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President Obama pledged to end partisanship, but instead has exacerbated it. He recently accused House Republicans of being extortionists for opposing a raise in the debt ceiling and wanting to defund Obamacare. Dictionary.com defines extortion as "the crime of obtaining money or some other thing of value by the abuse of one's office or authority." Republicans should fling the extortion label back at the president, who wants to raise the debt ceiling, threatening to curtail many government operations if the GOP doesn't surrender. 2006, when George W. Bush was president, Sen. Obama said: "The fact that we are here today...

Budget talks between President Obama and Speaker Boehner fell apart yesterday (snip) (Obama comment) It is hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of deal. (End of Obama comment) I actually think it’s quite easy. The President backtracked in private negotiations this week, demanding bigger tax increases after the Gang of Six, including three conservative Republican Senators, released a plan that raised taxes more than the President had previously demanded. (snip) While it is an aggressive tactic, there is nothing “wrong” with moving backward in a negotiation. It is likely to anger the counterparty, and...

<p>In an unusual display of emotion, President Obama angrily responded to House Speaker John A. Boehner's abrupt withdrawal from talks on a debt ceiling increase, and summoned congressional leaders to the White House on Saturday for emergency talks to plot a new course before the Aug. 2 deadline.</p>

While Washington wrangles over how to avoid defaulting on the government’s massive debt load, voters are worried the final deal will raise taxes too much but won't cut spending enough. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 62% of Likely U.S. Voters are worried more that Congress and President Obama will raise taxes too much rather than too little in any deal to end the debt ceiling debate. Just 26% fear they’ll raise taxes too little. Twelve percent (12%) aren’t sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Similarly, 56% worry that Congress and the president will cut...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) calls Republicans "dead-beat debtors" among other things during a Democratic press conference on Wednesday morning. "The debate and fight is not between Democrats and Republicans. It's between some Republicans and their sort of cult fringe as I refer to them out there," Harkin said. "Democrats are willing to do whatever is necessary to raise the debt ceiling, not for future borrowing but to pay the debts that we racked up in the past. Which, mostly was racked up by a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican President in the last 8 years. Yet, they're...

Am I the only one who's had it about 25 feet over my head with the Democrat and media double speak of referring to tax hikes as "new revenue?" Just today I heard on ABC's radio news broadcast Ann Compton refer to this feckless Gang of Six proposal as "increasing revenue." Politico reporting on Obama's latest bull fest dressed up as a press conference said the following "Obama urged congressional leaders to embrace the “Gang of Six” proposal, which would slash the deficit by $3.7 trillion over 10 years, in part by raising about $1 trillion in new revenue." Why...

In a Washington deadlocked over taxes and spending, there is nothing more cherished than its favorite metaphor—and nothing more revealing about the way our Beltway establishment thinks. Look at the ongoing negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. Almost from the beginning, President Obama has been described as being, or hoping to position himself as, "the adult in the room." This has become the received metaphor, operating as a sort of Gresham's law of political dialogue: Once introduced, it drives out most any other possible language. Here are just a handful of examples from the past few weeks: "Leading off: The...

Officials familiar with the negotiations say today’s meeting began with President Obama asking House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to lay out what was agreed upon in the deficit reduction talks led by Vice President Biden. Cantor outlined around $2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade: $1–1.1 trillion in discretionary spending; $200 billion in mandatory discretionary spending (such as civilian military retirement and farm subsidies); $200 billion in Medicare and Medicaid; and roughly $200-300 billion in saved interest on the debt. After Cantor’s presentation, the President said the two sides might be able to reach consensus on roughly...