Group items tagged

Speaker Boehner continues to insist on negotiating with himself.  CCB solves the crisis and sets us on an unwavering path towards fiscal responsibility.  It's passed the House and is but a few votes short in the Senate.  Instead of forcing the Senate vote, Boehner continues to insist on tweaking more of the same establishment rot that got us into this predicament. So, if Mr. Boehner insists on the insanity of negotiating with himself, here are some useful rules for successful negotiation.   #1.  He who writes first wins ..... #2.  He who speaks last loses ..... Advice to Boehner; the way to win at negotiation, even if caught in the improbable situation of trying to out negotiate yourself, is to shut up and be happy that you wrote (and passed) CCB first. ~ge~

Good post from Roy Filly collecting the facts about our out-of-control federal spending problem.   "What stunned House Speaker John Boehner more than anything else during his prolonged closed-door budget negotiations with Barack Obama was this revelation: "At one point several weeks ago," Mr. Boehner says, "the president said to me, 'We don't have a spending problem.' " [...] The president's insistence that Washington doesn't have a spending problem, Mr. Boehner says, is predicated on the belief that massive federal deficits stem from what Mr. Obama called "a health-care problem." Mr. Boehner says that after he recovered from his astonishment-"They blame all of the fiscal woes on our health-care system"-he replied: "Clearly we have a health-care problem, which is about to get worse with ObamaCare. But, Mr. President, we have a very serious spending problem." He repeated this message so often, he says, that toward the end of the negotiations, the president became irritated and said: "I'm getting tired of hearing you say that." We had a spirited argument a few posts ago about who was at fault for our annual trillion dollar deficits. I stopped arguing because it became clear to me, at least, that it doesn't matter who is at fault. We are spending much more over the past 10 years (and my chart only goes to 2010). As of December, our federal government borrowed 46 cents of every dollar it has spent so far in fiscal 2013. Blame whomever you like. No nation can survive with a fiscal plan that calls for such massive spending. Blame Bush, if that makes you feel better, but our Chief Executive Officer is Barack Hussein Obama and it is his job to solve the problem, not kick the can down the road. We are out of road. When our CEO states that "we don't have a spending problem" as I look at the chart above it does not inspire confidence."

That was last week. This week, Boehner says Congress should not vote on an authorization for use of military force in Iraq and Syria during the lame duck session, waiting until January instead.

Which reminds that major bad chunks of the FISA Act expire this year unless renewed. I vote for expiry as the most efficient solution.

The Democratic boycott of Netanyahu's speech is gaining strength. Republicans need to get on board too. 

The Democratic boycott of Netanyahu's speech is gaining strength. Republicans need to get on board too. 

This is a must-read. The War Party is going full-tilt boogie to blow the Iran negotiations out of the water, with the full backing of Bibi Netanyahu.  

Best Deal You Can Get? Notice the rank and file starting to cave in to Boehner's gaseous proposal. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio called it "the best deal we can get." No it's not. It's not even the best deal you can't get. The Senate will not go along, so there is nothing to get. As long as you are going to submit proposals you can't get, you may as well make it a good one. $950 billion over 10 years is not a good deal. It's not even a down payment on a good deal, and with that, Boehner just pissed away his credibility. In the end, something will pass. But it will not do a damn thing credible to reduce the deficit. Reid's plan and Boehner's plan are both back-loaded. Republicans had a golden opportunity to attempt to extract some major concessions in return for tiny tax concessions. Instead, they are going to settle for nothing. This fiasco is exactly why Republicans need someone like Chris Christie running for president. No one else has managed to show any leadership.

I like it!  Great idea ..... excerpt: "Pass two simple bills in the House.  Bill A extends current tax rates for those with incomes of $250,000 or less.  Bill B extends current tax rates for all the rest.  Keep both bills just that simple - include nothing else in either one.  Both will pass in the House thanks to the Republican majority. As the bills are moving to the Senate, Speaker Boehner holds a press conference and begins with a short address to the American public to promote both bills. First, Boehner points out that Bill A should pass the Senate promptly and be signed by the president.  Reid and Obama have promised as much. Second, the Speaker points out that Bill B will be likely be blocked in the Senate and/or on the president's desk.  Reid and Obama have (virtually) promised to do that too. "

Lots of comments posted on this page.  Search for "Econ101" and "garylyn" to find my comments.  I have posted here a surprisingly extensive explanation of how i became a libertarian. excerpt: "How's this for a simple GOP strategy to avoid blame for fiscal-cliff tax-rate increases and seize the public relations initiative from an overconfident president? Pass two simple bills in the House.  Bill A extends current tax rates for those with incomes of $250,000 or less.  Bill B extends current tax rates for all the rest.  Keep both bills just that simple - include nothing else in either one.  Both will pass in the House thanks to the Republican majority. As the bills are moving to the Senate, Speaker Boehner holds a press conference and begins with a short address to the American public to promote both bills. First, Boehner points out that Bill A should pass the Senate promptly and be signed by the president.  Reid and Obama have promised as much. Second, the Speaker points out that Bill B will be likely be blocked in the Senate and/or on the president's desk.  Reid and Obama have (virtually) promised to do that too. "

Today may be the last chance we have to save our country.  Congress and Obama must come up with $4 Trillion in short term spending cuts to save the dollar.  I don't see it happening.  Boehner and the Republican establishment traded away the Cut, Cap & Balance Bill before it was even passed.  And it was passed only to be immediately put in the dirt by Boehner, Reid and McConnell.  Instead they came up with the largest increase in borrowing power the US Treasury has ever seen, $2.4 Trillion, near immediately.  Then they baked in the end of the Bush tax cuts, the $1 Trillion porkulous addition to the budget, and, ObamaCare to guarantee the largest tax increase in US history. This is indeed the End of America. excerpt: Yes, it's for real. We've been wondering when the markets would wake up to the reality of the sovereign debt crisis. Today is the day… The action in the fixed-income markets this morning verged on collapse. Yields on the world's benchmark sovereign debt - the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond - plummeted. Investors panicked and moved into the market, which is the world's most liquid market. Meanwhile, just about everything else in fixed income got killed. Mortgage REITs were briefly "no bid," for example. Annaly - the blue-chip mortgage REIT - was down more than 15% at the open. (I'll explain why in a moment.) It was as if the world's fixed-income investors finally woke up and realized the world's economy has serious problems… which our politicians seem unable to address, let alone repair.

For all our obsessing about it, the national debt is a singularly bad way of measuring the nation's financial condition. It includes only a small portion of the nation's total liabilities. And it's focused on the past. An honest assessment of the country's projected revenue and expenses over the next generation would show a reality different from the apocalyptic visions conjured by both Democrats and Republicans during the debt-ceiling debate. It would be much worse. That's why the posturing about whether and how Congress should increase the debt ceiling by Aug. 2 has been a hollow exercise. Failure to increase the borrowing limit would harm American prestige and the global financial system. But that's nothing compared with the real threats to the U.S.'s long-term economic health, which will begin to strike with full force toward the end of this decade: Sharply rising per-capita health-care spending, coupled with the graying of the populace; a generation of workers turning into an outsize generation of beneficiaries. Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Michael J. Boskin, who was President George H.W. Bush's chief economic adviser, says: "The word 'unsustainable' doesn't convey the problem enough, in my opinion." Even the $4 trillion "grand bargain" on debt reduction hammered out by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)-a deal that collapsed nearly as quickly as it came together-would not have gotten the U.S. where it needs to be. A June analysis by the Congressional Budget Office concluded that keeping the U.S.'s ratio of debt to gross domestic product at current levels until the year 2085 (to avoid scaring off investors) would require spending cuts, tax hikes, or a combination of both equal to 8.3 percent of GDP each year for the next 75 years, vs. the most likely (i.e. "alternative") scenario. That translates to $15 trillion over the next decade-or more than three times what Obama and Boehner we

Personally, I have been very happy to see Boehner and Netanyahu make the strategic mistake of turning U.S.-Israeli relations into a partisan issue. Just about anything that drives a wedge issue into the Israel lobby tends to lessen that lobby's influence in Congress and that lobby has controlled U.S. foreign policy against America's own interests for far too long.

"Zarif noted that the deal would indeed be an international agreement adopted by the U.N. Security Council, which a new administration would be obliged to uphold - and that any attempt by the White House or Congress to abrogate, unilaterally modify or impede such an agreement would be a breach of U.S. obligations." Apparently, I was wrong. I thought Obama would work around the demand for Congressional input by letting the other P5+1 members ink the deal but the U.S. not signing. But a U.N. Security Council Resolution is even stronger medicine for the War Party, since the SC has the power to forbid economic sanctions as well. Take that, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Boehner!

Could anything make it more clear that Netanyahu's speech to Congress was only to aid in his reelection in Israel? Israel has been briefed on the negotiations all along, so Netanyahu surely knew that the goal was a Security Council resolution that Congress could not affect. And while admittedly, the fact that it was a Security Council Resolution in the making was not widely known, are we to believe that the Speaker of the House of Representatives did not know that too? So are now not down to the entire spectacle of Netanyahu's speech being political, Netanyahu electioneering and Boehner mud-slinging the President?

There it is, finally out in the open. 

Obama is moving preemptively to blunt Israel's influence in Congress on the Iran negotiation.

Excellent analogy.  My take on the fiscal cliff is that we have an agreement in place, signed off on by Obama, the Democrats and the Republicans.  Let's hold to it.  Hold the line.  And under no circumstances raise the debt limit.  Bring home the troops.  Make the spending cuts in the sequestration agreement.  Replace that idiot Speaker of the House Boehner with Representative Darryl Isa.  Freeze Obama with his own agreement, and then dig our way out of this by stopping the socialist spending spree. "In the movie Usual Suspects, Keyser Soze is confronted with the fact that his wife and children would be an impediment in dealing with his business competitors. In a way the House GOP finds itself in the same position as Keyser Soze. Our home has been invaded. Our family despoiled. And we are facing a never ending series of ever increasing demands from the criminals who have abused us. Sometimes the only way out of a dilemma is by clearing the table and starting again from scratch. At midnight on December 21, 2012 the United States will be faced with what is being called the "fiscal cliff." In short this cliff is composed of several parts. 1. The payroll tax reduction passed in 2010 will end. 2. The temporary tax rates passed under President Bush will lapse. 3. Obamacare's taxes will come due. 4. The Alternative Minimum Tax will expand to many more taxpayers. 5. Extended unemployment benefits will expire. 6. Some $78 billion in federal spending will be sequestered. 7. Medicare "doc fix" will expire. There are several sets of sacred cattle here. The GOP is primarily interested in protecting the tax cuts and Defense spending. The Democrats are primarily interested in preserving the social spending and free stuff for their base. This time around the Democrats, in their never ending paean to class warfare, are insisting that the Bush Tax Rates for the wealthiest Americans be allowed to expire. The GOP should not negotiate on this. This will put the GOP

"Real political change begins at the local level & there is no section of political geography more local than the Precinct. Get involved in the political process in your Precinct & make a difference in the world around you. Do your part to promote the ideals & principles that Americans have protected for generations" This site offers a how-to handbook style guide to participating in and managing successful GOTV (Get Out The Vote) operations.  The site even offers technology to assist efforts. One thing is very clear about the 2012 election fraud.  Getting out the vote is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than raising money and buying ad time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   My thinking is that the Tea Party Patriots need to launch a massive GOTV grassroots initiative that starts with two key efforts: .............. Contest the Obama Election Fraud.  Demand a recount in at least the four states where fraud was obvious, overwhelming and in-your-face clear.   .............. Immediately set about the task of replacing House Speaker Yohan Boehner with Darell Issa. ::  http://goo.gl/Z5xDk ............. Pump the Tea Party Manifesto :: http://goo.gl/ApWBP ............. Join forces to organize at the national level a Precinct Project strategy  ............. Adopt an Anti Agenda 21 movement based on the submission and support of State level Propositions protecting the Constitution, the principles of individual liberty embedded in the founding documents, and, individual property ownership rights.  Including homeownership and land usage.   The Precinct Project effort can become the force that takes on all of these issues.  On the ground local Manpower is the awsome force Tea Party Patriots bring to the table.  Time to start using that force.