In light of last night’s debacle in the House, what do you think the chances are that we can:
1) pass comprehensive immigration reform.
2) pass a stimulus bill focusing on infrastructure.
3) raise the debt ceiling.
4) pass any legislation to address climate change.
5) restrict sales of assault weapons and high capacity clips.
6) restore cuts in discretionary spending (other than military) that is reduced in the Sequester.
7) do sensible tax reform, including on the Doc Fix and the Alternative Minimum Tax?
You can add to this list anything else we need to do but won’t be able to do because the Republicans are crazy.
We’ll get #3 and #7 after initial efforts by the Republicans to tie them to ridiculous spending cuts because they’ll get their throats torn out by their upper class supporters when the effects of not doing them start kicking in. Otherwise, nothing, of course.
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Start with a shoo-in nomination to replace Hillary Clinton.
That’s because they want a special election in MA, that Scott Brown has a shot of winning. Nothing against Kerry, but I’d rather see ANYONE else for Secretary of State.
you think SB still has a chance? After the shit being pulled by Congresscritters this week?
We’ll see, but I doubt it.
Yes. Scott Brown is the person most likely to win Kerry’s seat. He just finished running a campaign. He is well known throughout the state. He has staff ready to go and supporters who would like to see a Republican take back a seat from the Democrats. He’s also popular in the state and he’d be running in a special election, which favors his base.
Massachusetts voters didn’t vote against Brown, they simply decided that they preferred Elizabeth Warren. Of course, she is the one Massachusetts Democrat who definitely won’t be running against him.
I think Brown really hurt himself with the mean-spirited, juvenile campaign he ran against Warren. He had a tremendous asset – his image as a good guy, the reasonable Republican you can work with, not like those mean-spirited nuts in Washington – and he threw it away with the “Indian princess” shtick and the blatantly dishonest attacks about her work on the asbestos case.
You do realize why Kerry and Hagel are getting nominated, right? What does their position require? What are they, or used to be in Hagel’s case? They’ll be the only nominees in Obama’s 2nd term to get confirmed, unless he nominates other present or former Senators.
Lots of folks aren’t really aware how extreme the House GOP has become, largely because of redistricting. Last night’s episode may be a wake up call. It’s amazing because everyone knows the expiration of the Bush tax cuts puts them at a great disadvantage. Give me Liberty or give me Death! Next up – the debt ceiling. Think they’ll show some wisdom there? Yeah, right.
There is no ‘we’. Not when one of the two major parties is predicated on the idea that there is no ‘we’. They won’t negotiate until legitimate – i.e. Republican – government is restored, and then they won’t negotiate, they’ll dictate.
A royalist party doesn’t cooperate with the deputies of the republican parties in parliament. It waits, until it can have them shot.
The weirdest transformation of political terminology hasn’t been what happened to the word ‘liberal’ since John Stuart Mill — it’s what happened to the word ‘republican’.
Obama could declare Temporary Protected Status for all Mexican nationals. While not true Immigration Reform, it will put all parties in a position to deal with the problem and the Republicans to declare whether they want to “rubber stamp” a Democrat(Hillary) into the White House in 2016.
Not sure, but for some reason this post brings to mind, Elvis Costello’s song Less than Zero.
Those are the only two I am pretty sure about. The debt ceiling will only happen if some more cuts are made. The rest nothing will happen on.
Listening to the NRA news conference it would seem they are going to double if not triple down. I am actually glad that they declared themselves fully unapologetic. The answer, the duh answer, that they offered up to us is to put at the ready their expertise and money to train more people to use guns and put them in the schools.
That speech may just have put a nail in the coffin of any Rep Congressman opposing assault weapon control.
It’s time to actually start talking about exotic alternatives like trillion dollar platinum coins with some seriousness now. It is amazing that we have come to this.
The wild card is climate change. There’ll be a tipping point after which almost every political issue will be influenced by it in some way. If it happens in the next two years, anything can happen.
I think that in general, we talk about politics as though the actors on the system are going to be the same in the next two years as they were in the last. That may turn out to be true, but it’s no longer something we can count on.
None.
And there is no reason at all to restore any defense spending. Obama should spend as much time as he can explaining and exposing parts of defense that can be cut. Now is the time for that golden goose.
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Just a little nit pick which is pretty important in my life…the NIH is funded out of Defense spending.
That’s completely false. Where on earth did you get that idea?
I thought NIH fell under the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Are there some projects that are farmed out to them from defense as well?
If POTUS and the Dems or just the Senate refuses to do #6 until #3, #5 and #7 are included in an omnibus bill, we’ll see some action.
Why do you think we won’t be able to do those things, Boo? Given last night’s events, I’m encouraged.
Remember that there ARE still some Dems in the House. The longer the radical GOP keeps acting crazy, the easier it becomes to peel off a few less-crazy Republican votes.
Last night’s debacle pushes the GOP closer to an inevitable crackup.
Last night’s debacle pushes the GOP closer to an inevitable crackup.
I’ve been thinking that since some time in W’s first term. I still think that, but Jeezus Frog, when? When?!
I still think that, but Jeezus Frog, when? When?!
Beats me, but we’re closer today than we were yesterday.
(R) Frank wolf is my congressman. In a reply to my e-mail I was told Wolf voted against the both Bush taxcuts because they they paid for with cuts. Since they are still not paid for 10 years later maybe he would be willing to vote for the plan Obama has proposed. He represents Northern Va. 10th district and seems kinda sane. He has had the seat since forever and wins by large margins. I don’t he needs fear Tea Party zealots or the Koch brothers as much as his buddies. Anyway I think we need someone like Wolf supporting the Obama plan.
Exaclty how many Repug votes do we need if the Dems stay united? Don’t make me look this up!
I meant he voted against the taxcuts because they were not paid for with corresponding spending cuts.
You would think that ‘moderate’ republicans would come over and vote with democrats on some of these issues, you only need twenty. And if twenty came as a group, punishing them would be harder.
Except the republicans have repeatedly shown what happens when people go off the reservation. You would have to switch parties, retire in 2014, or get primaried (with no help from the national office).
Not gunna happen.
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z.e.r.o.
Booman, I think you’re falling into the trap of assuming that Republicans don’t want anything from government. We’ve know that they do. We saw it explicitly during the summer of 2011 when their attempt to hold the debt limit hostage collapsed.
Democrats currently have the upper hand on the negotiation over taxes and spending. Republicans either accept the deal being offered by the president, or the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone. It will be incredibly difficult for Republicans to argue that (A) we desperately need tax cuts and (B) we have to slash popular non-defense programs to pay for them, never mind (C) we need to cut an additional trillion dollars to address the deficit.
An argument that simultaneously demands “Austerity Now” and tax cuts for millionaires is unsustainable.
So:
(1) Whether you consider it comprehensive or not, there will probably be immigration reform. Republicans want that off the table by 2014.
(2) Republicans want spending in their communities as much as the next guy. Infrastructure spending can be passed.
(3) It will take them about a week to remember that holding the debt ceiling hostage was a net loser for their party.
(4) The president will probably have to deal with this indirectly. Set aside Republicans, there are also too many coal and oil state Democrats.
(5) This is going to be a big fight. It’s nice to see that we’re finally willing to engage with it.
(6) Military and non-defense spending were tied together in the sequester, deliberately. If Republicans want one restored, they’ll have to give on the other.
(7) Having the Bush tax cuts expire goes a long way to sensible reform. Democrats can spend the next few years proposing sensible reforms that cut taxes for the middle class. I doubt Republicans are willing to hold middle class tax cuts hostage for very long.