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I don’t usually watch a lot of network news, but a couple of Sundays ago, I had been out all day and wanted to see what was happening on the debt ceiling front, which was at its media-consuming peak that day. I tuned in to “NBC Nightly News” and was rewarded with this gem of an exchange between ace reporter Andrea Mitchell and the lovely Brian Williams: Andrea (fighting back tears): “Our entire government seems to be dysfunctional.” Brian: “Some members have come to town and they don't care if they get re-elected. That is a whole new dynamic. They...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators and former presidential candidates say Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating speaks to the need for more bipartisan compromise — but they also say the blame lay with the other party.

The most distressing outcome of the deficit hysteria gripping Washington may be what Barack Obama has revealed about himself. It was disconcerting to watch the president slip-slide so easily into voicing the fallacious economic arguments of the right. It was shocking when he betrayed core principles of the Democratic Party, portraying himself as high-minded and brave because he defied his loyal constituents. Supporters may hope this rightward shift was only a matter of political tactics, but I think Obama has at last revealed his sincere convictions. If he wins a second term, he will be free to strike a truly...

Today Sen. Rand Paul issued an open letter on the subject of the debt ceiling compromise facing the Senate. Below is that letter.  To paraphrase Senator Jim DeMint: When you're speeding toward the edge of a cliff, you don't set the cruise control. You stop the car. The current deal to raise the debt ceiling doesn't stop us from going over the fiscal cliff. At best, it slows us from going over it at 80 mph to going over it at 60 mph. This plan never balances. The President called for a "balanced approach." But the American people are calling for...

The "Great Debt Compromise of 2011"! This "compromise" is in fact "unconditional surrender" to Obama and the big spenders in both parties! We now get more spending, more debt, more recession... and phony "promised cuts"... thanx (establishment) GOP! Tea Party? It was like your high school team playing the Green Bay Packers, you had no chance (this time)! Learn from this Tea Party folks, you must gain experience in the "skill positions" improve your poor blocking and tackling that allowed you to be out maneuvered this time by Speaker Boehner and his fellow DC insiders (Republicans and Democrats...yea I know,...

SPIEGEL: The world is looking at Washington and sees gridlock and chaos. How much have the negotiations over the United States' debt ceiling hurt America's standing in the world? Meckler: Saying that these debates have hurt our image is absurd. What you currently see in Washington is one of the most responsible debates ever about the size and scope of government. The world should look at what is going on in the United States as a model for what should happen in all countries. SPIEGEL: We look at it and see a Congress held hostage by a small group of...

Washington’s brouhaha over the federal debt crisis seems far away. Yet it is so close to your pocketbook and your children’s future well-being, you can smell its fetid breath. But it smells better Monday than it did Sunday. Let’s cut through the rhetoric. Good ol’ Uncle Sam is in hock up to his eyeballs, owing $14.3 trillion. Washington’s political armies have been locked in mortal combat, with a deadline looming over whether to increase the nation’s debt-limit ceiling. Both sides in Congress SAY they want to cut the federal deficit. The President said he is willing to reduce the deficit...

President Obama announces agreement Sunday night with GOP and Democratic leaders on a debt-reduction plan compromise that could end a perilous stalemate and avoid a potential default on America's loans

It's obvious from the concessions made by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats that they cannot make a reasonable case for their various positions on raising the debt ceiling. Mr. Obama keeps scolding his political opposition, demonizing Americans who already pay the lion's share of federal taxes and threatening our most vulnerable citizens with starvation and homelessness; but he and his Congressional accomplices can not explain why higher taxes, more borrowing and more government spending would improve the economic health of the country. The Republicans case for significant spending cuts, keeping tax rates at their current levels and promoting a...

Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid made the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the only viable debt ceiling compromise to avert a default. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:Republicans leaders in the House of Representatives wasted this week pursuing a right-wing proposal they knew from the start could not pass the Senate.From the very beginning the Speaker’s Band-Aid approach was fatally flawed – it would have put us back in this incredible position, fighting the clock to prevent financial collapse, in just a few weeks.It was a concession to Tea Party extremists, yet it...

President Barack Obama alienated 37,00 twitter followers last night with scores of tweets urging followers to contact their local Congressman over the debt deal. With his approval rating sitting at an all-time low of 40 per cent amidst the debt crisis, tens of thousands of Americans unfollwed the President to avoid the deulge. The president’s staff sent a total of 118 tweets asking his followers to write their Republican lawmakers to demand a compromise on debt legislation. The first tweet read: 'The time for putting party first is over. If you want to see a bipartisan #compromise, let Congress know....

WASHINGTON -- Americans are fed up, and they're letting Congress have it. Furious over the bipartisan foot-dragging on the nation's debt crisis, the US public yesterday unleashed a massive barrage of phone calls, e-mails and even a nasty Twitter campaign, #F- -kYouWashington, to vent their fury over DC's dithering. The deluge was unleashed after President Obama called on Americans Monday night to phone their representatives and urge them to compromise on a deal that would raise the federal debt level and stave off the first US default in history. The Capitol switchboard yesterday sent out an alert, warning of the...

Why? Compromise, that’s why. Have you ever noticed how the media worships the words “bipartisan” and “support” when used consecutively in a sentence? That is because Democrats have mastered the art of compromise. Election cycles feature politicians (from both parties) proclaiming loud and clear that they have records proving they can work with “both sides” to move America forward. Common, everyday, hard-working American citizens are often quoted by the media saying, “We just want both sides to work together.” What a load of crap. Here is how compromise works on Capital Hill – Republicans start off wanting no increases in...

The "Tea Party" solution to our deficit problem: CUT the CRAP and BALANCE

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday he has prepared his members to compromise on the debt ceiling and that a majority of House Republicans could support a potential deal with Democrats. In a news conference at the Capitol, Boehner pressed anew for the GOP’s “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan but also pushed back against conservatives in his caucus who are unwilling to move beyond it.

As debt-limit negotiations consume Capitol Hill, Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) urges Republicans to be cautious. “The president is a magician,” he says in an interview with National Review Online. “He has been using sleight of hand. This is not time for Republicans to find compromise, we have to figure out how to stop him.” If not, and Republicans deal, DeMint warns that such a move would be “suicidal.” “Any grand deal would not get through the House,” DeMint says. “The president knows what he’s doing — he’s trying to get the Republicans to renege on their pledge not to...

Myself and other conservatives reTweeted this and voiced disdain for the reported compromise. We were in disbelief that the GOP would cave with zero concessions on something so integral to private sector sustainability. We were wrong — Reuters made it up. Kyl’s actual remarks, just posted at Breitbart.tv:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Republican floated a tax compromise on Wednesday that could revive hopes for a budget deal as President Barack Obama warned the United States could spiral back into recession if an agreement is not reached soon. Rep Eric Cantor, the No. 2 official in the Republican-led House of Representatives, said that his party could agree to close some tax breaks in a trillion-dollar budget deal as long as they were offset with tax cuts elsewhere. "Any discussion about loopholes must be accompanied by offsetting tax cuts," Cantor said at a news conference one day before he...

An Oregon town's City Council voted down a proposal to say the Pledge of Allegiance before every council meeting, but later passed a compromise that seemed to make no one happy. The approved measure allows the pledge to be recited at just four Eugene City Council meetings a year, those closest to the Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Flag Day. It was supposed to be simple, but Councilman Mike Clark soon found out when you’re dealing with God and country, nothing in Eugene is easy.

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney make me think of Dorothy Jones. "Aunt" Dorothy, my mom's closest friend, was a warm, smart, comedienne-quick funny woman from a large family. Unlike my mom's other friends, Dorothy was single and remained so until she died. I once asked her, in the rude way only children can, why she never married. "You know," she said while pointing, one by one, at four imaginary men lined up in front her, "if you took the best qualities from all my sisters' husbands and rolled them up into one man -- you'd still come up short." This...