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House Democrat says “fiscal cliff” vote could go into 2013
Reuters ^ | Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:32am EST | Fred Barbash

Posted on 12/14/2012 10:57:45 PM PST by Olog-hai

The failure of Democrats and Republicans to break the impasse over the “fiscal cliff” is raising the possibility of Congress going beyond the year-end deadline to complete the work necessary to avert steep tax hikes and budget cuts that experts fear could push the nation into another recession.

A top Democrat in the House of Representatives said if the two sides agreed in principle on a deal but ran out of time to draft and pass the legislation implementing it, Congress could pass a temporary measure and work out the details in the following weeks.

Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking House Democrat, raised the overtime possibility in a Fox News interview Thursday, just before President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met at the White House and failed to break the impasse on the key tax issue holding up movement in the talks. …

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: fiscalabyss; fiscalcliff; stenyhoyer; stimpyhoyer; truepartyofno

1 posted on 12/14/2012 10:57:57 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

Especially now that they have to kneejerk quickly in order to successfully exploit the bodies of those 20 kindergartners. Barry’s “cliff” is going to have to go on the back burner until after the ‘RATS trample the Bill of Rights for a while.


2 posted on 12/14/2012 11:02:39 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (It's not about the guns. It's about the control.)
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To: Olog-hai

The Unitd States walked - no, ran - over the ‘fiscal cliff’ long ago.

The government now is operating so deep in the red that the debt will never be repaid.

The only solution to the dilemma is to print mountains of fiat money - currency backed by nothing except the willingness of the people to use it for barter - even if it does require a shoebox full of currency to buy a sandwich.

Once that willingness expires, as it certainly will, the whole house of cards which is the federal machinery will come tumbling down.


3 posted on 12/14/2012 11:29:01 PM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: Olog-hai

Or maybe Christmas Eve, like the 2010 ‘Affordable Care’ act vote.
GOP-e bites the pillow, 4-3-2-1 . . . .


4 posted on 12/14/2012 11:35:05 PM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: All armed conservatives.)
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To: Olog-hai

Everytime I see “House Democrat” or anything with the word “democrat” attached I think, treason, sedition, liar, cheat, thief etc. I don’t believe nor acknowledge anything a democrat says. Any democrat.


5 posted on 12/15/2012 12:23:41 AM PST by albie
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To: Olog-hai
The failure of Democrats and Republicans to break the impasse over the “fiscal cliff” is raising the possibility of Congress going beyond the year-end deadline to complete the work necessary to avert steep tax hikes and budget cuts that experts fear could push the nation into another recession.

The "tax and spend" Democrats have no real motivation to avoid the "fiscal cliff." Everybody with a job is going to have to pay more taxes. Without tax money to buy votes there is no Democrat party.

My guess is that the Democrats will wait and see how much the Republicans will be blamed for the potential economic disaster. The Republicans are being blamed for anything and everything because they object to out of control spending by the Democrats. Democrat voters agree that Republicans are bad; the functionally illiterate Dems are happy because they get Obamaphones and free health care. What a deal!

6 posted on 12/15/2012 3:28:26 AM PST by olezip
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To: olezip

I would suggest this....if we arrive on 2 January, with the fiscal cliff going into full operation, and yet really noticeable to the common American....then the story rapidly dwindles. No one will care.

So I’m predicting this. On 2 January....almost nothing with the fiscal cliff is noticed. By the end of January....other than some freezes on hiring, and some conferences cancelled for the year....nothing is noted.

By March, around 10k government employees who are at or near retirement will be offered a bonus to leave now (max at $25k, and it’s taxed anyway). Nothing much is really noticed.

By July, there are fewer TSA folks and you start to require another thirty minutes at the airport. Your application for a new passport takes an extra ten days. But still, most folks don’t notice anything.

By December of 2013, the fiscal cliff thing is considered a joke by half the public. But as we get into 2014....more intense cuts start to occur...strangely enough in an election year. Blame now resurfaces toward the Republicans. We made almost a full year without complaint, and now seem to notice various little issues each week.


7 posted on 12/15/2012 4:11:43 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: Olog-hai

Notice that the CT shooting has back-paged this topic - the Dims are elated that they get a two-fer; less fiscal cliff talk and an opportunity to attack Freedom and the 2nd Amendment.


8 posted on 12/15/2012 5:22:56 AM PST by trebb (Allies no longer trust us. Enemies no longer fear us.)
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To: pepsionice

“But still, most folks don’t notice anything.”

Typically governments make cuts in the goods and services most visible to taxpayers. In state government instead of taking out a level of bloated high paid bureaucracy in the education or highway departments in the state capital, they reduce the number of highway patrolmen or close several state parks. Georgia even recently announced it was closing the state archives. The closure was reversed after the pesky taxpayers protested vehemently.

Obama and his administration no doubt already have cuts planned for maximum effect and public relations value with the mainstream press. There will be no $150,000 directors of Muslim outreach positions eliminated. Instead TSA officers will be cut in high traffic airports and the news media will be on site day one to show the long lines at LAX, LaGuardia, Newark, Atlanta. National parks will be closed or services the public frequently uses such as campgrounds will be closed at parks that stay open while the number of park rangers giving programs on global warming will be increased. No doubt they will reduce the number of air traffic controllers and the press will be primed to report every near miss. We’ll see stories on the news with air traffic controllers complaining about not having enough sleep. Another tactic might be to lay off 10,000 border patrol agents or hundreds of FBI agents. Administrators who interface directly with the people at the social security offices around the country will be cut, resulting in longer processing times and long waits to be seen while the multiple layers of highly paid bureaucrats in regional offices and Waashington will be retained. The strategy will be to create citizen anger at the mean Republicans whose unwillingness to be bipartisan caused the pain.

Now to reality both sides understand. Over the past 25 years American corporations and American business have gone through waves of downsizing in middle management. Desktop computing has resulted in signifiant productivity gains, the nature of white collar office work has changed, and corporations have learned to do with fewer layers of bureaucracy. Plus people in private industry work longer hours than government workers who are out the door at 5:00 pm. Go to any corporate headquarters or regional office. The parking lot is half full at 7:30 in the morning and 6:30 at night. It common for new CEO’s to begin their new assignments by early on ordering a 10% cut of the workforce, knowing it will reduce cost and increase productivity by giving managers the opportunity to cut out the least productive workers.

Contrast with government which has become more bloated over the past 25 years. Layers of bureaucrats and dozens of regional offices have been added. Any skillful private sector CEO or COO could go into a government agency and after a few weeks of study cut 20% of the head count, reorganize the workflow and actually increase productivity. In fact the experience in the private sector is usually an increase in productivity after a major layoff. People who survive the layoff become extremely motivated to perform, fearing a future layoff. Plus the elimination of the dead wood standing around talking all day actually allows those remaining to work faster.

No doubt there are many regional agency offices, created only to bring the bacon home to some powerful committee chair’s district, could be eliminated without changing services. The post office is bleeding red ink due to technology changes and private sector competition yet there are at least 5 post office branches within 10 miles of my house and a dozen or more contract locations in hardware stores and card shops. Add to that private sector UPS stores and Fed/Ex Kinkos locations. If the post office had truly been privatized it would have eliminated Saturday delivery, shut down thousands of tiny post office, contracted out office services to private mail offices and eliminated at the door service in suburban neighborhoods.

I absolutely agree with you the fiscal cliff “cuts” can be performed in a way that won’t affect services to any taxpayer in any meaningful way. However, I have no doubt the agencies and the administration will deliberately implement the cuts in ways that will create havoc for the taxpayer and its allies in the press and entertainment industry will scream about the pain being inflicted on the poor as well as the many risks to public safety. The cuts will be made by politicians with an agenda, not professional managers carefully assessing how to increase productivity and maintain essential services.


9 posted on 12/15/2012 5:44:57 AM PST by Soul of the South
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To: Olog-hai

In other words, our annual use of Christmas and New Year’s to get what we want to further liberalism isn’t working.


10 posted on 12/15/2012 6:53:20 AM PST by cotton1706
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To: Olog-hai

That’s because Bonehead wants to be re-elected as speaker first,
before he caves in on the cliff.


11 posted on 12/15/2012 6:59:00 AM PST by tennmountainman
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To: Olog-hai
the “fiscal cliff” is raising the possibility of Congress going beyond the year-end deadline to complete the work necessary to avert steep tax hikes and budget cuts that experts fear could push the nation into another recession.

This will be fun for all of the payroll processing companies, P/R departments and software companies. Not to mention all of the costs associated with this uncertainty.

If you are fortunate enough to be drawing a paycheck, double check for errors in January, and maybe beyond.

If you look in the dictionary, next to a picture of Congress and 0bama, you will see the word "Cluster F@ck."

5.56mm

12 posted on 12/15/2012 7:05:34 AM PST by M Kehoe
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To: albie
Everytime I see “House Democrat” or anything with the word “democrat” attached I think, treason, sedition, liar, cheat, thief etc.

This applies, in spades, to Steny WHORE-YER

13 posted on 12/15/2012 7:48:32 AM PST by McBuff
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To: Olog-hai; Abundy; Albion Wilde; AlwaysFree; AnnaSASsyFR; bayliving; BFM; cindy-true-supporter; ...

Stimpy Hoyer . . .

Maryland “Freak State” PING!


14 posted on 12/15/2012 7:22:42 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Obama should change his campaign slogan to "Yes, we am!" Sounds as stupid as his administration is.)
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To: M Kehoe

I work in the Payroll IT industry and we of course have plans for changes that may never occur but can’t take the chance. Havoc is a good way to describe it and this type of thing has been going on for decades. Most of the general public doesn’t notice. I’m sure that other industries have similar experiences with ‘law makers’.


15 posted on 12/16/2012 8:52:22 AM PST by RedMDer (Please support Toys for Tots this CHRISTmas season.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Maybe this will drive some lib voters from Maryland if they lose their jobs.


16 posted on 12/16/2012 8:55:22 AM PST by RedMDer (Please support Toys for Tots this CHRISTmas season.)
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