the plans currently on the table do NOTHING to solve it.

 

[HALL85]

Originally posted by Merge:
It is a talking point. People are giving more credit to the group of partisan politicians who wrote a bill that has ZERO chance of passing than to Obama for sitting with Boehner and Mcconnell trying to find the room in the middle.

The new bill lets us have this fantastic debate again in 6 months.

Reid's plan is basically what republicans initially wanted and it is full of compromise. The left moved right and the right moved further, and only want to talk about how the president doesn't have a plan.

The presidents plan was to work it out WITH the republicans who walked away. His only failure of leadership here was expecting the republicans to work with him, and do what the far majority of the country thinks is the right thing to do.

I didn't realize that showing up and "expecting" someone to work with him is an example of demonstrating leadership. Well he sounds like a typical government employee to me. Show up and punch the clock and that's good enough for a pay check....lol

 

[Merge]

Originally posted by SPK145:

Originally posted by Merge:
The presidents plan was to work it out WITH the republicans who walked away. His only failure of leadership here was expecting the republicans to work with him, and do what the far majority of the country thinks is the right thing to do.

That depends on what partisan news media you follow. Others report it was Obama who moved the goalposts on already agreed upon revenue increases.

No plan = no leadership.
Bad plan = bad leadership

Both have gotten us to this point and ALL of the plans currently on the table do NOTHING to solve it.

Obviously, none of us will ever know what was said... but walking away over 400 billion in increased revenues over ten years rather than continuing negotiations seems rather childish. It was a negotiation, not the kind of thing where you talk your toys and go home.

This is only about "winning" right now. It is incredibly sad.

Even worse, it is blatantly obvious the direction the majority of the country wants to go and not one single republican has acknowledged that. Republicans are really shooting themselves in the foot right now and setting themselves up for disaster in 2012.

This is the breakdown of the cuts proposed. The only major difference right now is if we should start this bullshit debate over again in 6 months to gain political capital.

 

[Merge]

Originally posted by HALL85:

Originally posted by Merge:
It is a talking point. People are giving more credit to the group of partisan politicians who wrote a bill that has ZERO chance of passing than to Obama for sitting with Boehner and Mcconnell trying to find the room in the middle.

The new bill lets us have this fantastic debate again in 6 months.

Reid's plan is basically what republicans initially wanted and it is full of compromise. The left moved right and the right moved further, and only want to talk about how the president doesn't have a plan.

The presidents plan was to work it out WITH the republicans who walked away. His only failure of leadership here was expecting the republicans to work with him, and do what the far majority of the country thinks is the right thing to do.

I didn't realize that showing up and "expecting" someone to work with him is an example of demonstrating leadership. Well he sounds like a typical government employee to me. Show up and punch the clock and that's good enough for a pay check....lol

CEO's don't come up with everything themselves.

If your CEO asked you for X and tells you under no circumstance is Y acceptable... and you keep bringing him Y... where exactly does that put you?

Then you see that your shareholders ALSO want X, and you bring Y part 2? Really?

 

[michstfr]

Baloney.

He did not come up with a plan because he does not want to "offend" anyone while he is running for relection.

It is purely politcal not part of some grand scheme to be above things.

And the point is why is it a joke when a minority party does not have a budget but a talking point when the President has NO plan?

The guy is full of nothing but talking points. Right, the write off of corporate jets is the reason why we have a 1.6 trillion dollar budget deficit.

The guy is a fraud. He is not a serious person, never has been. If he was serious he would have had his party produce a budget, never did. That is a disgrace.

2011 Democrats controlled everything yet became the first Congress since the budget act to not produce a budget. Now he has no plan but it is the R's fault for not compromising.

 

[HALL85]

Originally posted by Merge:

Originally posted by HALL85:

Originally posted by Merge:
It is a talking point. People are giving more credit to the group of partisan politicians who wrote a bill that has ZERO chance of passing than to Obama for sitting with Boehner and Mcconnell trying to find the room in the middle.

The new bill lets us have this fantastic debate again in 6 months.

Reid's plan is basically what republicans initially wanted and it is full of compromise. The left moved right and the right moved further, and only want to talk about how the president doesn't have a plan.

The presidents plan was to work it out WITH the republicans who walked away. His only failure of leadership here was expecting the republicans to work with him, and do what the far majority of the country thinks is the right thing to do.

I didn't realize that showing up and "expecting" someone to work with him is an example of demonstrating leadership. Well he sounds like a typical government employee to me. Show up and punch the clock and that's good enough for a pay check....lol

CEO's don't come up with everything themselves.

If your CEO asked you for X and tells you under no circumstance is Y acceptable... and you keep bringing him Y... where exactly does that put you?

Then you see that your shareholders ALSO want X, and you bring Y part 2? Really?

If I didn't agree with the CEO, I'd either continue to justify my "Y", with the understanding that I might be fired or do the wrong thing just to suck up to my boss and keep my job. I know the President can't fire Boehner, but he if he is not getting what he is asking for, he can certainly propose "X" to his board without his employees help if that's what his board really does want. That would be leadership. We've already established that BO doesn't have much if any of that.

Can you imagine a CEO telling his board, "I can't present what you want because one of my employees won't do what I asked him to do".
This post was edited on 7/28 5:51 PM by HALL85

 

[SPK145]

Merge,

It's always about "winning". For both parties. You know that.

If $400 billion is such a measly amount, WHY EVEN ASK FOR IT???

If anyone thinks cutting the growth in spending in future years as per the graph Merge linked (not actual cuts in spending, BTW) will ever actually occur, please call me, I have a bridge that connects Manhattan to Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.

Don't be fooled. Again. These are empty suit proposals meant to make you think they are actually proposing something. They are binding on nobody.

 

[oscar66]

My prediction: They will raise the debt ceiling once again just like they have the other 60 times it has come up for debate and Fox News will then move on and start to scare the American people about something else.

 

[shu09]

Everyone is at fault from Obama to Reid to McConnell and Boehner as well as the right wing of the Republican party.

All these people care about is getting re-elected, not solving the problem. In the end, it's up to Congress to get this done. They should be hammering out the details with the President playing a supporting role. Instead we have sparing on all sides.

Jay Carney's comments are a joke, plain and simple. For once, can't we have someone who is above partisanship? On either side!

 

[Merge]

I just don't understand why anyone needs to publicly see the partisan democratic plan that will not pass. We have had two partisan republican plans that will not pass. The democrats would have to "counter" with a tax only plan so they could meet in the middle? Come on.

The right thing to do is to sit down and get it done like shu09 said, and they were doing that until the right walked away.

I don't necessarily want to defend Obama here either. I have cringed every time he said Corporate Jet owners. I think he is trying to avoid having people identify with some of the other revenue measures, kind of like how a plumber making $40,000 thinks he will be making over $250,000. No one identifies with Jet owners, but I would have preferred that he was more intellectually honest with the American people.

What we needed/need is Obama and Boehner finding the bill that would meet in the middle and coming out to support that plan. Obama had conceded on many democratic issues in his meetings with Boehner. The fact that his plans were pissing off the left and the right tells me it was probably better for the country than anything else that might pass.

Again, in a negotiation... you negotiate. They were only $40 billion per year apart and we can't expect them to work that out?

 

[SPK145]

Originally posted by shu09:
Everyone is at fault from Obama to Reid to McConnell and Boehner as well as the right wing of the Republican party.

You forgot the left wing of the Democrap party as well.

This goes back much further than the current jokes in Washington. Spending has been unsustainably out of control for MANY, many years.

 

[shu09]

Agreed.