Posted on 11/21/2011 3:55:24 PM PST by mdittmar
For Immediate Release: Monday, November 21, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) today made the following statement after an announcement by co-chairs Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R- Texas) that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction was unable to reach an agreement on a plan to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion:
“I'm deeply disappointed with this outcome. We all are. This was an historic moment to do something big, bold, and balanced that demanded shared sacrifice to put our country first. Everyone worked hard and everyone wanted success.
“It’s too easy just to say that Washington is broken or Congress is broken. But telling the truth about how we got here is the only way to ensure we put our country on the right course. These issues aren’t going away; in fact they are becoming more urgent.
“There is an enormous ideological divide in politics today, and today’s outcome underscores the rigidity and unwillingness of forces outside of Congress to allow for rational consensus.
“Democrats on the Committee made clear everything was on the table. Our offers were balanced. We walked the line of shared sacrifice, however difficult, and we proposed painful choices for programs we care about deeply.
“However, we simply could not overcome the Republican insistence on making tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent. We would not give another $550 billion tax cut to the wealthiest. Shifting the tax burden to the middle class was not the way to reduce the deficit. This was simply doctrine for some of our Republican colleagues, even as many worked very hard in good faith to find a better way forward. I believe it would have been unconscionable to ask middle class Americans to finance more tax cuts for the wealthy while seniors on fixed incomes paid the price. People need to remember: The Committee was created to cut the deficit not to cut taxes for the wealthiest, the exact tax policies that didn’t create jobs and gave us deficits in the first place. The bottom line is that no Super Committee can succeed with Grover Norquist as its 13th member.
I believe this was a moment for American leadership, and from day one we urged the Committee to go big and reach the $4 trillion mark. Certain elements of the Republican Party were unwilling to put tax revenue on the table, and no deal without it can be fair.
“This challenge of deficit reduction remains. We still have a jobs deficit and growing budget deficit and now we have an even greater deficit of public trust in Americans' belief that Congress can make adult decisions. It didn’t have to be this way. Perhaps the awful reality of across the board budget cuts in key priorities will finally sober everyone up. We must spend the next year figuring out how to arrive at a balanced and fair solution for our country.”
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Oh c'mon kerry,you served in Vietnam!
You know you want to say it,say Tea Party!
Blowhard
“Can I get me some tax increases here?”
They all have a press release talking points. It is an orchestrated effort to blame, blame, blame. Do they think the country if full of a bunch of stooges to buy their bull?
Agree. CUT SPENDING.
ah yet again the left play their word game.
tax revenue, no call it what it is tax increases and I see even FOX go along with their name game
I wonder if Kerry showed anyone his 2004 Plan? Since he had the Plan to end all plans, where is it? Why is it Bush’s fault and not Kerry’s for hiding his plan? I hope his boat has bedbugs.
Hey War Hero:
It might just be easy to say because it's true...especially when the likes of you and your fellow RATs are running the place.
What did you expect the Republicans do...help you raise taxes so you could share the "bipartisan" blame?
We won't tolerate the wealthy keeping the money that they earned and depriving us of the opportunity to hand it out to those that didn't earn it.
$44 Trillion spending projected over ten years and the committee cannot find $1.2 Trillion? Spending already exceeds the 18-20% of GDP that is sustainable, regardless of tax rates. Common folks, the problem is spending, period.
Is this the guy who served in Vietnam?
Thanks for posting this thread.
“- - - today’s outcome underscores the rigidity and unwillingness of forces outside of Congress to allow for rational consensus.”
Yes, Senator Ketchup-Kerry, we are ALWAYS ready and willing to oppose ANY “Bipartisan Cave-In” that you or any other lib proposes as a “rational consensus.”
BTW, back in the day, Reagan declared Ketchup to be a vegetable. What does that make you?
The hypocrisy of this SOB is beyond the pale.
Gigolo docks his wife's cruise ship in Rhode Island to save a few pennies in property tax..... THERE IS SO MUCH FODDER HERE FOR REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN ADS.....gimme a call, RNC - I'll show you some balls that you seem to lack.
Oops! I forgot to mention, Senator Ketchup, that “forces outside of Congress” are usually called WE, THE PEOPLE.
In other words, WE are YOUR bosses.
The hypocrisy is astounding.
I'm sure Dan Rather is all over this.......
What did Kerry throw over the fence this time?
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