Obama Proposes Last Minute "Mini Deal," Adding Milk Lobby Bonus

Townhall.com ^ | December 29, 2012 | Mike Shedlock

[Kaslin]

The one thing I am always afraid of in budget negotiations is that virtually nothing is done, or worse yet, something counterproductive is done.

Obama's latest Fiscal Cliff "Mini-Deal" Proposal is exactly the kind of counterproductive nonsense I am talking about.

Assuming the above Atlantic Wire article is correct ...
 

1. The deal would delay or replace the vast majority of spending cuts called for in the automatic sequester.
2. The deal would extend unemployment benefits
3. The deal would stop planned cuts to Medicare reimbursements
4. Out of the blue, and probably an attempt to buy farm-state votes, the deal purportedly would include a "milk fix" that allegedly would avoid a dairy market catastrophe created by the failure to renew the farm bill

Four Strikes Is An Out

I am against all four ideas and it's hard to say which one is worse. Certainly we need to scrap all farm subsidies, not put back those that have been scrapped.

Hopefully the House punts this ball a mile high, or better yet, let's hope this does not clear the Senate in the first place.

Purportedly the deal would only be for 60-90 days which would in all likelihood do nothing but allow further watering down of the proposal in yet another can-kicking exercise at that time.

Since the market is not blasting higher on this preposterous idea, it's safe to assume this deal is Dead-on-Arrival in the House, if it were to get there.

As I have said on numerous occasions, the best offer on the table is to let the alleged "fiscal cliff" happen.

Mercy! Isn’t a Late Day Selloff Illegal?

I hope you are as outraged as I am by this late-day stock market action.

S&P 500 Futures 10-Minute Chart



Since when is a late day selloff legal? And for an entire hour with six consecutive red candles!

And in the month of December too! What happened to my Santa Rally? I demand a Congressional inquiry.

Goodness! I was sure such action was illegal. Clearly, it should be illegal, and I thought it was already.

It's no wonder Fiscal Cliff legislation failed. Republicans and Democrats alike forgot to pass circuit-breaker provisions to halt (or better yet prevent) market declines late in the day, as well as this late in the year.

Please call your Senators and Representatives today, demanding their immediate attention on this matter.

After all, everyone knows that jobs and fiscal prudence are irrelevant. It's the stock market that's vital to the economy.

[Sacajaweau]

http://madisoncountycourier.com/?p=35827

[muawiyah]

So, both of them?

I doubt the problem is with either Senator because New York's economy is fantastically larger than the milk markets so they're just fronting for another Democrat or two. Somebody has threatened to jump ship if he doesn't get what he wants.

Jeffords is the only one who ever made a career out of it.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Permanent Extension”

House Republicans proposed and passed that exact bill on ALL tax brackets four months ago.

Harry Reid won’t allow the Senate to vote on it.

Of course, the MSM and the completely inept Republican leadership have managed to keep this fact a complete secret from voters.

[Sacajaweau]

I’m in Upstate NY. This has been on the news for the last few months. New Yorkers know what it is about and back it.

[Sacajaweau]

They tax it and subsidize it. It’s slight of hand.

[muawiyah]

BTW, droughts not over; grain prices aren’t dropping; smart guys sell their cows now. This is going on all over the country ~

[LdSentinal]

Does this mean I shouldn’t be buying any milk stocks for the New Year?

[trebb]

...the deal purportedly would include a "milk fix" that allegedly would avoid a dairy market catastrophe created by the failure to renew the farm bill

Who'd A Thunk that the government regulations would make dairy farming so dang expensive that it took tons of taxpayer money to mask what it did to production costs by keeping the price artificially low????

Maybe if the price skyrockets, people will have another opportunity to explain exactly why big government is so dangerous...

[muawiyah]

There are tens of millions of Americans who do not now nor did they ever drink vast quantities of cows milk ~ yet, they are paying for the price support system.

Having said that this evening's news is that the dairy price support system has sufficient bipartisan support to pass both the Senate and the House.

Getting back to the issue of folks not consuming cows milk, bet Obamugabe is going to surprise these guys and veto the dairy bill ~

[Kickass Conservative]

It’s actually, “spend money THEY don’t have”.

To quote Tonto responding to the Lone Ranger after they are surrounded by Indians, “what you mean WE Kemosabe?”

[Safetgiver]

but the cliff would mean massive tax hikes...We would merely return to the taxes Clinton put in place. I’ve seen no legislation that replaces those rates. The Bush tax cuts were for 10 years, only.