Uh-oh... so much for the immediate post election spirit of bipartisanship.
Story at The Hill. (I've taken the liberty to highlight the metaphors in advance ;) )
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday said "fiscal cliff" talks are at an “impasse” and only President Obama can break the logjam.
McConnell laid the blame for the slow-going discussion on liberal Democrats who are dragging their feet on reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
“So we’ll continue to wait on the president, and hope that he has what it takes to bring people together to forge a compromise. If he does, we’ll get there. If he doesn’t, we won’t. It’s that simple,” McConnell said.Through last Friday, Current Debt Limit: $16,394B ... Public Debt Subject to Limit: $16,268B ... Fiscal Policy Space Available: $126B
Treasury auctions over the last 2 days have totaled over $100B so depending on concurrent amounts of UST redemptions, a lot of the remaining ceiling could already be accounted for...
6 comments:
So let me get this straight…
Doing a stupid deal that will hurt 99% of the people involved is being held up by a handful of folks that see the real picture and refuse to go along?
Unreasonable people are always screwing things up. Bastards. (glad to be one).
Correct me if I'm wrong. But didn't Barack Obama actually win the election and defeat the Republican candidate? Why does he need to compromise with the losers?
Good point Dan,
It looks like the GOP may want the Dems to propose cuts to Senior Citizen programs and the uninsured...
perhaps they think they can lay this back on the Dems but imo that wont fly with the electorate as the Dems still will maintain better messaging on those issues with the public...
Looks like this will test Pres Obama as a dealmaker and arm-twister...
rsp,
"Looks like this will test Pres Obama as a dealmaker and arm-twister..."
In other words, we're doomed.
:o)
I think the Democrats are going about this all wrong. Its a fools errand to think they'll get any bipartisan deals in the short term, and they need to set the table first before they can get reach any long term deals. Remember, Republicans in Congress are terrified of being primaried from the right. The first thing the Democrats should push is nonpartisan congressional primaries (like California and Washington State have), the top two candidates, regardless of party, go on to the general election.
If that became law you'd suddenly find a lot of Republican congressmen and senators acting much more reasonably (since moderate candidates could get through the primaries by appealing to centrists in both parties).
Correct me if I'm wrong. But didn't Barack Obama actually win the election and defeat the Republican candidate? Why does he need to compromise with the losers?
Remember that speech he gave that made him famous nationally? There is no red America or blue America, only a red, white and blue America.
He thinks that as president he governs for all Americans and that means splitting the difference instead of doing the right thing. — For domestic policy, but not foreign policy, of course.
Well my so called "progressive" senator is a bipartisan ass:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-durbin-urges-progressives-to-back-entitlement-cuts-in-fiscal-cliff-deal-20121127,0,3123621.story
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