Obama's version of "bipartisan"

We're trying to avoid the "fiscal cliff" by coming up with a large sum of money from some combination of spending cuts and tax increases. Here's Obama's opening proposal:

All the tax increases he wants on people over $250K per year, plus increasing capital gains (which impacts everyone's retirement account and pension btw), estate taxes, payroll taxes and self employment taxes.

Offset that with wanting $600 billion in ADDITIONAL spending and permanently raising the debt ceiling. Also government underwrite already failing home mortgages. You know, the exact thing that caused the housing collapse in the first place.

So he wants 100% of it from taxes and needs not just enough to cover the deal but an additional .6 trillion and wants to make this massive debt a permanent part of our national vision.

I try to avoid this on here, but I and some others are going to be doing a lot of "I told you so" over the next 4 years. This is the told you so on bipartisanship promises and Obama's promises of addressing our looming debt disaster. Maybe we should start a list.

And guess who he is blaming for no agreement.

When CBS admits Obama's proposal is a joke, you know its really a joke. 1.6 tillion in tax increase (double what he touted during the election) and 400 billion in future cuts. I think Boehner and McConnell are idiots but I have to agree with them on this

True Doc but they still end up blaming the GOP and House.

Seriously, if that's going to be our negotiating position, why offer anything? I've been in more than one deal where the first offer, like on a property, is so far off reality I don't bother to counter. Waste of time.

i say go over this supposed "financial cliff". better to jump from this height than on top of another $10 trillion in debt in 4 years.

In another I told you so, the Tea Party members of the House were right. All that deal did was let us borrow more money and now we're right back where we started, miles apart on a budget and everyone saying we have to raise the debt ceiling again. It was a meaningless deal and should have been refused and the debt limit left in place.

Yeah, basically Boehner folded like a pup tent in a tornado. Kinda like Chief Justice Roberts did too.
Let's just face it, there isn't much leadership in either the House or the Senate for the GOP, and ZERO leadership coming from the donkey's except for "we won, you lost!"

We are truly in a bad place in our country, and what we have for representation is in Congress may as well not even exist for what they're doing aside from posing & posturing. JMHO. Yours may differ........... but I bet it's pretty darn close to what I'm thinking.

It's a sad state. You have a GOP/conservative side that has NO ONE, not one damned guy, who can properly articulate the vision persuasively. Some can say it, but they either are damaged or also say foolish things (Newt Gingrich) or are not in power or influence.

So they offer no vision, just as the Dems didn't offer one through the 80s. They just wander about trying to be "not them".

So we have a card carrying socialist winning by default. The people that decide elections vote on simpler messages and vote for the candidate more than ideology. If you aren't an appealing person and can't be articulate and communicate the message with a connection to your audience you have a problem.

So we have no one who can stand up and win, but we also have no one in power in the GOP who has a freaking clue what the are supposed to stand for and why. if they did they could communicate the vision. They have no idea what policies to pursue and why and how to explain it.

The Dems are only marginally better. Obama has an ability to sound good, but Reid and Pelosi are just as blind, dumb and political as McConnell or anyone in the GOP. They're all pitiful.

Here's the message they need to use in this negotiation:

"We will not compromise the fiscal safety and strength of this nation for short term political gains. We will not sell out our children and their children to avoid difficult decisions and sell out even to stay in political office.

If we do not address our fundamental fiscal problems, do not get our house in order, our nation will go from leader of the free world to a second rate nation at the economic mercy of China and Europe.

We will not put our pens to policies that will tax, regulate and otherwise destroy our economy. Will will not put our pens to policies that cripple our ability to be energy independent and make us unable to compete with China and Europe and drive even more of our jobs overseas. We will not sign off on the expansion of bureaucrats into every aspect of our lives. We will not lie to the American people and raise their taxes while pretending that taxation, all taxation, doesn't hurt the economy and job creation we all depend on our ourselves and our families.

We must dedicate ourselves to saving our nation by releasing the economic power of our nation upon the world. We dedicate ourselves to that task knowing that whether we win or lose we have done everything possible, given every breath, to protect the future of our children and their children.

We may lose our elected offices by making this stand. We are confident we will not as Americans understand all too well the challenges we face. But if we fail to communicate our vision and we do lose them so be it. Better to fight for the future of our nation to our last breath and fail in the attempt than to sell out our values and watch the light of freedom our nation has lit be turned into a smoldering ember so we can call ourselves Representatives and Senators.

We will not let this nation go gently into that good night. We choose to fight for it, to make sure every American understands we are fighting for them, and we intend to win.

FWIW the right has given up on the poor, and they should be voting for conservative economic policies in droves. No most won't believe it, but don't write them off.

Use Ziglar. Ask questions.

"Do you want your children to grow up in public housing or do you want them to be able to purchase homes of their own?" "Do you want your sons to be able to find good jobs in the inner cities and not be tempted to turn to drugs and gangs?"

We can bring those jobs back. We can give you and your children a path to a better financial life. You can own your own home, see your children graduate college.

we've tried it their way for 60 years and it has failed the entire time. The policies of big government and class baiting has led to a permanent underclass in this nation, repressed not due to their own inability to succeed but by those who don't believe you can succeed on your own given the chance.

They would rather hand you fish your entire life rather than give you a chance to learn to fish b/c they don't believe you can do it. It is insulting, denies you dignity and opportunity.

Work with us to create jobs, good jobs, in your communities. Jobs that can keep children away from gangs and drugs, can give them financial security. taxing everyone even more won't bring those jobs, handing out more money and hiring more bureaucrats wont' bring those jobs.


Then you go on to explain what you have to do.

Stop conceding. Conceding votes, policies, everything. Fight. Fight with passion. Fight with purpose. Fight with clarity. Fight with the knowledge that you are speaking the truth and fighting for the Great Experiment. Right and truth are on your side. Act like it.

pretty bad isnt' it. And I will ljoin in saying I told you so.

In some ways I like the idea I read today. GOP congress votes present on Obama's plans, just as he often did, and let Obama have his way. Then he owns the entire mess he wants to create, all his. Can't blame GOP that way, because whatever they do now, isn't going to be good for them. Fold and go with Obama, make the base mad, fight Obama and they take it on the chin from the media and middle class. They lsoe either way.

Evil Empire Jazy. Embrace it. No one votes for or against "Congress". they vote for and against their representatives. Focus on winning those races. Keep your votes lined up so in some districts that would react badly to Vote A you let them vote against it if you have space and then they can vote for B when someone else can't.

Tip O'Neil said all politics is local politics. He dominated the House for decades on that principle. Forget the national press, fight in the trenches.

We'll never get them to change their message on us any more than Goodman will change on UK. Go around them, through them. Don't let them change what we do. Take the fight to the People.

That's how Reagan did it. The media didn't cut him any slack, but he'd do a national address and be so persuasive nothing they said mattered.