Posted on 12/23/2011 7:35:35 AM PST by illiac
This whole thing was a theater of the absurd to begin with. When a payroll tax holiday was suggested the Pubbies should have screamed BLOODY MURDER. It guts Social Security. They might have won some points with senior citizens who are already ticked about cuts to Medicare.
Senior citizens vote, and with the baby boomers retiring their numbers will grow. They should be made to realize that the Democrats are the real threat to Social Security.
I am with you 100% The entire exercise was like watching a car wreck in slow motion. Ideology has nothing to do with it. This was political theater. The way to play it was to insert the Keystone deal, pass the thing, and claim victory for pushing Obama to revisit the pipeline, and forcing Obama to the view that tax cuts are stimulative (even if this one is so small as to be economically irrelevant.) Completely bungled in the House.
A theory is taking shape for me. I think the GOP really doesn’t want to win against Obama.
There are economic indicators floating around there in the ether that the global economy is heading for a spectacular implosion in 2012 (read this: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2824275/posts). If these indicators are borne out, and the global economy, including the U.S goes belly up sometime before election day, 2012, would you really want to be the freshly-minted President Elect on the GOP side, knowing that in the next six to twelve months, you’re likely going to have go on TV to explain to the American people that it’s all over? That America is literally bankrupt, along with the rest of the world, and there’s nothing that can be done to salvage the situation? Would you want to be the GOP President having to explain why you’re declaring a State of Emergency and having to curtail civil liberties even further than they are now?
I think the GOP really doesn’t want to have to deal with this scenario. Their thinking may well be, “Better to let Obama and Dems take the fall for this debacle than us.”
It's all over, folks.
This is no win for Obama, nor the Democrats, nor Mitch McConnell. Kicking the can down the road only comes back to bite you!!! Yes, I know, Obama’s numbers will go up now, just like they did when Bin Laden bought the farm, but.....the numbers crated immediately thereafter!!!
Plus, the American people are not tuned to politics during the holiday season, so....the pubbie blunder has very limited exposure and little lasting effect. The only excited fools are Obama mediabots....and they are losing viewers and readers by the score with every day that passes, so...”they” themselves say!!!
The economy still stinks, and all the posiitve raves from the left will be trounced the day Christmas passes. Watch the unemployment filings rise dramatically as retailers lay off thousands of temporary holiday season workers. And....to add insult to injury, the bottom line numbers for holiday sales at the end of the day, are gonna be nothing to write home about!!!
This is why I’m hoping Romney gets the nomination and the Spinelessicans lose (because the conservatives stay home).
The only way this mess gets fixed is for N0bama to get reelected and to go ahead and flush it. Time to start over.
Lay down the plan to pay for it now, for the remaining 10 months, and make sure the cuts come from the EPA, NPR, foreign assistance programs, etc.
Don't touch Medicare, Medicaid or any other Social Program. It is too risky in the election year and a guarantee loser.
I think most people can agree that agencies like the EPA and NPR can be downgraded.
If the GOP does it soon then they can sell the cuts and not have to listen to that “1% paying their fair share” crap.
I'm chagrined at how ignorant the most vocal posters on this site really are. They have such a shallow grasp of history, military or otherwise, and do not understand strategy or tactics. I surmise they are emotionally addicted to online news and without instant gratification tend to scream (in caps), whine, complain, and abuse their erstwhile allies. They have a symbiotic cord with their worst political enemies, behave like them, and seem to fit the definition of Republicans In Name Only (if even that; I suspect many of them are not really Republicans anyway).
The bottom line is that the House GOP lost this political battle and does well to cut those losses now instead of taking more political casualies. The election of 2012 is so much more consequential. Let the pundits and media proclaim an Obama victory so the people can realize what 4 more years of that "victory" will mean to them. I am a Republican, not a RINO. I don't whine (much) and I will support the nominee against Obama.
McConnell sided with Reid once again and assisted in forcing the House GOP to eat that 2 month crap sandwich. He could have blocked the Reid Bill and forced Reid and Obama to accept the House Bill but instead he was in too big of a hurry to start his vacation.
Boehner is an idiot but McConnell and the Senate RINOs are working to get Obama reelected. I am totally convinced of it now.
still don’t see why this is an issue. Tax cuts pay for themselves by stimulating the economy.”
The Senate Bill called for increased taxes for the next 10 years to “pay for the payroll tax cut”. Pubbies wanted that to be changed.
Once it becomes more commonly known that home owners will be paying more on their mortgages to pay for the de-funding of their social security, the fallout may accrue to the Dems instead of the Republicans.
Anyone else sense that could happen in some way?
Rest assured Newt will explain it.
As an employer, years ago our lawyers were advising us against offering flex-medical insurance plans, because years later employees could possibly sue because the pre-taxing reduces social security contributions and therefore benefits.
Couldn’t that be an issue here?
Yes, but who would do it; certainly not the tea party freshmen, none of whom would standup and object to unanimous consent.
I heard Michelle Bachmann say she was against the tax cut from the beginning, when it was first introduced. She says it reduces the payments into Social Security at a time when it is losing revenue due to the demographics.
It’s going to cost employers more to administer a twop month SS cut than the employees will save. Do I detect pay cuts and layoffs in the wind?
Saying it and stopping it with one vote is another thing. As far as I'm concerned now, she didn't walk the talk. She walked away from a perfect opportunity to show us just what she will do, but noooo, she is nowhere to be seen.
Sometimes we agree. Notice there is no mention of the pipeline in this news report. Also, it was the dem-controlled Senate that used the idiotic 2-month time frame on this.
If Obama wants to call this a victory, it is a very shallow one indeed.
I really wanted to put pipeline in all caps, but refrained from doing so.
Well a good portion of us out here in the real world understands how Washington works....we’re being screwed every day by that bunch of SOB’s in that cesspool of power and corruption!!
It’s time for John Boehner to do the honorable thing and resign. But I suppose there’s no honor among thieves.
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