Posted on 07/10/2011 6:09:09 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
After meeting for exactly 90 minutes, the president and members of congress achieved absolutely nothing except for what ZH readers already knew: that a debt deal has to be reached by July 22 or else. "President Barack Obama said Sunday that "we need to" work out a debt deal within the next 10 days as he convened a meeting with congressional leaders, aiming to fashion a deficit reduction package for the next 10 years. As the meeting opened, Obama and the leaders sat around the table in Sunday casual dress. Asked whether the White House and Congress could "work it out in 10 days," Obama replied, "We need to." Despite Boehner's preference for a smaller, $2 trillion plan for deficit reduction, White House aides said Sunday that Obama would press the lawmakers to accept the larger deal. Republicans object to its substantial tax increases and Democrats dislike its cuts to programs for seniors and the poor. The aides, however, left room for negotiations on a more modest approach." And just like on Friday when the president's appearance was heralded as a harbinger of a massive NFP beat only to be the biggest let down since Geithner's TV appearances in February which sent the market down by 10 S&P points each time, so the president will address the nation tomorrow. From Reuters: "U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Monday about the status of negotiations to cut the deficit and raise the debt ceiling, the White House said on Sunday. Obama met with congressional leaders for about 75 minutes Sunday evening and will meet again with them on Monday "to discuss the ongoing efforts to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction," the White House said, without giving a time for that session."
More from the AP:
"He's not someone to walk away from a tough fight," White House chief of staff William Daley said. "Everyone agrees that a number around $4 trillion is the number that will ... make a serious dent in our deficit." But embedded among the tough words was rhetoric that acknowledged the "big deal's" prospects had become uncertain at best.
"We're going to try to get the biggest deal possible," said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
It was an abrupt change from 24 hours earlier. Republicans late Saturday rejected the $4 trillion proposal, the largest of three under consideration, because its tax increases would doom it in the GOP-led House, Speaker John Boehner said.
The Ohio Republican informed Obama that a package of about $2 trillion, which bipartisan negotiators had identified but not agreed to, was more realistic.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky left little doubt that the $4 trillion deal was dead.
"I think it is," McConnell said. Raising taxes amid 9.2 percent unemployment, he added, "is a terrible idea. It's a job killer."
The statements threw into question the extent to which the Sunday meeting, called for 6 p.m. EDT, would move the talks toward a resolution as an Aug. 2 deadline loomed. That's when the nation would begin to default on its debts, administration officials say, if no deal is reached to raise the borrowing limit from $14.3 trillion.
One thing is certain: with each passing day until July 22 or T-Day, the day by which Congress has to pass the debt ceiling legislation, of which there are precisely 10 working days, the market, which has so far completely ignored any concern about a failure in the debt talks, will start getting increasingly more nervous. As a reminder there is a 4 week Bill auction this Tuesday: the last one priced at 0.000%. If the logjam in DC continues after Monday, something tells us the government will not get ultra short-term funding for free.
As for the spin free interpretation of what the "deficit deal" means for America, read our previous observations on the matter here.
Only a few can appreciate the significance.
Obama is a rockhead. Speeches are not the same thing as governing. What’s important is the future of the country, not Obama’s ability to fool the public.
It would be nice if people on this forum who were screaming needlessly last night would now admit that Boehner was on firm turf when he rejected the larger deal: it contained a HUGE tax increase and phantom spending cuts.
So now BO is going to try to raise the stakes and demagogue the entire issue, play the class warfare game. Boehner should tell BO to either STFU or he won’t even schedule a vote on any debt limit increase.
Best realistic scenario: call the Dems bluff and hold out for a $2 trillion deal that is almost exclusively spending cuts, including an immediate down payment of $500 billion in FY 12 alone.
We are all going to have to stick together and back Boehner and McConnell, because the Beltway MSM is in a panic that the GOP will hold firm real for spending cuts, and they are livid.
Getting rid of corporate jets and reforming the patent process will take care of it. Yeah, that's the ticket.
The Republicans have not been able to explain to the sheeple that we will not default unless the Executive Branch chooses to. People actually think a default is real and pending. Given that, I see two options. Either the Republicans will cave in the face of what they perceive as overwhelming public pressure (invented by the MSM) or Obama/Geitner will force a default until they cave. A default is right out of the communist playbook of orchestrated crisis (thank you Yuri Bezmenov). Never let a crisis go to waste.
Ohaha is going to Narc on Boehner. LMAO
Mommy, Congressman Boehner won’t play fair.
We’re back on the nine year kick again, only this time I might lower the age to six, give or take a year.
Obama thinks he can pull a Reagan and go over Congress’ head directly to the public. Tomorrow afternoon the public is going to tell him to sit down, shut up, and get to work reducing spending.
4 billion?
kinda creepy
Obama address to the nation: “I am not a dick”.
What parts of the Nation are home watching TV at 11 AM on a Monday morning? (Zero’s constituents mostly haven’t gotten out of bed and the rest of us will be working.)
Barack is politically
and Congress had better reply with anything the jacka$$ has to say with a solid
Because,
We have had enough of this crap as a paying nation:
They will but need to hold this strategy for when things really get ugly with the MSM handmaidens for Obama.
If Obama is holding a press conference tomorrow b4 any bipartisan meeting, this means we are entering total war.
The next 3 weeks are going to be very ugly.
Whatever else he whines about, he’ll also gripe about Texas putting down a Mexican 17 years after killing a 16-y.o. girl.
Let's do the math, shall we? This year's deficit alone will be $1.5 trillion.
Bammy and Boner want to cut the deficit by (optimistically) $4 trillion over ten years. $1.5 trillion x ten years = 15 trillion - $4 trillion = $11 trillion in aditional debt over ten years.
So instead of $1.5 trillion in further debt every year, we'll only be $1.1 trillion in additional debt every year.
Blah Blah Blah Bush’s fault,evil rich, the republicians I I I Me Me Me. FUBO
The GOP work for the bankers just like the Dems. The banks want ever expanding debt because it is a necessity in a debt based money system. That is why the GOP has not and will never reduce the size of government.
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