Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (165926)	7/13/2011 11:47:33 AM
From: Dale Baker	Respond to of 541786

An excellent summary - reminds me a lot of 1995..... July 13, 2011 9:35 AM Why GOP leaders are looking for the exits When it comes to the debt-reduction talks and the debt-ceiling crisis, congressional Republicans aren’t exactly winning the public relations fight. What’s worth emphasizing, though, is the fact that they seem a little surprised about it. President Obama and congressional Democrats have positioned themselves as the sensible pragmatists, ready to strike a deal and avert disaster, and eager to compromise to resolve the dispute. Congressional Republicans have positioned themselves as unyielding ideologues who refuse to even consider concessions and expect 100% of their demands to be met. GOP leaders probably expected to lose elite opinion, and they have (see Brooks, David). But Republicans also expected to force Democrats to back down — long before now — because the GOP assumed that simply shouting “tax increases” repeatedly would pave the way for success. Kevin Drum had a smart post on this. [T]he bigger picture, obviously, is that McConnell wouldn’t have proposed giving Obama his debt ceiling increase with only political strings attached unless he was convinced that Republicans were losing the PR battle for a more comprehensive deal. And since the only real stumbling block to a comprehensive deal was Obama’s insistence on revenue increases, McConnell must have felt that they were losing the PR battle even there. After years of owning the tax issue, this must have come as something of a tectonic shock. Which is … interesting. Obviously, Obama has been positioning himself all along as the reasonable, centrist guy, willing to agree to trillions in spending cuts as long as Republicans are willing to close a few modest tax loopholes. Last week Republicans derided Obama’s repeated focus on tax breaks for corporate jets as class warfare etc., but you know what? It must have been working. Somewhere down in the bowels of the GOP’s polling operation, they must have discovered that the public was buying Obama’s pitch that “the wealthy need to pitch in too.” To a very real extent, we’re finally getting a look at the playbook Republicans wrote at the beginning of this process. Step 1: they’d demand massive cuts and no new revenue. Step 2: when Democrats balked, Republicans would say Democrats want to raise taxes. Step 3: they’d wait for the public to balk at the notion of tax increases, forcing Dems to back down. Except, that third step never happened. And since this was integral to the GOP plan, Boehner and McConnell have begun looking for the exits. It’s almost amusing, though, to see Republicans struggling with this. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) proclaimed this week, “Mr. President, you have gotten on the last nerve of the American people and they don’t want a tax increase, and you just don’t seem to understand that.” Except, that’s backwards. There’s ample evidence that the public expects increased revenue as part of a debt-reduction deal. It’s Republicans who “don’t seem to understand that.” McConnell and Boehner are slowly learning that the plan didn’t work. Whether they can present reality to their caucuses remains to be seen. by Steve Benen

To: Dale Baker who wrote (165926)	7/13/2011 12:48:30 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541786

"he just doesn’t know what to do" There must be some way out of here, youtube.com He could quit as speaker, turn it over to Cantor with a "you people are crazy" speech, and make a comeback as minority leader in '13 if he gets reelected in his own district.

To: Dale Baker who wrote (165926)	7/13/2011 3:18:54 PM
From: Suma	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541786

Reagan and the Bushes ran up this huge deficit and now they want the Democrats in the form of school programs,teachers,fireman,policemen, and the little guys to bail them out. Now I I were on Wall Street and earned eighty million dollars a year I would be tempted to do it. However on my meager income which depends on Social Security payments too, I cannot do it. The secretary to the guy who takes home the eighty million is taxed on the same scale as this guy. THIS does not seem fair to me. I like Senator Saunders.. And here is one sane Republican SNOW... the rest of the bunch headed by Boehner,Mitchell, Kantor and the rest can squeal like pigs at a barbecue and they are roasting this country. Me very unhappy.