Budge on the budget?

The baddle of the Budge?

;~DW

If this clown and the entire clowny Democratic Party had an ounce of intelligence / integrity / guts / will… they would have passed a real budget and ended the psychotic Bush tax cuts when they had a massive majority. Obama is the definition of a Failed President, far beyond Bush, who never even pretended to care. Obama is so weak / complicit / who know what it’s off the chart.

Take down his smug face from the post. He’s nauseating.

Democrats will give Republicans 98% of what they want to get 2% in return.

And once a “deal” has been reached the Regressives will immediately renege on the 2% they “gave up.”

The debt limit is an artificial control established by Congress. Ignoring it would have no real consequences outside the halls of the Capitol. Treasury and the Fed could continue business as usual.

As per the Prez”social security is not the cause of the deficit but we should take a look at what we can do to strengthen it”…….

If it’s not the problem then why is it up on the negotiating table ?….cuz this creep,The Prez, wants to help the GOP in killing the program.Rest assure if this guy gets a second term you can bet he is going to do all he can to eviscerate Social Security,Medicare etc,etc.

I can’t stand to listen to this Prez,he is a liar but unfortunately,I was in line at the store when he made that comment on the TV.

Here’s some good reporting on the negotiations…

It sure is a good and wonderful thing that certain “followers” of the Rethug “party” have the word “stupid” all sewn up …

Can’t imagine what might be said of the Dims, other…wise, can you, BT?

DW

Obama is missing the glaring difference here.

“His” party is mostly poor people. They will give him hell because they stand to be negatively effected by the cuts the Republicans are seeking.

“Their” party is mostly rich people. They couldn’t give a shit about Obama catching heat. The Rethuglicans, on the other hand, are rich people who aren’t concerned with heat, but their own bank accounts and yacht depreciation.

Short-sighted idiot or masterful actor? I vote the latter.

what we can do to strengthen it”…….

A leftist would say we can strengthen it by removing the FICA cap. MMT suggests the govt pay the equivalent of payroll taxes directly into SS and Medicare and letting employers/employees spend the money those actions would free up.

Called the state Democratic Party to ask if the Democrats would be running a candidate in 2012. When she asked, “Someone other than Barak Obama?” I explained why he’s not a Democrat providing a laundry list of reasons. She listened quietly and finally said, “I see what you mean.” I would encourage anyone from Michigan to do the same thing. The number is 517-371-5410.

Right on….unfortunately Obama is a shill for the GOP.
Almost all references are about the GOP…..just look he was quoting Bob Dole on negotiating just today.”Bob Dole says the boat will tip over unless we all get in”…..

absolutely disgusting.

The debt limit is an artificial control established by Congress. Ignoring it would have no real consequences outside the halls of the Capitol. Treasury and the Fed could continue business as usual.

Bingo. The 14th Amendment was written to prevent the debt from becoming a political football. The Republicans have no way to cause a default. This “hostage-taking” is as colossal a fraud as Iraq’s WMDs. The difference this time is that it’s Americans who stand to get Shocked and Awed if this goes through.

The GOP is doing what FDL people wish the Democrats had done when Bush was in office.

Fight for what they believe in. You might not agree with what they believe in, but they are fighting for it.

And, they are not giving in.

Don’t you wish the Democrats had done the same back in 2003 or 2004??

He’s looking right at something you got that he wants (and will get, when you come right down to it)

Fight for what they believe in. You might not agree with what they believe in, but they are fighting for it.

And by that, I assume you’re referring to the transfer/theft of even more wealth from the US Treasury into the coffers of the Oligarchs. Right?

Forget about the 14th Amendment. Read up on Modern Monetary Theory.

http://moslereconomics.com/mandatory-readings/

Bottom line: a sovereign country that controls its own currency cannot go into default. It’s all just numbers on a spreadsheet.

Let them eat peas?

be·lief    [bih-leef]

–noun

1. something believed; an opinion or conviction: a belief that the earth is flat.

2. confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof: a statement unworthy of belief.

3. confidence; faith; trust: a child’s belief in his parents.

Emphasis mine

I like that. Mind if I use it from time to time? :)

Yeah, sure, Barack. You won’t agree to anything unless they “compromise.” (And such a weak compromise you’re asking for!) But if they don’t “budge,” you’ll just give in and do whatever they want anyway. After all, you’re the “adult in the room” who demonstrates “bipartisanship.”

Quit giving away the store and stand up for the middle and working classes.

Bottom line: a sovereign country that controls its own currency cannot go into default. It’s all just numbers on a spreadsheet.

The two points go together–the 14th Amendment means Congress can’t cause a default, and MMT means that the market can’t force one either. Only the Executive has the power to default and even the Executive doesn’t have the authority to do so.

Bottom line: it’s a scam, the Republican default threat is real as Saddam’s fleet of balsa-wood anthrax drones that everyone just knew were going to exterminate the population of the East Coast unless Bush invaded Iraq right away.

Obama just made every sitting Dem Senator an easy Primary target! LOL

All a progressive challenger would have to do is make a sitting Dem Senator defend OBAMA actions the last 4 years.

For example,
Senator do you agree with OBAMA about Social Security?

Sitting Senator do you like the way Obama deals with the GOP?
see OBAMA always gives the GOP 98% of what they want?
and Dems get 2%?

Every Dem senator up for election in 2012 needs to be primaried and force to defend OBAMA record.

Taibbi: Obama Doesn’t Want a Progressive Deficit Deal

Not true. The only branch of Govt that can authorize spending is Congress. Check your Constitution.

Default isn’t the threat. It’s making Govt function without borrowing. Essentially the House is cutting Obama’s allowance in half.

Congress authorizes spending. Treasury/Fed borrows the money Congress authorized whichever agency to spend. Paying interest on that debt is de facto authorized with the spending authorization. You need to delve a little deeper than what the Constitution does or does not say. You need to know how things really work in the real world.

Simplistic argument to a complex situation.

Back to work.

Namaste

The only branch of Govt that can authorize spending is Congress.

Congress ALREADY AUTHORIZED THE SPENDING. Just why do you think a bill will have to be passed to cut spending, if the spending in question hasn’t already been authorized?

Obama says he’s “bent over backwards” to forge a compromise on the debt limit. Every time he “negotiates” he “bends over backwards”, and that quote is a prelude to his tactic of having the bottom 98% of us bend over forwards to facilitate the continuing anal rape of the public.

Obama’s idea of “compromise” is to accept the GOP framing of the whole issue 100%, and then give them everything that they want aside from the very last 1%.

And hey while we’re at it Obama, let’s start another WAR, jail a few whistleblowers, slaughter a few hundred thousand innocent people, waste another Trillion dollars overseas, and pardon Richard Nixon a second time just for good measure.

Obama is showing that he is nothing more than a Wall Street tool. It seems like Obama is employing a Bush/Cheney-esque tactic in attempting to swap cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security for a few token tax increases which the next Republican President will surely reverse once he takes office in 2012. However, the cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will be permanent because they will be much harder to reverse given the overwhelmingly powerful entrenched pro-business interests in Washington D.C. We are all collectively witnessing a slow creep towards a corporate, finance, and aristocratic form of neofeudalism disguised as “compromise”. In fact, the only things being compromised are the economic and political freedoms and rights of everyone who is not a member of the top 1%.

I don’t know, to me it looks like a fast march more than a “slow creep.” It’s amazing what we’ve lost under Bush and Obama — and there appears to be no way to get it back unless we can defeat BOTH major political parties.

Hate to bust your bubble, but do you think our foreign investors will continue to buy our bonds if we don’t pay our bills? Would make loans to someone time after time if they didn’t make any payments? If so, send me your contact information.

If the debt ceiling is meaningless and a vote on it doesn’t matter, why did the Bush Administration ask for a vote to raise it 7 times in 8 years (and that is without including the war debts in the budget).

You can’t have it both ways.

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. At least they are fighting hard for SOMETHING.

Yes. As noted, YOU may not believe it, but they do and they are fighting for it and standing up.

Only people who are pretending to believe in something don’t fight for it. They give up because they don’t really believe in it. They kind of do and mouth the words, or maybe they present the front that they believe because they want your vote or they are trying to curry favor with some group. When push comes to shove, those people fold.

I repeat, you wish the Democrats fought as hard for what they believe in ( or say they believe in) back in 2003 and 2004.

You are dead wrong.

Because there would be a doubt about the legality of the bonds, no one would buy them. Unless they are 100%, completely without question legal, no one would buy them and therefore no money would come in.

The only reason they are bought in large amounts by the buyers is the 100% perceived guarantee. ANY question about that, no one buys.

And, some law professors saying it is ok would not suffice. It would need to be litigated all the way up before any big institution would risk huge money buying them.

So, maybe it is good law, but no one buys, so it doesn’t matter. It is practically unusable.

So as long as so-called “Republicans” are willing to *fight,* that makes it alright. Fight makes right (in the sense of: correct, not political leanings)?? As long as someone *fights* for something, no matter how venal or wrong, then it’s all “good” as far as you’re concerned???

You know: we’re not talking about 2 sports teams out on the field battling to “win” some football or soccer or baseball or basketball game, don’t you?

The Treasury does not have to sell bonds to pay off bonds.

Yes – one can have “it” many ways!

The pretend limit is useful – gives Congress a second bite at the apple when the parties can not agree on spending in the normal course of things – see how many “continuing resolutions replace actual agreement these days on the budget.

But it is still pretend – which is why it always passes. Only Obama would try to force the destruction of Social Security and Medicare via this law – while telling us how he is saving us. He is one of the best con-jobs I’ve ever seen.

Why would using the Fed loophole call into question bond payoff – heck – it guarantees it.

Meanwhile the 14th can be claimed, a bond sale scheduled, and a court case begun.

But Obama is doing his pretend, and for some reason we are not asking for funds to pay filing fees for folks that will primary Obama.

MMT suggests the govt pay the equivalent of payroll taxes directly into SS and Medicare and letting employers/employees spend the money those actions would free up

Wouldn’t that then make it an entitlement program? Much easier to cut and jack around with.

The Republicans will sacrifice NOTHING to get this done, and the President will complain about being a ‘hostage’ and then proceed to sign it, but you can sure as hell bet that he’ll use this crisis to take a bat to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Major cuts to those programs are on Obama’s agenda — and it’s becoming increasingly clear that they were from the beginning.

I wouldn’t vote for him in 2012 if someone paid me $100.

“I’m not sure he’s said this quite so definitively before this morning’s press conference.” — That’s another way of saying he’s thrown a new non-negotiable demand into the negotiations at the last minute. Almost as if he wanted to sabotage the talks.

But, they need to sell bonds to get funds to pay social security, etc. They have to pay with money. If the tax receipts are not enough to pay whatever needs to be paid, they have to sell bonds–which institutions and people pay for. They use that money to pay whatever needs to be paid that can’t be covered by taxes.

So, no one buys the bonds, no money.

What are they going to pay off the bonds, as you say, with? It has to be real money.

Debt only works when someone actually loans you real money.

If your bank gave a piece of wood with $1,000 written on it for a loan, you couldn’t do anything with it. Unless someone gives the Treasury real money to pay for the bonds, it is useless.

You don’t understand the people or countries that buy bonds.

They only buy the US Bonds because they are as close to 100% certain as you can get in this world. ANY question about them, no one will buy.

Doesn’t matter if you open a court case. Until that case winds it’s way ALL the way through and is completely resolved, no institution is going to buy.

Professors can say all they want. They aren’t the ones putting their money into the bonds with question marks. Even if a tiny question mark as to legality, no buyers. That is reality and that is how it really works.

I don’t remember the exact example, but some state once defaulted on it’s bonds about 100 years ago, and no one bought their bonds for many years.

You know it is odd, I respect Dennis Kucinich a tremendous amount, even though I don’t agree with much of what he believes and I think much of it is wrong headed.

But, at least he stands up and fights for what he believes.

Again, you wish Dems fought for what they believe as hard.

Which leads to the point that maybe they don’t really believe what they go on and on about.