On Capitol Hill, A Flurry Of Activity But Still No Deal

On Capitol Hill, A Flurry Of Activity But Still No Deal : The Two-Way : NPR

The House tried twice to craft a proposal to end the shutdown and extend the debt ceiling, only to pull them back because they didn't have enough votes within the GOP to pass them. Now, the Senate has restarted talks of its own.

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What was that about the House did it's job, blame the Senate?

After the fiscal cliff negotiations I am not surprised at just how incompetent tactically the Tea Party Republicans are. Speaker Boehner had the right idea to pass a clean continuing resolution and then fight the debt ceiling where Republicans would not only have more leverage but the support of the public behind them. Instead, Ted Cruz connects the defunding of the ACA to passage of a continuing resolution, and Boehner's plan was shot to hell. Since that point it has been all downhill for the Republicans.

Now, at the very least, both of Boehner's plans were an attempt to salvage some semblance of a win for Republicans however minor, and would have put the onus for reaching an agreement on the Senate. Instead, the Tea Party abandons his plans, and again the House of Representatives probably will be forced to pass whatever makes it out of the Senate lest they be blamed for the looming economic crisis that will come if the debt ceiling is not raised. It reached such absurdity that Senate Democrats were actively seeking to unwind budget cuts due to sequestration because of the advantage they put themselves in, though my guess is this may be an effort in the end to help Republicans save face.

My guess is something will be passed tomorrow that raises the debt ceiling and opens the federal government. Yet, I cannot get past just how badly Tea Party Republicans blundered this.

Spaceman_Spiff said:

My guess is something will be passed tomorrow that raises the debt ceiling and opens the federal government. Yet, I cannot get past just how badly Tea Party Republicans blundered this.

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The Tea Party wing of the House GOP is so doctrinaire and dead-set against anything that could conceivably be perceived as a "win" for Obama that they are willing to risk the credit rating, AGAIN. How they ever thought this would work out well for them is beyond my scope of comprehension.

Anyone who says that Bush got it from the Dems as bad as Obama is getting it from the GOP right now is living on another goddamn planet.

The Republicans are victims of their own success at this point. They gerrymandered so many "safe" Republican House districts that some representatives will be re-elected no matter what they do. What incentive do these people in "safe" districts have to relent? They'll be re-elected no matter what and their constituents are too dumb to recognize how bad it would be for the nation to default on it's loans.

The shutdown sounds like a preliminary stage of further privatization to me. If it's made to seem through scary rhetoric that there is no other choice but to alleviate government expenditures by passing them onto the private sector, public resistance will probably be minimal.

A default or even the possibility of default would to some degree disrupt capital flow between financial institutions. I wouldn't expect anything less than warnings of dire and drastic consequences from the banks. However, where were they in the late 90s and early 2000s when the housing bubble was growing out of control? I can't shake the feeling that all of this is just perfectly executed theater, like everything else in the past 10 years.

The only options right now are further privatization or to create a new currency. Blaming the Tea Party does nothing. If we raise the debt ceiling we will still face the same crisis in three months. Investors are already pulling out, regardless of what happens in two days. Our primary investor, China, has already declared its total lack of faith in our currency. That in of itself has shifted markets to a lower equilibrium. The USD is insolvent and everyone knows it.

Expect just enough panic and chaos, and then a convenient solution that brings more devastating financial reforms that favor the ruling financial class.

reinoe said:

The Republicans are victims of their own success at this point. They gerrymandered so many "safe" Republican House districts that some representatives will be re-elected no matter what they do. What incentive do these people in "safe" districts have to relent? They'll be re-elected no matter what and their constituents are too dumb to recognize how bad it would be for the nation to default on it's loans.

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Well, it's not quite that. The GOP Reps only have to fear primary challenges from more wingnutty characters. And that's how we got Louie Gohmert, the biggest idiot who has ever set foot in the Capitol.

reinoe said:

The Republicans are victims of their own success at this point. They gerrymandered so many "safe" Republican House districts that some representatives will be re-elected no matter what they do. What incentive do these people in "safe" districts have to relent? They'll be re-elected no matter what and their constituents are too dumb to recognize how bad it would be for the nation to default on it's loans.

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The gerrymandered districts certainly contributed, but it's not so much that they'll get relected no matter what as much as it means that their biggest threat is a primary challenge from the right.

The House is doing exactly what the majority constuents sent them there to do.

Kill a highly destructive piece of legislation that the majority of Americans don't want any part of.

Obama-Care is a expansion of entitlments payed for by middle class Americans and the only reason the Democrats have even a small amount of leverage in this battle is the fact that millions have yet to discover that their cost for health care has increased through Obama Care.

Sneaky slimey Democrats, keeping the website down and blaming it on "code" and " traffic".

Looks like a deal will be reached, thank goodness. Reid's on the floor of the Senate announcing it now.

Fenton said:

The House is doing exactly what the majority constuents sent them there to do.

Kill a highly destructive piece of legislation that the majority of Americans don't want any part of.

Obama-Care is a expansion of entitlments payed for by middle class Americans and the only reason the Democrats have even a small amount of leverage in this battle is the fact that millions have yet to discover that their cost for health care has increased through Obama Care.

Sneaky slimey Democrats, keeping the website down and blaming it on "code" and " traffic".

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For every post that deserves a "like" there are literally dozens that deserve a "dislike".