Posted on 07/31/2011 6:28:45 AM PDT by pabianice
Per discussion this AM about the debt ceiling/tax cut proposals, several congresspeople say deal now involves making sure it would go past the 2012 elections and would mean one dollar cuts for each two dollars of debt ceiling increase, with immediate cuts being tiny. Looks like the Repubs are folding.
The whole thing was set up by the leadership on both sides to play out this way. Our senate squishes are actually relatively minor, though useful, figures in the larger charade.
Oh, and don’t think that we wouldn’t have had a couple dozen other GOP Senators to switch for the cause as required: we really only have a half dozen solid conservatives there and they just sent the the few required out from those could best take the bullet for this vote.
This is the real problem. What passes for the American public these days is hopelessly addicted to the social welfare state. Now that people are wedded to it, it is nearly impossible to ween them from it.
Even here on FR you sometimes see the "I paid into it and I want ALL my benefits" arguments when it comes to things like Medicare. I know lots of otherwise very conservative seasoned citizens who recoil at even the mention of touching Medicare and Social Security - even when you tell them it won't effect anyone over 55. They just don't want to hear it.
And of course the biggest problem, there are just not enough white people moving to the GOP fast enough to offset the massive growth and decidedly democratic voting patterns of the minority communities. Perhaps someone like Rubio could help change that dynamic, but if patterns persist for much longer it is going to be increasingly difficult to win states like Colorado, Nevada, NC, etc - anywhere with rapidly expanding hispanic populations.
They're not folding. They've supported a two to three TRILLION dollar increase in borrowing and spending authority from day one.
You have nailed it...the unspoken circumstance that prevents reform. Look around at society, culture and the people who inhabit the US today. They are essentially lost and the only light in the woods is the expectation of a government candle.
Only massive deportations, work camps and other authoritarian measures could change the trajectory of this country... but we aren’t going to burn the village to save it.
Here is what is being reported by the Atlantic:
Other component parts of the tentative deal include:
$2.8 trillion in deficit reduction with $1 trillion locked in through discretionary spending caps over 10 years and the remainder determined by a so-called “Super Committee.”
The Super Committee must report precise deficit-reduction proposals by Thanksgiving.
The Super Committee would have to propose $1.8 trillion in spending cuts to achieve that amount of deficit reduction over 10 years.
If the Super Committee fails, Congress must send a balanced-budget amendment to the states for ratification. If that doesn’t happen, across-the-board spending cuts would go into effect and could touch Medicare and defense spending.
No net new tax revenue would be part of the special committee’s deliberations.
The CBS version also sounds different from what you heard:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/31/politics/main20085985.shtml
I know now that we ARE screwed if Dick ‘Turban Durbin’ is ‘positive’ about the debt deal.
chicagotribune.com
Durbin ‘more positive’ about getting debt ceiling deal
By Katherine Skiba
Tribune reporter
9:39 AM CDT, July 31, 2011
WASHINGTON — Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 official in the Senate, said this morning that he was optimistic about ongoing negotiations toward a deal on raising the debt ceiling.
BINGO! And they’re world in one of lavish trips and high society living and a stuffed retirement system. All of them want that to keep going as long as possible. If the country folds, their gravy train is the first one off the tracks.
worst case, they have given us a few weeks or months to get ready for shtf, when the debt issue will simply “fix” itself by implosion, regardless of Congressional fumbling and executive fiat
If the Super Committee fails, Congress must send a balanced-budget amendment to the states for ratification. If that doesn’t happen, across-the-board spending cuts would go into effect and could touch Medicare and defense spending.
First of all, who decided which democrats and which rinos are on the super committee.
Second, it says if a BBA is not sent to the states across-the-board cuts would go into effect. Do you see the Clinton word parsing going on here? Sending a BBA to the states does not make a BBA. It has to be ratified and that could take years ... if ever. So, they day “We sent the BBA to the states but we ain’t cuttin’ crap.”
Rim shot.
aka.. 'compromise'.
Dims don't compromise, they just badger you into submission.
>>...It’s long past time to flush the Congrss as you would your toilet because the material is the same! ...<<
Yeah. Good luck with that. Take Snowe, Collins, Graham, McCain, McConnell... Heck, take the whole darn list of compromisers, RINO’s and squishes and count the many times these jokers have been re-elected. We (the voters) have handed them bloody *careers* in congress and inflicted the damage they cause upon ourselves.
So while I share your sentiment, they are buried in congress as deep as a wood-tick and the voters aren’t going to change that. Someone far smarter than I will need to come up with an answer to the question, “how do voters in State-A talk sense into voters in State-B when the negative aspects of the RINO’s State-B keeps electing are well known/common knowledge?”
A second, $1.4 trillion increase would be tied to a specially created congressional committee that would have to ‘suggest’ deficit cuts of a slightly larger amount.
If that panel did not act - or if Congress rejected their recommendations - ‘automatic’ spending cuts would be triggered that could affect Medicare and defense spending, two of the most politically sacrosanct programs.
And this is going to play out...they’ll use our seniors healthcare coverage and the military as cannonfodder. Because... as we have seen in congress...as do nothing as the UN, while the people eat the crumbs off their tables.
And the twelve will be positioned to take kickbacks and numerous other political black mail tactics. So they’ll not agree any more than congress agrees as it hands down this very “small” thing of what is considered a bi-partisian bill?
The system isn’t dysfunctional, nor broken, it simply doesn’t exist any longer ‘for’ or ‘by the people’. American citizens are no longer in the “loop”...we’ve become insignificant in their agendas....used as cannonfodder only as parties fire away to entertain the “stupid” public.
Amazing theatrics...even more amazing the public still cannot see. IRA’s eetc. will be next to tap....pensions and any other area that has volumes of revenue..if they aren’t already.
It won't be on Obama/Democrates watch...guaranteed. Looks like they are simply pushing this all down the road for the Republicans to straighten out as always...then they'll come back in the following election, after the Republicans have done the heavy lifting, and tear down further what's been built back up.
This tit-for tat isn't going to last much longer and it wouldn't take much to put the US over the edge even now.
Sheesh, we are still fighting wars in Yemen, Libya, Aphganistan, and Iraq....and Korea isn't going to remain passive for very much longer with a famine on the brink. While Russia and China continue to stage themselves solid.
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