Posted on 09/05/2012 7:11:40 PM PDT by Hojczyk
An explosive mix of dysfunction, miscommunication, and misunderstandings inside and outside the White House led to the collapse of a historic spending and debt deal that President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner were on the verge of reaching last summer, according to revelations in author Bob Woodward's latest book.
The book, "The Price of Politics," on sale Sept. 11, 2012, shows how close the president and the House speaker were to defying Washington odds and establishing a spending framework that included both new revenues and major changes to long-sacred entitlement programs.
But at a critical juncture, with an agreement tantalizingly close, Obama pressed Boehner for additional taxes as part of a final deal a miscalculation, in retrospect, given how far the House speaker felt he'd already gone.
The president called three times to speak with Boehner about his latest offer, according to Woodward. But the speaker didn't return the president's phone call for most of an agonizing day, in what Woodward calls a "monumental communications lapse" between two of the most powerful men in the country.
When Boehner finally did call back, he jettisoned the entire deal. Obama lost his famous cool, according to Woodward, with a "flash of pure fury" coming from the president; one staffer in the room said Obama gripped the phone so tightly he thought he would break it.
"He was spewing coals," Boehner told Woodward, in what is described as a borderline "presidential tirade."
"He was pissed
. He wasn't going to get a damn dime more out of me. He knew how far out on a limb I was. But he was hot. It was clear to me that coming to an agreement with him was not going to happen, and that I had to go to Plan B."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Bowles, Simpson scoff at 1.6% budget cuts
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/03/07/video-bowles-simpson-scoff-at-1-6-budget-cuts/
Obama skips debt commission meeting (Dec. 2010)
WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama did not attend a White House meeting Thursday with members of his own debt commission, irking some of the Democrats on the panel who were expecting a high-level push from the commander-in-chief to show that its comprehensive deficit reduction plan is being taken seriously by the White House.
“He should have at least dropped by,” one Democratic member of the debt commission told CNN, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he wanted to speak more freely about the panel’s private meeting.
A second senior Democratic aide close to the panel added that commission members were miffed and privately believe the President did not attend because it would have been awkward “given the fact that he has just endorsed $900 billion in deficit spending” with the tax cut deal.
http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/09/obama-skips-debt-commission-meeting/
yeah, he cares.
Why have a deficit commission if you ignore them?
That was from Jay Leno’s show
That is how I see it. Boehner is shameful.
Shades of Arafat, Ehud Barak, and Clinton on peace deal. Remember Arafat had way more than envisioned but wanted more still. Typical for power hungry madmen.
So...the secret is out.
“But at a critical juncture, with an agreement tantalizingly close, Obama pressed Boehner for additional taxes as part of a final deal just as his masters HARRY REID and NANCY PELOSI told him to LOL!
From then on Boehner dealt with the people in charge- HARRY REID and NANCY PELOSI. Dealing with Obama was a waste of time. There was no way Obama could or would do anything but what his masters told him to do.
Woodward knows Harry and Nancy pulled the strings in Obama’s term. An ‘empty chair’ indeed.
I’ll bet the little faggot swings a pretty mean purse.
” - - - But after the breakthrough agreement fell apart, Boehner’s “Plan B” would ultimately exclude the president from most of the key negotiations. The president was “voted off the island,” in Woodward’s phrase, even by members of his own party, as congressional leaders patched together an eleventh hour framework to avoid default.”
Looks like Woodward thinks that Obama has become irrelevant.
Well, except for the golf course staff, of course!
Thanks. It looked real and it was real — but just for the comedy of it. (But I bet he really feels that way!!)
Thanks very much for the ping and I will read in the morning!
Pinging myself so I will remember.
:)
Yeah. He wanted Farney Brank on a dog collar. But that's where Clinton drew the line.
A tax hike to far.
Boy, reading this article really paints Obama as a fool who doesn’t know how to negotiate in good faith.
Someone needs to inform the boy president that he temporarily represents ONE and only one branch of the federal government. He’s not a king. He gets a phone call when he gets a phone call.
Roger that. The aide saying that Obama was gripping the phone so tightly he thought it might break??? You can ascertain that visually? I just don't think it's true.
Woodward's whole career is based on lies.
I don’t doubt that people in the White Hut told Woodward some of this, but I suspect it was mostly lies thought to make him appear engaged and tough. I believe the truth is he is neither engaged nor tough.
Barack had a tantrum and Boehner caved.
Sounds like someone still doing blow. Bad very bad
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