Free Republic

Associated Press: House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, kisses House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) after being re-elected to a third term during the opening session of the 114th Congress, as Republicans assume full control for the first time in eight years. With 216 votes in his favor, the U.S. House of Representatives re-elected John Boehner to be speaker in the new Republican-led Congress, despite opposition by conservative tea party lawmakers that underscored party divisions.

So Obama can delay at will - at whim even - the Big Business mandate and other parts of ObamaCare, and then either he or Sen. Harry Reid (D-DEM-e) can follow that up (when people cry foul) by saying "It's the law." So others, in due course, namely Republicans, can push for a delay in the individual mandate, as well as an end to subsidies for federal employee fat-cats, and then here comes Obama and Reid in all of their regal splendor saying basically "No, you can do this...you cannot delay this..." and "It's the law!" It now appears that...

Schumer said "don't knock it until you've tried it." Good... Then ALL federal employees shouldn't knock it until they've tried it! All federal employees get to taste it, and no subsidies for Senators, Reps, staffers, etc. ALL federal employees... Yum yum... The GOP should add this on to whatever they have to. I mean, why shouldn't all fed. employees get that yum yum?

By all accounts, it looks like a deal is about to be announced in which the debt ceiling is hiked in exchange for the promise of major spending cuts, including to entitlements, totalling at least $2.4 trillion. Anything can happen, but it apppears the GOP is on the verge of pulling off a political victory that may be unprecedented in American history. Republicans may succeed in using the threat of a potential outcome that they themselves acknowledged would lead to national catastrophe as leverage to extract enormous concessions from Democrats, without giving up anything of any significance in return. Not...