Updated 6 p.m. est
Angry GOP reaction to President Obama's shared sacrifice agenda was fast and furious today, with Republicans slamming him over his refusal to allow Medicare to become a voucher program and his vow to tax the richest Americans at pre-Bush levels.
"What we heard today was a political broadside from our campaigner-in-chief," said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin lawmaker who authored the plan that would further cut taxes for the rich and force seniors off Medicare and into a voucher program. "Exploiting people's emotions of fear, envy, anxiety — it's not hope. It's not change. It's partisanship. We don't need partisanship."
"I don't know about my colleagues, but I asked myself, 'And I missed lunch for this?'" added House Republican Conference Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas.
Several likely GOP candidates for President alsao weighed in.
"President Obama's proposals are too little, too late. Instead of supporting spending cuts that lead to real deficit reduction and true reform of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, the president dug deep into his liberal playbook for 'solutions' highlighted by higher taxes," said ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
"Today's speech was nothing more than window dressing," former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in a statement.
end update
---[
Updated 2:30 p.m. est
It was much ado about something.
President Obama rolled out a plan today that calls for $4 trillion in cuts over 12 years by cutting spending and raising taxes on the richest Americans who for the past decade were given a free ride thanks to the Bush-era tax cuts.
"The most fortunate among us can afford pay a little more," Obama said, vowing not to extend the $1 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans for a second time.
"There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. There’s nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill," Obama said in a speech at George Washington University.
"Worst of all, this is a vision that says even though America can’t afford to invest in education or clean energy; even though we can’t afford to care for seniors and poor children, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy," Obama said of the GOP plan.
"Think about it. In the last decade, the average income of the bottom 90% of all working Americans actually declined. The top 1 percent saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million dollars each. And that’s who needs to pay less taxes? They want to give people like me a two hundred thousand dollar tax cut that’s paid for by asking thirty three seniors to each pay six thousand dollars more in health costs? That’s not right, and it’s not going to happen as long as I’m President," Obama said.
The shared sacrifice agenda embraced by Obama comes as Congress must raise the debt ceiling -- the amount the federal government is allowed to borrow. The debt ceiling currently sits at $14.294 trillion.
Obama wants to cut $3 in spending for every $1 in new taxes, but he rejected a House GOP scheme to privatize Medicare for seniors by forcing them to go on a voucher program that will make their pals in the insurance industry richer, but will not make elder Americans any healthier.
"I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs. I will not tell families with children who have disabilities that they have to fend for themselves. We will reform these programs, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations," Obama said. "That includes, by the way, our commitment to Social Security."
end update
---[
There is a slim chance that today's budget speech by President Obama will be much ado about nothing.
There is case to be made Obama would be foolish to get too specific today in the face of a base that wonders how much he we sell them out to get re-elected, along with the angry Tea Party opposition, who blame him for the economic hard times over the corporate greed and Wall Street shenanigans that brought the country to the brink of being broke (not to mention they still think he was born in Kenya).
Obama does not have to go out on a limb today since he has already cut the deal that kept the government open. The fact that Republicans are urging him to be specific should be a red flag for the palace guard at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The President has already made bad on one campaign promise -- to let the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich expire -- and he does not need to add to that list. The GOP would love to box Obama in again and get him to do another flip-flop on a major agenda item.
The Republicans, with the help of many in the corporate media, have framed the budget narrative around three so-called taboos: cutting social security and Medicare, no tax cuts for the rich and no tampering with the Pentagon's budget. The GOP wants Obama to cut the entitlement programs that Americans paid into their whole working lives, but to keep his hands off tax cuts for the rich and the Department of Defense purse strings.
"We need to consider all three legs of the stool when we're dealing with the deficit. And that's entitlements, tax expenditures and defense spending," spokesman Jay Carney admitted without saying much more about the President's speech.
Hmmmm? Might that be a signal that Obama will embrace shared sacrifice rather than trying to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class.
The Republicans are not taking any chances, already chanting their no-tax mantra ahead of the President's address.
"Tomorrow, I will make clear to the President: Americans don’t want their taxes raised, they want Washington to get its fiscal house in order," House GOP leader Eric Cantor Tweeted on the eve of the President's speech.
Cantor, like his boss, GOP House Speaker John Boehner, still needs to placate their scorched-earth constituents in the Tea Party.
"Tea Partiers simply do not understand how democracy works. And they compound their ignorance with arrogance," Steve and Cokie Roberts write in their synicated newspaper column.
"In the 2012 election, the Tea Party could be the best thing that ever happened to Barack Obama. In early primary states like Iowa and South Carolina, party activists could force Republican candidates to make outlandish promises that play well at Tea Party rallies but cripple the GOP's nominee in the fall election," they added.
To make the point that there are real deep cuts in the compromise, Boehner has said there are "no blue smoke and mirrors" in the budget, but National Journal throws a wrench in that statement, showing many of the cuts are indeed slight of hand.
But, make no mistake there are cuts in the deal that kept the government from shutting down. From home heating programs to high-speed rail, Rolling Stone lists 10 programs that take a hit in the budget compromise.
The big business lobby also prevailed in wiping out a model health insurance voucher program as part of the budget deal, The New York Times reports.
Despite the blood money that is thrown around in the nation-building wars of revenge that Obama inherited from Ex-President George W. Bush, the budget deal guts funding for that foreign aid. "The actual cuts in FY 2011 and anticipated reductions [in] FY 2012 come as international responsibilities for the Department of State and USAID are actually expanding in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Egypt," ex-State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in an email to The Huffington Post.
Showing posts with label government shutdown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government shutdown. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Federal Budget Showdown Hits Critical Mass
Updated 10:45 p.m. edt
The angry founder of Tea Party Nation threatened tonight to run a primary challenger against Speaker John Boehner if he agrees to a budget deal with Democrats that averts the shutdown of the federal government. (Dana Bash of CNN just reported there is a deal.)
Sarah Palin was none too happy either.
"GOP: don't retreat! The country is going broke. We can't AFFORD cowboy poetry & subsidizing abortion," Palin Tweeted this evening (Washington time).
"If we can't fight to defund this nonsense now when we have the chance, do you think we'll win the big fight on entitlement reform later on?" she said in a separate Tweet.
The threats of running a candidate against Boehner came from Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips came as the Speaker of the House huddled behind closed doors tonight with the GOP rank and file to sell them on a framework for an agreement. The White House was also reviewing the framework.
According to National Journal, citing multiple GOP and Democratic sources, "The outline of the deal is as follows: up to $39 billion in cuts from the 2010 budget, $514 billion in spending for the defense budget covering the remainder of this fiscal year, a GOP agreement to abandon controversial policy riders dealing with Planned Parenthood and the EPA, and an agreement to pass a “bridge” continuing resolution late Friday night to keep the government operating while the deal is written in bill form."
Word of a deal apparently set off Phillips.
"Boehner is selling us out tonight. We will primary Boehner next year," Phillips said on his @teapartnation Twitter feed.
He also lashed out at President Obama and the Democrats.
"Obama and the party of treason think abortionists are more important than our military and their pay," Phillips Tweeted.
end update
---[
Updated 1:30 p.m. edt
Republicans and Democrats are speaking two different languages today.
Democrats say the sticking point is a GOP cut for funding for 3 million women who get their primary care from Planned Parenthood. The GOP seems to be saying that issue has been resolved.
"Republicans want to shut down the government because they want to make it harder for women to obtain the health services they need," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said today on the Senate floor.
But just a short while ago GOP House Speaker John Boehner was asked about the Planned Parenthood rider attached to a Republican bill, saying: "Almost all of the policy issues have been dealt with."
Polls and recent history show signs that most Americans are going to blame the Republicans if the government shuts down in the next 10+ hours, though President Obama is in the crosshairs of an angry electorate, as well. Jockeying for position, Boehner has tried to counter the impending blame game.
"We have no interest in shutting down they government... but we're not going to roll over and sell-out the American people," Boehner told reporters.
end update
---[
Updated 11:15 a.m. edt
It looks like the Tea Party-driven Republican Party is adamant that funding be cut for Planned Parenthood or else there is no deal on a budget.
Democrats charge Republicans want to tamper with women's health at the expense of paying the men and women who wear the uniform of the U.S. Armed Services and 800,000 other federal workers.
GOP Speaker John Boehner is spending the final hours before the government shuts down at midnight trying to make the case that Republicans are really just trying to cut the budget, but has yet to explain why he has drawn a line in the sand with Planned Parenthood funding.
Feeling the heat from the unpatriotic implications of the budget showdown, Boehner a short while ago tried to side-step screwing the Armed Forces by urging passage of a bill that would pay them but shut down the government. The maneuver appears to be going nowhere.
So is this thing really about cutting spending? Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says no, accusing the GOP of using deficit-reduction to impose a social agenda on Americans.
This is going to come down to the wire, but as of now it looks like the government is going to shut down at midnight.
End update
---[
With 24 hours left until the government shuts down, there are dire warnings that military pay and some tax refunds will not be able to be processed and 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed.
All the while members of Congress making about $173,000 a year will continued to get paid, even as some of their own staff are told to stay home, do not telecommute or answer mobile phones or Blackberry devices.
President Obama, who has been convening routine meetings with the congressional leaders, met again last night (Thursday) with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), but no deal was agreed to. They will be at it again today, at least until the deadline is reached.
"What I’ve said to the Speaker and what I’ve said to Harry Reid is because the machinery of the shutdown is necessarily starting to move, I expect an answer in the morning. And my hope is, is that I’ll be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted, that a deal has been completed that has very meaningful cuts in a wide variety of categories, that helps us move in the direction of living within our means, but preserves our investments in things like education and innovation, research, that are going to be important for our long-term competitiveness," Obama said.
Military families in particular are shaking their heads over then impasse and threat to take paychecks away while loved ones fight in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
"They don't need more stress. They don't need to be worrying about nus back home," said Amy Tersigni, whose husband, Army Pvt. Kevin Tersigni, is serving in Iraq.
"They need to focus on finishing what they need to do and keeping themselves safe. So the financial stress doesn't need to happen," the mother of two, who will be broke by the end of the month, told CNN.
The blame game is complex.
Republicans blame the then-Democratic majority for failing to pass a budget last year. Democrats blame Senate Republicans for blocking Democrats from reaching the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster and pass a budget.
Some Democrats even blame Obama for failing to jump into the politically punishing budget battle in recent weeks.
Sen. Bernie Saunders (I-Vt.) says Democrats are culpable in this showdown for another reason: Once they allowed the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich to continue it opened up the opportunity for Republicans to go after the severe budget cuts to tackle the federal deficit. Saunders has said he cannot support deep budget cuts without some "shared sacrifice" with changes to the revenue stream, like wiping out tax loopholes for hugely profitable oil companies.
The angry founder of Tea Party Nation threatened tonight to run a primary challenger against Speaker John Boehner if he agrees to a budget deal with Democrats that averts the shutdown of the federal government. (Dana Bash of CNN just reported there is a deal.)
Sarah Palin was none too happy either.
"GOP: don't retreat! The country is going broke. We can't AFFORD cowboy poetry & subsidizing abortion," Palin Tweeted this evening (Washington time).
"If we can't fight to defund this nonsense now when we have the chance, do you think we'll win the big fight on entitlement reform later on?" she said in a separate Tweet.
The threats of running a candidate against Boehner came from Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips came as the Speaker of the House huddled behind closed doors tonight with the GOP rank and file to sell them on a framework for an agreement. The White House was also reviewing the framework.
According to National Journal, citing multiple GOP and Democratic sources, "The outline of the deal is as follows: up to $39 billion in cuts from the 2010 budget, $514 billion in spending for the defense budget covering the remainder of this fiscal year, a GOP agreement to abandon controversial policy riders dealing with Planned Parenthood and the EPA, and an agreement to pass a “bridge” continuing resolution late Friday night to keep the government operating while the deal is written in bill form."
Word of a deal apparently set off Phillips.
"Boehner is selling us out tonight. We will primary Boehner next year," Phillips said on his @teapartnation Twitter feed.
He also lashed out at President Obama and the Democrats.
"Obama and the party of treason think abortionists are more important than our military and their pay," Phillips Tweeted.
end update
---[
Updated 1:30 p.m. edt
Republicans and Democrats are speaking two different languages today.
Democrats say the sticking point is a GOP cut for funding for 3 million women who get their primary care from Planned Parenthood. The GOP seems to be saying that issue has been resolved.
"Republicans want to shut down the government because they want to make it harder for women to obtain the health services they need," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said today on the Senate floor.
But just a short while ago GOP House Speaker John Boehner was asked about the Planned Parenthood rider attached to a Republican bill, saying: "Almost all of the policy issues have been dealt with."
Polls and recent history show signs that most Americans are going to blame the Republicans if the government shuts down in the next 10+ hours, though President Obama is in the crosshairs of an angry electorate, as well. Jockeying for position, Boehner has tried to counter the impending blame game.
"We have no interest in shutting down they government... but we're not going to roll over and sell-out the American people," Boehner told reporters.
end update
---[
Updated 11:15 a.m. edt
It looks like the Tea Party-driven Republican Party is adamant that funding be cut for Planned Parenthood or else there is no deal on a budget.
Democrats charge Republicans want to tamper with women's health at the expense of paying the men and women who wear the uniform of the U.S. Armed Services and 800,000 other federal workers.
GOP Speaker John Boehner is spending the final hours before the government shuts down at midnight trying to make the case that Republicans are really just trying to cut the budget, but has yet to explain why he has drawn a line in the sand with Planned Parenthood funding.
Feeling the heat from the unpatriotic implications of the budget showdown, Boehner a short while ago tried to side-step screwing the Armed Forces by urging passage of a bill that would pay them but shut down the government. The maneuver appears to be going nowhere.
So is this thing really about cutting spending? Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says no, accusing the GOP of using deficit-reduction to impose a social agenda on Americans.
This is going to come down to the wire, but as of now it looks like the government is going to shut down at midnight.
End update
---[
With 24 hours left until the government shuts down, there are dire warnings that military pay and some tax refunds will not be able to be processed and 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed.
All the while members of Congress making about $173,000 a year will continued to get paid, even as some of their own staff are told to stay home, do not telecommute or answer mobile phones or Blackberry devices.
President Obama, who has been convening routine meetings with the congressional leaders, met again last night (Thursday) with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), but no deal was agreed to. They will be at it again today, at least until the deadline is reached.
"What I’ve said to the Speaker and what I’ve said to Harry Reid is because the machinery of the shutdown is necessarily starting to move, I expect an answer in the morning. And my hope is, is that I’ll be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted, that a deal has been completed that has very meaningful cuts in a wide variety of categories, that helps us move in the direction of living within our means, but preserves our investments in things like education and innovation, research, that are going to be important for our long-term competitiveness," Obama said.
Military families in particular are shaking their heads over then impasse and threat to take paychecks away while loved ones fight in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
"They don't need more stress. They don't need to be worrying about nus back home," said Amy Tersigni, whose husband, Army Pvt. Kevin Tersigni, is serving in Iraq.
"They need to focus on finishing what they need to do and keeping themselves safe. So the financial stress doesn't need to happen," the mother of two, who will be broke by the end of the month, told CNN.
The blame game is complex.
Republicans blame the then-Democratic majority for failing to pass a budget last year. Democrats blame Senate Republicans for blocking Democrats from reaching the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster and pass a budget.
Some Democrats even blame Obama for failing to jump into the politically punishing budget battle in recent weeks.
Sen. Bernie Saunders (I-Vt.) says Democrats are culpable in this showdown for another reason: Once they allowed the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich to continue it opened up the opportunity for Republicans to go after the severe budget cuts to tackle the federal deficit. Saunders has said he cannot support deep budget cuts without some "shared sacrifice" with changes to the revenue stream, like wiping out tax loopholes for hugely profitable oil companies.
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