Obama and Boehner crowing that they’ve reached a deal that includes ‘no revenues’ and 2 trillion in cuts. Suspecting that my theory that Obama is a Republican “Manchurian Candidate” is correct. Or the worst negotiator in history.
Could President Obama actually be prepared to hold firm to some position this time in his upcoming round of negotiations with the Congressionals? Or is he some sort of Republican Manchurian Candidate who will just appear to have some sort of plan or convictions and then cave in on demands to cut social programs (as he did recently with the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy)? What with extending warrantless wiretapping, keeping Gitmo afloat, ‘surging’ troops in Afghanistan and keeping a sizeable number of troops in Iraq, Obama seems to be hell-bent on keeping the Bush Legacy alive!
*Update* California is a crazy bi-partisan microcosm of the Great American Stalemate. However, under Jerry Brown’s stern governance, we’ve somehow managed to move forward on a budget before our bonds became Junk. That’s a mixed omen, with a ray of light indicating that budget deals are possible, however the budget was largely an exercise in painful cuts to education and social services. It wasn’t all bad, though, as it seems like Jerry was still able to piss off a few Reactionaries – some of the more radical counties want to split and form their own Hicksylvania. I’d be all for it were it not for the creation of two more Repug Senators.
Turkey stuffed with pork!!
Turporken is the holiday meal on Capitol Hill, basically Obama’s turkey tax deal now stuffed with pork, the time-honored way to get bi-partisan support for legislative shit sandwiches. Here are the details:
“Altogether the bill includes more than 6,000 pet projects worth $8 billion, including:
- $80 million to states and Indian tribes to preserve Pacific salmon.
- $2.5 million for bike paths in Illinois.
- $4 million for the Kentucky National Guard to eradicate marijuana.
- $500,000 for transportation improvements at the Bronx Zoo.”
The biggest pork of course is reserved for corporate welfare:
The legislation contains $11 billion in energy tax breaks, including tax credits for biodiesel, energy-efficient homes, marginal oil wells and alternative vehicle refueling property. Alternative-energy industry lobbyists calculated correctly that Republicans would not bring down the tax bill over a few energy credits.
And billions in subsidies for polluting and wasteful ethanol producers remain intact.
House passes symbolic bill to reject President Chamberlain’s non-deal on tax cuts. Why symbolic?
The vote is, indeed, non-binding.
Plus,
“The vote, which was conducted with something less than a full caucus present, was as much a repudiation of the substance of the deal as the White House’s handling of it”
So the Dems go on record as bitching about the capitulation, and the ones who don’t want to go on record are conveniently out of the room. Welcome to the next two years in the House.
*Update 12-11-10* Out comes the lard, spread on the slops to attract the pigs to the trough! Nothing like pork-barrel politics and earmarks to bring the two parties together! You still believe the Dems will actually stand up to Obama’s “Raw Deal”?
*Update 12-13-10* Okay this is freaky – the frickin’ Tea Baggers agree with me!
No I can't!
Remember all the comparisons to FDR and Kennedy after Obama got elected? Up until now I’ve been thinking Clinton II, but my god, he can’t even have a show down with the minority Repugs over extending the unpopular tax cuts for the rich! I’m with Howard Dean on this one.
*Update 12-8-10* I caught President Chaimberlain’s little press conference, where he came running out waving his agreement to give the Repugs everything they wanted in exchange for a signed agreement stating they won’t ask for anything more. Listen dude, I think we all know D.C. is all about compromise, but we expect something in return. Maybe you should step down so we can see what Biden could do.
David Axelrod has a stupidly optimistic prediction that the Repugs will cave on Obama plan to only extend the Shrubya tax cuts after the November election. He’s totally unclear on the concept – that’s too fucking late! The Repugs could easily have re-infested the House and there is still a chance they could retake the Senate as well by then.
What the Spineless Dems should do is take this up now before the election, then get priceless footage of Repug candidates filibustering tax cuts. That might not save Dem bacon, but such footage would be the gift that keeps on giving for the attack ads of tomorrow!
*Update* Or are they spineless? Median Senator net worth is $1.7M, Representative $645K, with over 44% of Congress worth $1M+, and 50 members worth over $10M. Quite likely they want to extend their own tax cuts.
*Update 3:41PM* Great post by Juan Cole on Dems keeping the Senate this year. Mostly I love his quote:
“Since there are only two parties in the US, and one has gone bonkers, every election is now a game of Russian roulette for the American republic. But this time, at least, the chamber that has come up looks to be empty.”