By The New York Times | Editorial | 23 July 2011
Note to those not fully familiar with newspaper jargon: an ‘editorial’ represents the opinion of a newspaper’s editorial board. Though it’s generally written by one writer, the article (usually short and to the point) is typically not given a by-line (there are exceptions, but the tradition is for an ‘anonymous’ article that represents the views of the organization itself). The article that follows is the lead editorial from Saturday’s New York Times. Here is a link to the opinion section of Sunday’s paper. — efc
For days, the White House has infuriated its Democratic allies in Congress by offering House Republicans more and more in exchange for a deal to raise the debt ceiling and prevent default. But it was never enough, and, on Friday evening, it became clear that it may never be enough. Speaker John Boehner again walked away from the “grand bargain” he had been negotiating with President Obama, leaving the country teetering on the brink of another economic collapse.
At the White House podium a few minutes later, the president radiated a righteous fury he rarely displays in public, finally placing the blame for this wholly unnecessary crisis squarely where it belongs: on Republicans who will do anything to upend his presidency and dismantle every social program they can find. “Can they say yes to anything?” he asked, noting the paradox of Republicans, who claim that financial responsibility and debt reduction are their biggest priorities, rejecting yet another deal that would have cut that debt by at least $3 trillion.
Mr. Obama, in fact, had already gone much too far in trying to make his deal palatable to House Republicans, offering to cut spending even further than the deficit plan proposed this week by the bipartisan “Gang of Six,” which includes some of the Senate’s most conservative members. The White House was willing to cut $1 trillion in domestic and defense spending and another $650 billion from Medicare, Medicaid and even Social Security.
Much of that savings would have come from raising the eligibility age for Medicare benefits and reducing the cost-of-living increases that elderly people depend on when receiving their health and pension benefits. It could have caused significant damage to some of the nation’s most vulnerable people.
The “bargain” would require that alongside these cuts, tax revenues would go up by $1.2 trillion, largely through a rewrite of the tax code to eliminate many deductions and loopholes. That’s substantially less in revenue than the $2 trillion in the “Gang of Six” plan. The problem is that while much of the cutting would start right away, most of the revenue increases would be put off, in part because a tax-code revision would take months, and in part to allow House Republicans to say they did not agree to any specific tax revenue increases.
Democratic lawmakers were rightly furious when they heard about these details this week, calling the plan wholly unbalanced. But, in the end, it was Mr. Boehner who torpedoed the talks. He said Friday evening that he and the president had come close to agreeing on $800 billion of the revenue increases (the equivalent of letting the upper-income Bush tax cuts expire as scheduled next year – not much of a heavy lift) but could not stomach another $400 billion the White House wanted to raise through ending tax loopholes and deductions.
So, on the eve of economic calamity, the Republicans killed an overly generous deal largely over a paltry $400 billion in deductions. Mr. Obama was willing to take considerable heat from his liberal critics over the deal, and the Republicans were not willing to do a thing to anger their Tea Party base. As the president forcefully said, there is no evidence that House Republicans are capable of making those tough decisions. If last-ditch talks beginning Saturday fail, they will have to take responsibility if the unimaginable – a government default – happens in 10 days and the checks stop going out.
I only know of Hortensia as being another name for Hydrangea..which are beautiful plants. just beautiful- and I love their personalities being determined by the acidity of the soil,
lower pH imbues the blue flowers – my favs
and higher pH is the pinks.. sigh. I had these in Oregon.
wow lot of memories tonight. all good. all v. good.
your reading sounds interesting shebear, I agree with the stop shopping idea. If we could coordinate most people just to not buy gas for one day- just one day, that would provide a massive hit- to the oil co’s. it’s really amazing to look at something like that and realize that yes, there can be a collective power or voice leveraged…
just got to get enough people out of the “I can’t make a difference/it won’t make a difference” mindset, ya know! and of course, enough actions coordinated…
a lot of people coordinated on the Dr. Emoto intentional water healing….so it *can* happen.
my, it’s late! I must take a spin outside with the pup, look up, and then sleepytime!
sweet dreams All
peace.
I’m currently reading about Hortensia, the daughter of one of Rome’s greatest orators Quintus Hortensius, who employed her own powerful skill as an orator when she stepped in to the political arena of Rome to protest a very heavy tax that had been imposed on upper class women to top up dwindling governments coffers. I think we could heed her words and call to action right at this moment in our own moment in history. Focusing on the plight and suffering of women during wars, she asks “Why should we pay taxes when we have no part in the honours, the commands, the statecraft, for which you contend against each other with such harmful results?”
Yeah I say we withhold taxes and heck, even stop shopping for a day, a week, a month, how ever long it takes to get proper attention in the political arena. Hit them where it hurts — in the pocket book.
Yeah, I’d like me some Hortensias out there to take this kind of stance and kick up a storm or two!
what do you make of the Americans Elect deal?
I need to research it further, but off the cuff there’s some things I like, one of which is, simply,
a different way of nominating candidates, two, I like the accessibility of the process to anyone that can get to a connected computer, three, the potential for actual discussions and relative, pertinent issues of the common man being addressed/raised, four, that the candidate chosen would have to pick a running mate from across a ‘divide’ which I think is good, in theory, showing negotiation, mediation, conflict resolution skills…or hopefully promoting those qualities. …ahhh hell, could be a big mess.
no matter, it brightens my heart to actually read and hear about something that is possibly *possibly* a New Way of approaching this v. big problem of the structure and nonfunctioning (IMHFO) of our govt. this status quo, same ole same ole, damn, those same fucking arguments, same tail-chasing, same bullshit of people not in touch making decisions. it’s got to go.
so, anything new or the slightest bit fresh is showing an awakening of some sort.
personally, I am not for a party system, I am not for a centralized govt. making all the decisions for the entire country. even at the state level, if you take let’s say, Washington State, well, western WA has totally different demographics/issues than eastern WA, which is agricultural, for the most part…it’s like two different lands.
and raising the debt ceiling? that is akin to keep upping your credit card limits- sure in the hell doesn’t decrease your debt, definitely makes you ‘feel’ like you have more money to play with, which is false, you’ve f-d yourself more because of the terms, damn. this whole mentality of ‘being able to have it all” ( be it the govt. OR people still clinging onto the irrational McMansion 4 car, 3 dishwasher dream) & hanging on to it with such ferocity blows my mind. I just CANNOT GET how it is OK to be hemorrhaging money out the a- with all our little tendrils and ops in other countries while the Motherland is BROKE. actually worse than broke. we are OWNED. (stop the hemorrhage? basic accounting- incoming/outgoing, back to simple solution……)
it cracks me up- oohing and aahhhing about Greece having to sell off their ports to other countries/entities – Oh My G (deep inbreath uuuuuuuuuuhh). are you kidding me? right here in the US of A, I can tell you there are ports in Houston which are owned by other countries…even in your podcasts (excellent, BTW, big Fan, if I haven’t mentioned it before–wink!) you mentioned other countries buying our land. OF COURSE they have.
make the connection people! all that shopping at Walmart, among other places, where you can’t pick up a damn thing that doesn’t say “made in China” ….comes at a price. yah. cheap “now”, but the greater cost.
the greater cost comes later….because the bigger picture wasn’t seen. grasped. ignored.
what-have-you.
sigh! (((((( sigh ))))) I know I was supposed to get pissed off about m–f–rs telling me I can’t get an abortion, but the conversation just spirals for me, very quickly, into these larger topics. it’s true, Western domination is on the way….o.u.t….
I just cannot get into the Republican/TeaB/Democrat/ thing. that is so old. so old for me. f! I mean, can’t you just hear your parents, actually your grandparents, bitching and moaning way back in the day???
I can.
anyway, some of my thinking. I’m already brewing on when the Note (pun intended) is called…I mean, don’t you have to agree, our debt shouldn’t be getting a triple AAA rating…just my opinion from what is apparently visible.
awwwwman…. and I haven’t even gotten INTO the whole Fort Knox deal. gold bars? DSK???
Midas? …
Oh, Greetings from Chinatown all right…~
this has been a v. long chat. apologies.
hope All are doing well this evening…
peace.
Yes, speak up. MY SIL is apathy incorporated; she said to me she would speak up when everyone else does to which I replied “Well everyone else is thinking the same thing you are so no one does anything.” She didn’t care.
Apathy kills.
John Boner said something the other night which struck me as odd and inappropriate, which is that he believes he has the same responsibilities as the president. He clarified by adding that was to be accountable to the American people. There was just that moment where he almost seemed to be declaring himself president.
One thing it’s likely that the Pubs are doing is trying to arrange for a power sharing agreement between the traditional GOPers and the Tea Baggers. The ‘universal solvent’ of fundamentalist whatever-they-ares cannot be contained in anything; the Pubs sold out what little soul they had left, keeping power by forming a coalition with a haggle of what amount to inexperienced, anti-intellectual, anti-government nut bags who either lack basic understanding of federal policy, economics etc.; or worse, who understand precisely what they’re doing and are working the usual not so covert agenda of waging nihilism on social programs.
By now we should see the ‘make a budget crisis, demand givebacks’ MO that has been going on for about the past 20 years on the state and federal levels.
Note the number of stories in the news currently where power relations are the core theme — the DC scenario, where the debt ceiling is apparently being leveraged into a power grab, the Murdoch scenario where News Corp (the propaganda arm) was wagging the dog of government, the recall elections pending in Wisconsin, and about five others I’m probably forgetting.
In any event, no matter how well meaning, Republicans seem to have a problem — they are in a situation where certain of their ranks have committed to making no compromises, which is not negotiating in good faith. If they have nothing they can contribute to the agreement (except their alleged mandate from god) then what are they really doing there? And why does it seem so untenable that Democrats act like the party in power — they are. There are obvious points on which they are sold out to their overlords, but one problem is that the Pubs have no agenda that they are really pushing except to roll back the social safety net and try to win the culture war by, er, banning birth control? That’s a domestic agenda?
What planet are we on, in what century, and let me tell you this: if you spoke up, it would be harder. Let’s go women of childbrearing age — blow off a little of your rage into the conversation; it’s not that hard that someone has a barefoot and pregnant agenda for you. Which is beautiful if that’s what you want, but it’s your choice, not someone else’s.
And as for playing American roulette with the economy. What exactly are you waiting for before you speak up?
This REALLY raises my hackles. We’ve already got a huge problem with checks/balances — this would be a distillation of power that is simply unthinkable. As frustrating as is our current process, it has safeguards built in that serve us well, like the inability to move too far, too fast. I understand why we would find a political “fast track” desirable, but that was exactly what the founders guarded against.
Here’s a comment/repost from Dreamastrologer — and Brenden, the point about this current Supreme Court is well taken:
holy shit, that “super congress” is like the entire evolution of the “iron law of oligarchy process” distilled into 1 move
the current supreme court would have no problem with it i’m sure
if this is true, we need a general strike in this country to bring these assholes to their senses
This is truly the beginning of the end if it goes anywhere. No accountability? No debate? This is rule by fiat, and both the Republic and American democracy will dead and buried. Who gets to be the first Emperor?
If it ain’t in the Constitution, then it can’t be done. This is when strict constructionism may be quite useful.
If it’s true it feels both desperate and dangerous. An institution both cornered and threatened.
Yeah, I agree. A Tower of Babel congress. Can’t solve problems? Build it ever higher. Surely more height will work it out? Won’t it?!
Oh god. U’r sodding kidding me. This is like, honey, someone has to do the dishes and cannot agree who should do it, therefore let’s build a skyscraper.
There seems to be some entirely different agenda operating.
Good for the Times for getting it right this time and not mincing words. I’m pretty sure the Baggers won’t give a flip, though. And here’s a draconian work-around we ALL need to be aware of, as posted in conversation at my link, below. This one is worth taking a moment to investigate because it’s a real heart-stopper and so radical that people are asking for validation, assuming it might be a hoax.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/23/super-congress-debt-ceiling_n_907887.html
Given our distrust of government, “super-congress” is the answer to our woes? And we’ll trust something Mitch McConnell recommends? Really?? This idea scares the CRAP out of me! Please take a minute to be aware of this because if it’s real and picks up any support at all, we’ll have to fight it tooth and nail!