Obama kills bipartisan deal, then Reid resorts to smoke and mirrors

Washington Post ^ | 07/25/11 | Jennifer Rubin

[MissesBush]

As I reported earlier, the president rejected a bipartisan congressional deal that would have calmed the markets, resolved the debt-ceiling crisis and restored faith in Washington politicians. President Obama was having none of it, demonstrating once and for all that the problem is NOT the House Republicans, but the election-obsessed White House.

So then the parties begin to devise separate congressional plans. The Post reports, “Senate Democrats are preparing to introduce legislation that would avert a national default on Aug. 2 and achieve $2.7 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade without raising taxes.”

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is devising a sham that will never pass muster in the House. A Capitol Hill source with knowledge of the plan tells me: “It includes $1.2 trillion in OCO [Overseas Contingency Operations] savings . . . which was assumed anyway, $1.2 trillion (over $1.1 trillion less than [Majority Leader Eric] Cantor identified in the Biden talks) and $300 billion in interest savings.” A Senate aide says dryly that Reid “has about a trillion in ‘savings’ from ending the war in Iraq that’s already going to end.” And a disgusted House adviser bluntly tells me that Reid’s plan “isn’t real.”

We shouldn’t be too harsh on Reid. HE DID reach a bipartisan deal with the House. But the president squashed it. (Note to Congress: Next time don’t ask, just pass it and leave town.) Now we are back to gamesmanship.

It is extremely telling, however, that Reid’s plan contains NO tax hike. As I suspected, Obama doesn’t have enough support even in his own party (and particularly from Senate Democrats facing reelection) to pass the massive tax increases that he and his liberal base demand.

[henkster]

“We shouldn’t be too harsh on Reid. HE DID reach a bipartisan deal with the House. But the president squashed it. (Note to Congress: Next time don’t ask, just pass it and leave town.) Now we are back to gamesmanship.”

Heck yes; pass a bill, put it on his desk and MAKE HIM VETO IT.

Follow the Constitution!

[Paladin2]

I’d be a “good thing” to fundamentally change Zer0 into a Lame Duck.

[Da Coyote]

Hey WaPo, an astute MSM reporter said it.

Why don’t you just go ahead and say it.

It’s the truth.

Your president is a d**k.

And not a very intelligent one, at that.

[SueRae]

Jennifer Rubin has been doing a good job on the writing of late..and it’s from WAPO.

[Terry Mross]

Reid does what he’s told to do. By rejecting Reid’s bi-partisan plan, it proves obama wants this country to crash. Of course we all know that here.

[KeyLargo]

Is she the token conservative at the Washington Compost?

Jennifer Rubin Opinion Blogger

Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective. She covers a range of domestic and foreign policy issues and provides insight into the conservative movement and the Republican Party. Rubin came to The Post after three years with Commentary magazine. Her work has appeared in a number of print and online publications, including The Weekly Standard, where she has been a frequent contributor. Prior to her career in journalism, Rubin practiced labor law for two decades. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and two sons.

[BibChr]

For some reason, I thought it said “smoke and diapers.”

Which, I guess, works.

[KeyLargo]

“This is a city where compromise is becoming a dirty word,” Obama lamented as congressional leaders groped for a way out of a looming crisis.

In stinging remarks a short while later on the Senate floor, the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, urged the president to reconsider his position rather “than veto the country into default.”

[The Bronze Titan]

These Democrats and this President are so ideological and extreme that they have absolutely lost all sense of reality, totally out of touch with the American public. They are so programmed to their failed ideology that they are headed towards utter failure, taking down the entire country with them. The Republicans better be careful not to “negotiate” their way onto their suicidal mission.

[muawiyah]

Interesting ~ there's a Postie now who's figured out what even Reid figured out, that the Republicans knew all along.

Obama is an empty suit. His lackeys are even more vacuous.

Biden, with his brain surgery (3 times unsuccessfully to boot) begins to look more like someone we can depend on.

[Rational Thought]

If you look back at most of her opinion pieces, she is Conservative by the establishment definition.

[Red_Devil 232]

"This is a city where compromise is becoming a dirty word,” Obama lamented ..."

Compromise should be a very vile word in DC - Because whenever it is used the Republicans and conservatives LOSE!

[moovova]

...and restored faith in Washington politicians.

Yeah, right. She probably still puts a tooth under the pillow and expects a dollar to be there the next day.

[Deb]

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ASIAN MARKETS????!!!!!

Oh, I guess nothing happened. Nevermind.

[digger48]

If you look back at most of her opinion pieces, she is Conservative by the establishment definition.

She takes a lot of heat in the comment section. I kinda liked this one, though being milder than some posts, is a textbook example of the thinking of the liberal mind. ..

TheHillman

I'm all for WP allowing space for conservative points of view.

But Jennifer Rubin is a poor choice. She's so clearly partisan and unoriginal that reading her makes me cringe.

And her tone is shrill, and is sortof everything that is wrong with politics in America today.

"Conservatives can speak, but only if I like what they have to say"

[newzjunkey]

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