Free Republic

Someone is running amok at C-SPAN, the nonprofit network where political junkies get their kicks watching the inner workings of Congress. In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, as most of the country partied away the first few hours of the 2013, anyone who was watching C-SPAN at 1:27 a.m., breathlessly waiting for the Senate to pass a deal on the fiscal cliff, would have seen a somewhat odd caption over Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin: “Just Plain Dick.” The caption was memorialized by Erin Skinner Cochran on Twitter, and reported by Jim Romenesko on his media blog.

Mitch McConnell has many virtues as a legislator. Unfortunately, brokering deals advantageous to Republicans is not one of them. McConnell’s defenders will say that his most recent deal was the best any Republican could do under the circumstances. Perhaps. But this defense ignores the fact that it was McConnell’s prior deal — the one creating the “fiscal cliff” — that established these adverse circumstances. Let’s step back and consider the impact of McConnell’s deals on the valiant effort of House Republicans in 2011 to use the debt-ceiling to attack the debt. So far, the results are as follows: (1) the...

Pete Sessions makes me sick - he's voted RINO every single time. I'll be supporting his opponent next time or not voting for him.

DON'T DO IT. To Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, and all other Republicans in the House, under NO circumstances shall you betray your country, party and our Constitution by feeding into the Socialists' (masquerading as Democrats) continued assault on the American economy. You MUST realize by now that the mission of the Obama regime is to force the United States into a debt we will NEVER recover from.. His 'Cloward & Piven' strategy of dispensing entitlements like candy and spending relentlessly without any regard to cutting spending for the purpose of CRASHING OUR REPUBLIC FOR REPLACEMENT WITH HIS NATIONAL SOCIALIST UTOPIA is...

Not an Awful Deal By QUIN HILLYER on 1.1.13 @ 10:16AM After about an hour of studying last night’s budget deal, I find it right on the borderline between (A) awful-tasting medicine we still need to take for our health and (B) a cure that is worse than the disease. But careful, careful attention pushes the calculation every-so-slightly toward the former. This isn’t even a 51-49 proposition, but only a 50.1-49.9 proposition. Still, here’s why the option of a “yes” vote for House Republicans — notwithstanding my warnings yesterday that “no deal” is better than a bad deal — is...

**SNIP** “Under current law, on January 2, 2013, there’s going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases,” said Bernanke, in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee on February 29, 2012. **SNIP** What’s likely, is that as members on the Hill grew concerned with the stalemate over the automatic spending cuts and tax increases, the communications apparatus went to work and settled on “fiscal cliff,” members started using, Bernanke used it, and suddenly it explodes in the media and becomes codified as short hand for a complex issue. There you go. From early films...

Several Republicans took to the House floor Tuesday afternoon to slam the Senate-brokered "fiscal cliff" bill that was passed earlier in the morning, calling it a rush job that raises taxes and delays most of the spending cuts planned for this year. "So we find ourselves again with a bill that reflects not financial wisdom, but the seductive spirit that pervades this town," Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) said. "Leaders in Washington continue to over-promise. They're likes salespeople who tell their customer they can have an $30,000 car but only pay $18,000 for it. Who doesn't like that deal?" Rep. Louie...

Say Yes to the Mess 12:15 PM, JAN 1, 2013 • BY WILLIAM KRISTOL The fiscal cliff deal that the Senate passed early this morning is ridiculous in too many ways to count. There seem to be no figures from the Congressional Budget Office and only "very preliminary" figures from the Joint Tax Committee about the real spending and revenue implications. The two month delay of the sequester will make actual governance even more difficult (how is the Pentagon supposed to plan for the rest of the year?). The sequester delay is funded by a gimmick with retirement savings tax...

Obamacare contains twenty new or higher taxes. Five of the taxes hit for the first time on January 1. In total, Americans face a net $1 trillion tax hike for the years 2013-2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The five major Obamacare taxes taking effect on January 1 are as follows: The Obamacare Medical Device Tax: Medical device manufacturers employ 409,000 people in 12,000 plants across the country. Obamacare imposes a new 2.3 percent excise tax on gross sales – even if the company does not earn a profit in a given year. In addition to killing small business...

The White House issued a "fact sheet" statement Tuesday declaring the fiscal cliff agreement a victory, though the House has yet to vote on the measure. "At this make or break moment for the middle class, the President achieved a bipartisan solution that keeps income taxes low for the middle class and grows the economy," the statement says. "For the first time in 20 years, Congress will have acted on a bipartisan basis to vote for significant new revenue.

The White House issued a "fact sheet" statement Tuesday declaring the fiscal cliff agreement a victory, though the House has yet to vote on the measure. "At this make or break moment for the middle class, the President achieved a bipartisan solution that keeps income taxes low for the middle class and grows the economy," the statement says. "For the first time in 20 years, Congress will have acted on a bipartisan basis to vote for significant new revenue.

“We’re extremely disappointed. There was no need for this drama on New Year’s Ever because the House completed its work last August,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) “[This] is a cynical attempt on the part of the President to ensure that he has complete Democrat control, House of Representatives and Senate, in the final term.”

(Reuters) - The White House and congressional lawmakers have reached a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that would delay harsh spending cuts by two months, Obama administration officials said on Monday. President Barack Obama called Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who both signed off on the deal, one source said. The agreement includes a balance of spending cuts and revenue increases to pay for the delay in the automatic spending cuts that would go into effect without a deal by lawmakers.

Speaking before a friendly crowd of “middle-class families” at the Old Executive Office building in Washington, D.C., this afternoon, President Obama addressed the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations, claiming that the deal was not achieved in his preferred “balanced approach” because of Republicans unwilling to negotiate higher taxes on the wealthy. While noting that the current plan includes no new spending cuts, he also added that any future debt deals will have to include more tax increases. “The potential agreement that’s being talked about would not only make sure the taxes don’t go up on middle class families, it also would...

Minutes after President Barack Obama left a stage flanked by supporters where he implored Congressional Republicans to support a tentative deal to avoid going over the fiscal cliff, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took to the floor of the Senate to accuse the president of “antagonizing” Republicans. He said that, based on the president’s casual press conference, he and the American people have to wonder whether Obama believes it is in his interest to go over the cliff. In his speech to his fellow colleagues in the Senate on Monday, McCain did not express any faith that Obama’s press conference had...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress won't meet Monday midnight deadline on voting to avert 'fiscal cliff.' Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/31/5084967/ap-reports-congress-will-miss.html#storylink=cpy

President Obama is trying to push through legislation to keep broader middle class income taxes from rising by Monday night. But they may still have to pay at least 2% more in payroll taxes. That's because the government had temporarily lowered the payroll tax rate in 2011 to 4.2% from 6.2%, in an effort to keep more cash in the pockets of Americans and provide a boost to the economy. The tax cut, which applies on the first $113,700 in annual earnings, is expiring in December. Come 2013, most of the country's 160 million workers will see smaller paychecks. No...

This afternoon, in one of the more bizarre appearances of his presidency, Barack Obama gave a televised address to a room full of supporters on the "fiscal cliff." He broke no news, but mocked Congress, and hinted at future tax hikes. Observers worried that he may have deliberately scuttled a potential agreement. Even though he has come off his last campaign for political office, President Obama acted like a candidate on the campaign trail--one prepared to use whatever political capital he had accumulated to take shots at the opposition in Congress at the very moment leaders from both sides are...

An energy security group told The Hill on Friday that it does not expect the one-year wind credit extension it has supported to make it into a “fiscal cliff” deal. The Truman National Security Project's Operation Free campaign is preparing to fight for a retroactive extension to the credit next Congress. Michael Wu, the group’s advocacy policy director, said the extension would likely be left out of a short-term agreement to avoid automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect Jan. 1. “Everything in a stopgap package would be geared toward keeping taxes from jumping on the middle...

Leading Democrats are putting together fallback proposals if Washington fails to reach a deal on the “fiscal cliff” that would allow the party to cast itself as seeking to cut taxes. “Of course, I’ve got a backup plan in the event that we don’t succeed here,” Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Friday. “I’m sure the White House has one too.” Tax rates are set to expire on most households in January if Congress does not act to extend some of the rates, something some Democrats have long seen as giving their party an advantage....