American Politics Thread 2013: I'm a cool Rodham grandma in the USA

Admin is an awesome nickname for God

lol

wisdom from the Gergler:

"The question for Boehner is whether to fall on his sword and prevent a default, or take the country into default because of the Tea Party," Gergen said. "At the end of the day ... I think he'll fall on his sword, even it means the end of his speakership. If he does that, I do think his days as Speaker will be numbered."

seems pretty clear this is headed for a vote, so anyone want to make odds on Boehner keeping the spearkership...?

i say he stays

yeah, I dunno if Cantor or Ryan really have the support

Foxx for Speaker!

http://cdn.rollcall.com/media/newspics/318/foxx_072612.jpg

what a country

i say he stays also

done

it would be funny if he stayed based on a vote made up largely of democrats and moderate republicans

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/361217/boehner-weighs-his-options-jonathan-strong

http://bit.ly/1btcJQ7

Digby blog re the draft Senate proposal and the result down the road:

it seems to me that by pushing the negotiations right up against the next round of sequester cuts, the Republicans will potentially have yet another hostage --- along with the threat of another government shutdown and another debt ceiling breach.

possible, i read the move as the dems going 'say what one more time, i double dawg dare you' but they could definitely be too cute by half. possibility they're setting a trap for the gop there to gain leverage on sequester cuts (since the doomsday scenario of sequester didn't work last time)(probably an underrated factor in the gop attempting this latest gambit), but very possible they're setting one for themselves. sequester last time didn't work cuz it was something philosophically the gop was in favor of (there were some details they had qualms w/, namely defense cuts) and they didn't have to do anything for it to happen, the hard work had been done in august 2011. here in a sense they'd have to work for it again, though it's possible (and the argument would be stronger) that the democrats forced a shutdown and default is they pushed the issue. it might not work but it gets that round of cuts on the table at least.

https://twitter.com/travistritt/status/389421384470122496

james woods is an odious pile

All-American-Girl ‏@incognito1949 13 Oct

@Travistritt @RealJamesWoods Travis the movie was good but Tom Hanks has lost it. wants obama 2 violate the Constitution & run for 3rd term.

i just can't even

lol China starts to get pissy and suddenly the sides can see their way to a resolution.

Woods has an IQ approaching 200, I've heard.

prob closer to evil than stupid

I do admire him for slapping Robert Downey hard, tho

http://image.toutlecine.com/photos/e/t/a/etat-de-choc-1988-01-g.jpg

nights you'll never remember w/ friends you'll never forget

Woods has an IQ approaching 200, I've heard.

I wasn't aware that's how they measure penis size.

Written by a dude I sang with in college who used to be a great, great falsetto singer:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/opinion/changing-the-debt-ceiling-game.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&smid=fb-share&adxnnlx=1381845621-+pg16y1UYwBl3rUshonGIQ

“We’ve got a name for it in the House: it’s called the Senate surrender caucus,” said Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas. “Anybody who would vote for that in the House as Republican would virtually guarantee a primary challenger.”

x-post Interesting idea. But the House has other thoughts right now:

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif,) said the new House plan was designed to be attractive to Democrats and would follow key timelines that have been established in Senate negotiations — funding government agencies until Jan. 15, for example, and raising the debt ceiling until Feb. 7. But the plan would also include a two-year repeal of the medical device tax and a provision eliminating the employer health care contribution for members of Congress and White House officials, provisions that are likely to generate strenuous opposition.

I don't get the medical device sales tax issue.

Tina Dupuy ‏@TinaDupuy 5m
GOP: We HAVE to get something out of shutting down the government...guess a pay cut for our staffers will have to do.

story behind the medical device tax is during the writing of the ACA all the major industries affected by it were brought in and asked to give up some aspect of profitability in exchange for all the new customers the law would bring them, like insurers are now forced to take everyone regardless of preexisting conditions, everyone except the medical device people played ball, so they just taxed them

its one of the ways money is raised to run the ACA, and its a booming highly lucrative field, and theyre being babies about it so the republicans are on the job

Shows you how many weird products aren't taxed in this country.

This one weird way to get rid of your medical device tax

And of course when the Republicans seek to get rid of these taxes they never mention how it will increase the deficit, or mention a substitute way of funding the ACA.

---------

Charles Pierce in Esquire re the upcoming budget negotiations and the sequester:

"Current spending levels" are what's kicking the hell out of people around the country. I just thought I'd mention that, since nobody else seems to give a damn. The president already has told John Harwood on CNBC that actual increases in the income-tax rates are off the table as far as he's concerned. That leaves only "entitlement reform" as a basis for any kind of bargain, and we all know where that goes. Austerity -- misbegotten, cramped, and utterly unsuited to the nation's most immediate needs -- remains the fundamental philosophy behind economic thinking in both parties, and will be the philosophical basis for any agreement. If the replacement for the sequester are simply another system of cuts that maintains this level, it's hard to see how the Republicans don't walk away from this still with far too much of a win for their vandalism. And, of course, the monkeyhouse is still open for business.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Deal_Of_The_Month_Club?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_26929798

its one of the ways money is raised to run the ACA, and its a booming highly lucrative field, and theyre being babies about it so the republicans are on the job

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 15, 2013 9:39 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's a li'l more to it than that. the med device industry is located in blue/urban/research centers (MN, MA specifically) so getting rid of the tax has 'bipartisan' appeal for regional economics reasons. both klobuchar and franken have been pushing the issue for a long time, for instance. warren, too? i think?

The president already has told John Harwood on CNBC that actual increases in the income-tax rates are off the table as far as he's concerned.

oh god charles pierce do you really believe obama wouldnt take income tax raises if he could get them, hes already done it once in the form of the expiration of the bush tax cuts on the wealthy, you are a very silly man

well they won the biggest midterm wave election in american history and there were predictable consequences, a few weeks of bad press doesn't magically undo that, esp w/ a second term midterm that should give them the senate coming up.

xpost

be curious to see if the gop manages to shoot themselves in the foot again by running insane people

Lisa Lerer ‏@llerer 6s
Boehner described the senate bill as handing the House GOP a "hand grenade," per GOP member

ha wow what a country

"If he could get them"... Obama ultimately signed off to less re income taxes than he and Boehner had once agreed upon in their grand bargain negotiations. Obama could have and should have also pushed for making the capitol gains tax rates the same as income taxes (which was mentioned by only left-wing bloggers at the time), cutting tax loopholes,etc . Yes, Pierce is less than precise, but "reasonable adult" O has not exactly been pushing for what he could get.

the grand bargain also included entitlement cuts, the word bargain is right there in the name

imna break this down for you: there is no way to get republicans to vote for tax increases, they will not do it at all

not even if you ask for only a little bit of taxes in exchange for their wildest dreams of screwing over the poor and infirm, they will not do it

be curious to see if the gop manages to shoot themselves in the foot again by running insane people

They can only get crazier. Christine O'Donnell's going to look middle-of-the-road before 2014's over.

Boehner described the senate bill as handing the House GOP a "hand grenade," per GOP member

So who's going to jump on it and save the whole platoon?

not even if you ask for only a little bit of taxes in exchange for their wildest dreams of screwing over the poor and infirm, they will not do it

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October

So you agree with "silly" Pierce that we are stuck in a situation where the only future budget negotiations will be regarding sequester cuts or entitlement cuts

seriously: what does it matter who's president, then? Aside from the date the revolt starts.

some revolution it'll be when the president sets the date huh

So you agree with "silly" Pierce that we are stuck in a situation where the only future budget negotiations will be regarding sequester cuts or entitlement cuts

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, October 15, 2013 11:22 AM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hes silly cause he implied that it was obamas decision to take tax hikes off the table, the argument which you carried on, but as to the future who knows what it holds, the next ~3 years youre not getting any tax cuts

david mcadams otm

Constantly wielding the threat of a debt default has, ironically, undermined fiscal conservatives’ ability to extract meaningful concessions on the debt, as it has hardened Democrats’ resolve not to give in to such threats. The best way forward for those who care about controlling our nation’s debt isn’t to make more threats, but to give up the ability to conduct last-minute brinkmanship, in exchange for tying the next debt ceiling to a fixed target for debt reduction.

not getting any tax cuts

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 15, 2013 11:51 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tax raises lol

and fwiw w/o tax increases entitlement reform is off the table too so at least we have that