House Republicans back off from fiscal clash with Obama

Reuters ^ | 01/18/13 | Kim Dixon, Rachelle Younglai and David Lawder

[Wisconsinlady]

Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, also said the Republican approach was reassuring.

"If the House can pass a clean debt ceiling increase to avoid default and allow the United States to meet its existing obligations, we will be happy to consider it," he said in a statement.

[Candor7]

Boehner is powned again.

BUDGET......BUDGET.......BBUDGET.

WTF is wrong with these spineless A$$ hat RINOs?

[Truth29]

"We should offer to get rid of it in exchange for real controls on spending."

There are no real controls on spending. There is no language that inventive reprobates cannot redefine. Language and lawyers can make up mean down. We have seen spending increases represented as spending cuts. We have seen fanciful projected cuts used to allow current increases., etc. etc. The debt ceiling is a blunt weapon, but that is its advantage, too. It is harder to define it away.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

Having no actual end to raising the debt ceiling is, just, like having no actual end to the existence of non-conservatives from within the entire GOP! Both of these things need to, actually, end, as soon as possible, if they, ever, do end!

[SkyPilot]

Now that the real teeth of the expiring debt ceiling will be removed, where is the incentive on Obama and the Democrats to cut the cause of our spending death spiral, Entitlements?

There is none.

- Congress has failed to reign in Entitlements year, after year, after year, after year

- The failed "Super Committee" decided it was not going to reign in Entitlements before it even had it first meeting

- The "Fiscal Cliff" negotiations quickly abandoned all Entitlement reform, and left gutting the military through Sequestration stand with only a few weeks of delay

- The "Debt Ceiling" will be raised, but Sequestration still stands to gut the military and the Republicans now hope that Obama and the Democrats reform Entitlements?

There has been exactly one Federal government institution that has sacrificed the most in terms of blood, sweat, and tears since 9/11.

The US military.

Obama has already cut the military by $450 Billion in real dollars, and Sequestration will be the death knell with $600 Billion on top of those cuts.

Even small changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that slowed future growth would help solve our debt spiral, but nothing will be done.

Meanwhile, Food Stamps, Unemployment, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) which is ca$h welfare, payments to illegals, Section 8 housing.........ALL of that spending increases every second of every day.

What is the motivation for Obama and the Democrats to enact real cuts now? They will simply gut the military, and now be praised for it.

"Sequestration will not happen!" - Barack Obama, final debate with Mitt Romney

Un huh.

Like all the other lies Bath House Barry has told, that one will go unanswered.

Shame on Republicans. Shame on Democrats. Shame on the citizens of this country who now worship "their benefits."

[Roccus]

So why is it that I, who didn't finish college, can figure out that this “proposal” is utterly assinine and they can't?

Perhaps it is because the results "they" wish to achieve are not the same results that you and other Conservatives desire. Your question is based on the premise that the GOP seeks what is best for the continuation of this representative democracy.....that may be a false premise.

[Timber Rattler]

The GOP has now picked a new place to draw their line in the sand.

Heh...at the rate that the GOP is going, the next place they'll be drawing a line in the sand will be in the middle of the surf.

[liberalh8ter]

So the Republicans will allow Obama to spend like a drunken sailor for three months with the only caveat being Harry Reid’s Senate must perform their legal obligation (that no one has done anything about them NOT doing for over 3 years)? Hoooooohkay.....

[Timber Rattler]

There’s a place to pick a fight and win it. Not here.

Hmmmm....that's the exact same thing that party apologists have said over and over again, most notably during the debt ceiling and tax cut extension debacles of 2011.

"We'll fight again another day," they always say, but never do.

[Timber Rattler]

People continuing to empower the GOP get exactly what they deserve.

That is exactly right!!!

[sirchtruth]

I can't believe how stupid the Repubs are.

This is why conservatives are in trouble! Right now, there are too many freepers, conservatives who are actually holding on to some kind of farcical fantasy conservatives are going to suddenly rise to the top of the "republican" party, gain control and lead us away from this socialist nightmare which is upon us all.

It's a different world today than in the Reagan 80's. The conservative republican party is dead, gone and it ain't coming back!

[HarleyD]

Is this a surprise? Did anyone really BELIEVE the Republicans wouldn’t give in?

I can only hope a third party rises up.

[upchuck]

The excerpt doesn't really do the article justice. More:

Top Republican leaders, meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, said they were prepared to allow the U.S. government to borrow enough money to keep it fully operating for the next three months without demanding immediate spending cuts from Obama. Instead, the Republicans, who control the House, will require as part of the legislation raising the debt ceiling that the Democratic-led Senate pass a budget plan by April 15.

If the Senate fails to act, they said, members of Congress would not get paid. How that might work in practice, in light of existing budget law and constitutional restrictions on changing congressional salaries in the middle of a term, was unclear. House Republicans hope to pass the legislation next week.

No budget. No pay. I like it. It will be interesting to see the RATS' response.

[Jane Long]

No budget. No pay. I like it. It will be interesting to see the RATS' response.

Sounds good in theory. We know what the Rat's response will be: "Those dirty Republicans....they want to starve mothers, chirrens and the elderly!"

And, we know what will happen next. Same show, different movie night.

[Cheerio]

House Republicans back off from fiscal clash with Obama

The GOP is over - there is no fight in them, all pansies.

December 12, 2012

Washington (CNN) -- They are losing the battle over higher taxes on the wealthy, so now Republicans are threatening a political war next year when it comes time to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

With cracks appearing in their anti-tax facade and polls showing most Americans favoring President Barack Obama's stance in the fiscal cliff negotiations, GOP legislators are starting to advocate a tactical retreat to fight another day.

Conservative Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, promised the newly re-elected Obama "one hell of a fight" next year if the president forces through his plan for high-income earners to pay more taxes without agreeing to substantive steps to reduce the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt.

"But there will come a time in February and March where we have to raise the debt ceiling," Graham said Tuesday on "Piers Morgan Tonight" on CNN.

More at CNN http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/11/politics/fiscal-cliff/index.html

We heard this same GOP crap all during 2011 and 2012. "Oh woe is us - we only have 1/2 of 1/3 of the Government - cannot do anything until we have the White Hut. I am so done with the Grand Ole Party. Why was Boner reelected as weeper?

[wrencher]

The Repub’s are a pretend opposition party, they don’t want anything other than the Dem’s do but they have to appear like they oppose it to the common TV addled public. But come Nov. voters will only want the “2” choices and the incumbent will be returned from their gerrymandered district. What a farce.

[lodi90]

will require as part of the legislation raising the debt ceiling that the Democratic-led Senate pass a budget plan by April 15.

---

April 15! LOL. The plan is there to really beat up the dems on this. Everybody rushing to finish their taxes while the dems in DC cause a crisis by refusing to pass a budget. Now there is some strategy from the GOP.

[concerned about politics]

The GOP has now picked a new place to draw their line in the sand. Now if the gov’t shuts down it will be because the Dems in the Senate didn’t pass a budget. Finally the Pubbies are learning how to use political jujitsu.

"The polls" say people want a sizable spending cut if the ceiling is raised.
83% say the government spending is out of control.
11% say the government is using it's money wisely.

Who the heck are the 11%? What do they have in their heads? Dust?

[Jim Noble]

The debt limit always gets raised in the end because America cannot default

Why would America default if the debt limit were not raised?

Interest on the national debt for FY 2013 is about $247 billion.

The Federal tax collections exceed the interest payments on the debt, by quite a bit-by $2.5 trillion, in fact. The interest could be paid and the Feds would still have more than $2 trillion left over to waste. That is actually $300 billion MORE than Clinton's last budget.

So, if the debt ceiling were not raised, per the RAT interpretation of XIV, the $247 billion debt service would have to be paid FIRST, THEN the Feds could spend everything Clinton spent in FY 2001 PLUS $300 billion more, THEN they would have to cut out the $1.3 trillion extra we can't afford.

We simply need an immediate $1.3 trillion cut, which would be easily accomplished by recursion to the last Clinton budget + $247 billion debt service. Any way you look at it, default is not even close to an issue.

[P.O.E.]

Good thing the House didn’t hold the line during the 2011 debt ceiling fight. Otherwise, they might have been blamed and Obama would have gotten re-elected. /s