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SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – The White House on Thursday accused its Republican foes of risking a global recession by saying they will not agree to raise the US debt ceiling unless paired with deep spending cuts. Spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama hoped to reach a compromise reining in galloping US deficits and national debt "in the same timeframe" as a congressional vote lifting the limit on Washington's ability to borrow. But "you cannot hold one hostage to the other," he told reporters aboard President Barack Obama's official Air Force One airplane. If talks collapse, "you can't say 'well,...

Compromise. Cobbling together a bi-partisan vote of middle of the road Republicans and Democrats, Speaker John Boehner was able to pass the controversial 2011 budget compromise. But clearly, one quarter of one half of one third of government is upset. Fifty-nine Republicans voted against the measure, a sign that many conservatives are still disappointed that their leadership was not able to negotiate steeper spending cuts. That’s also more than the 54 Republicans who voted against a three-week spending resolution in March over complaints that more dramatic spending reductions were not made. In a slap to President Obama’s political face, 108...

Congressional negotiators struck a last-minute deal to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, congressional leaders and the White House said late Friday, averting a threatened shutdown. The House and Senate are expected to approve a seven-day stopgap measure to keep the government running until the final details of the agreement can be worked out. Talks continued deep into the evening until, finally, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) met with his caucus to outline the details of the proposed compromise, one in which Republicans succeeded in securing nearly $38 billion in cuts from current spending levels....

Morris: "I want a cut of $61 billion. I want the Republicans in Congress to keep the campaign commitment to the American people of a $100 billion cut. And I'm shocked at your interview with Congresswoman Bachmann. She was saying, 'Oh, there's going to be a deal, they'll come together, there'll be a compromise'. Well a compromise that is less than $61 is BREAKING THE PROMISE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. And, above all....

The Hill is reporting that Rep. Jim Hines (D-CT) said today, "If we avoid a government shutdown on Saturday it will be because John Boehner, at last, has figured out a way to gain control of his caucus -- which probably means cutting loose the radical members... quote-unquote Tea Partiers." So there you have it. Democrats aren't the slightest bit interested in representing the people, and are now demanding Republicans too cast us aside so that business as usual can resume on Capitol Hill...

Should Congress Compromise or Shut Down? Two sides should find some middle ground on federal spending and avoid a shutdown. GOP should hold out for deeper cuts, even if it means a shutdown. Dems should fight harder to protect essential programs, even if it means a shutdown. Other (leave a comment).

Sometimes in politics and legislation, whether you win is less important than how you win. That's the dilemma facing House Speaker John Boehner as he tries to round up the votes to pass a fast-approaching spending compromise and avert a partial government shutdown by week's end. Boehner, R-Ohio, wants the overwhelming majority of those votes to come from his fellow Republicans, even if dozens of easily attainable Democratic votes could help carry the budget bill to victory. The goal complicates Boehner's task, and possibly could push the bill farther to the right. It motivates him to battle for the votes...

It is enough to make a grown man weep to see how tepid the House Republicans are under Speaker John Boehner. It isn't just that their pathetic excuse for federal budget cuts betrays the 2010 electoral mandate of the American people, which it does. It is that their tepid response to the massively destructive federal budget signals to the American people that the Republican Party still cannot be trusted with the reins of government. We live in a time of crisis, and the people are seeking substantive solutions to life-threatening problems. That means they want the politicians to stop their...

Wisconsinites overwhelmingly want GOP Gov. Scott Walker to compromise, a new poll says. The poll, commissioned by a conservative-leaning think tank, also found that state residents think Democratic President Barack Obama is doing a better overall job than Walker. Further, Wisconsinites narrowly disapprove of Senate Democrats' decision to leave the state to block a Senate vote on Walker's budget repair bill, which contains language to strip away most public employee union bargaining rights. The poll of 603 Wisconsinites was commissioned by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and conducted between Feb. 27 and March 1, the day of Walker’s budget address,...

Capitol Chaos: Dems Demand CompromiseBy Heather Shannon Story Updated: Feb 23, 2011 ILLINOIS - At an Illinois hotel, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller of Monona spoke to reporters just minutes after Governor Scott Walker finished his fireside chat. Senator Miller told reporters that the Democratic senators who are currently hiding out in Illinois will return to Madison and vote when Governor Walker will agree to a "compromise." **SNIP** "The issue before us is about rights," Miller said. "That's what we are here for today is protect the rights of workers. Wisconsin has one of the longest traditions of workers rights...

"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."-- Inner Party Member Syme, From George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This may shock a few regular readers of this column, but I whole heartedly agree with Syme. Some words aren't fit to be used anymore and they should be destroyed. Don't worry, True Believer. I'm not going to go all politicalcorrectthink on you. You and I will still be able to use the words I am about to destroy whenever we like. Only a very, very small group of people shouldn't use these words that I am about to toss in the...

Back in June, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who many think would be an attractive 2012 presidential candidate, was quoted by Andrew Ferguson in the Weekly Standard as saying the next president "would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues." That quickly attracted some harsh criticism from opponents of abortion and same-sex marriage. But Daniels has declined to back down, telling the Indianapolis Star the other day that such issues are secondary to the economy and foreign policy. I think both Daniels and his critics have missed the point. The fact is that there is an ongoing truce...

It’s no news that the Bush era tax cuts were set to expire on December 31st, 2010. Now, there are some very odd dynamics occurring that I feel needs to be addressed. 1. All of a sudden, Obama is all of a sudden willing to “compromise” with Republicans after two solid years of telling them “I won,” locking them out of the meetings altogether in crafting the so-called “health care” bill, telling them that they should “sit in the back seat,” and calling them “the enemy.” 2. Obama is now, all of a sudden promoting a policy he has publicly...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama saluted a new spirit of political compromise Friday as he signed into law a huge tax bill extending cuts for all Americans -- including benefits for the rich that he and congressional liberals had denounced -- along with billions of dollars in help for the middle class and jobless workers. "It's a good deal for the American people; this is progress and that's what they sent us here to achieve," Obama said as a rare bipartisan assembly of lawmakers looked on. The package retains Bush-era tax rates for all taxpayers, from the working poor...

The political junkie crowd says that those of us who oppose Obama's tax plan compromise on principle simply doesn't get politics. They say politics is the art of compromise and that being strategic is more important than being principled.Can one of them explain to me how this is a good deal politically then? First it let Obama off the mat. He himself said that his presidency is finished if he didn't get this deal.This compromise gives Obama momentum and improves his re-election chances. And if you think his caucus is fractured now just think about how it would have been...

"Republicans fail to understand that the Democratic Party is no longer a party ruled by this same spirit (of compromise). It is now a left-wing party driven by dreams of victory. Examples abound: The use of the courts to circumvent popular will about same-sex marriage; the premeditated disregard of the will of the people in passing Obamacare; the use of the FCC to regulate the Internet after the courts and Congress, the people's representatives, said no. This is a new, polarizing Democratic Party, one determined to achieve victory, even undemocratically. They do politics the way the Romans made war. Against...

1 The "cost" of the bill is $857 billion...over 10 years = $85 billion/year 2 $85 billion/year is 2% of spending (proposed to be $3830 billion this year) 3 $721 billion out of $857 billion, or 84% of the bill, are keeping the tax cuts. Is this really "spending" to keep our own $? 4 Extending the estate tax "costs" $68 billion over 10 years, or $6.8 billion/year. That is 0.1% of spending this year. 5 Extending unemployment insurance costs $56 billion over 10 years, or $5.6 billion/year. 6 The payroll tax holiday costs $111 billion over 10 years, or...

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/12/obama-vows-to-fight-republicans----next-year/1

LEXINGTON, Ky. – If your attention is diverted for the briefest of moments as you walk along North Mill Street’s red-brick sidewalk, you easily could miss the former law office of Henry Clay. Barely 20 feet wide and closed to the public, the office is notable only for a historical marker hidden to its left, pointing out the modest headquarters of a young frontier lawyer who went on to become a revered statesmen known as “The Great Compromiser.” Clay earned that title in the 1820s when he temporarily pacified the U.S. government’s conflict with South Carolina, which was on the...