Watching cable news, you will see iteration after iteration of Capitol Hill reporters and other commentators expressing mystification that the House isn’t talking to the Senate, the White House isn’t talking to Congress, Democrats aren’t negotiating with Republicans, etc. Here’s a tip.
John Boehner has already told everyone, including Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, and Barack Obama, that his caucus isn’t going to budge on the Sequester until after it kicks in and starts causing real pain. He doesn’t have a strategy beyond that. Everyone knows that this is what he’s going to do, so anytime you see someone call for negotiations or compromise, they are either positioning themselves politically or they are actually referring to some time in the future, meaning March.
When reporters call for negotiations or wonder why they aren’t occurring, they are either engaging in unprofessional partisanship or simply demonstrating they can’t understand their own beat. When partisans call for negotiations, they are either spinning the public or simply appealing for sanity.
This isn’t that complicated. John Boehner already promised his Caucus that he would not introduce a bill to replace the Sequester that adds one dime in taxes or raises any revenue from closing tax loopholes that the wealthy use to avoid paying their full share. Since this is exactly what the president considers the bare minimum of any deal, Boehner is trapped and he isn’t going to do anything proactive. Until his caucus stops hyperventilating, he can do nothing. McConnell knows it. Reid knows it. And Obama knows it. So, we’re just waiting for the tantrum to end.
“the Media” is part of the problem. they pretend that the GOP is a rational party interested in solving the problems of this country.
they are not.
they have been committing ECONOMIC TREASON since January 20, 2009.
This is rich since Boehner doesn’t have the votes anymore to pass a sequestration replacement bill.
Couldn’t a majority be constructed as for the Fiscal Cliffhanger in January (was it Pelosi who did the work)? And a Senate bill wouldn’t have to pass the House committees, right? Boehner could be telling the truth here.
Pelosi did all the work.
That’s how I remembered it. (Probably learned it from you in the first place.) So she’s effectively the speaker, or let’s say the secret prime minister, for legislation that can’t pass itself (i.e. legislation that doesn’t meet the Hastert test). If the Senate were to pass a decent bill (“cutting” from Medicare the $130-odd billion that has already been saved this year, and stuff like that) she could see it through the House, the sequestration could be averted, and Boehner could go on pretending to be speaker. Everybody’s happy except you know who, and they really prefer being victims anyway.
His side has poured a lot of faux blood, sweat and tears into convincing themselves that the sequester is a bonus so of course there’s no votes for a replacement Bill.
Please, someone, just write a replacement Bill that says “Never Mind”, it’ll pass, Obama will sign it.
Boo, is it possible to list those in mid-tantrum? Perhaps if they started individually taking blame (vs. their party/leadership), then they’ll start fearing for their future.
I don’t know that we can make a perfect list.
You can start with the people who refused to vote for Boehner’s Plan B in December. However, since the vote never happened, we don’t have a roll call for that. We’d have to reconstruct it through media reports.
Another indicator of insanity is the 179 Republicans who voted against Sandy relief.
Perhaps, then, a suggestion can be made to Boner that he leak said list. He’d regain some strength if they can’t hide and may be tempted.
Thanking the presidential election campaign of Mitt Romney and his overseas tax havens for the super rich. Europe and the UK are turning a page
on tax revenues. Boehner in the boondocks, is way behind the curve of true Anglo-Saxons (Mitt’s clan).
But then I suppose Cameron (G8) got his
rewardpunishment.Romney smiling as he enters Downing Street 10“Therefore, the magic, moral motto for capitalism in 2013 is how to avoid avoidance.”
By the way, this is what winning looks like. It’s not pretty and it’s not final, but President Obama, congressional Democrats and their (majority of the nation) base are in the process of breaking down and defeating the center-right “Reagan coalition” (actually the coalition that Nixon put together in ’72 when Wallace voters from ’68 shifted in the Republican column).
The right is putting up a fight, going down kicking and screaming, and there will be more fights like this in the coming years. But as long as progressives continue to learn the lessons and build on the victories of the past few years, the future looks brighter.
I am led to believe a lot of Main Stream Republican business are going to lose a lot of money during the Sequester. How long will the big agribusiness accept being only to run their processing plants 3 weeks 1 day a month because FDA meat inspectors will be limited to 4 day work weeks.
While it may hurt all of us, I believe it is the final nail in far-right winger’s coffin.
Boehner is playing the martyr. By acquiescing to its extremism he’ll succeed in isolating the Tea Party and then enjoy watching them drown in a bathtub. This will cost him his speaker-ship but history will judge him a hero. I suspect he’ll also be a rich man.