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Obama sets July pre-midterm deadline for "Grand Bargain"

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on Fri, 03/08/2013 - 3:40pm

Just shoot me now:

President Obama wants to complete a grand bargain to reduce the deficit by the end of July, an aggressive timeline coinciding with the expiration of the nation’s debt limit.

Obama told a small group of Republican senators who had dinner with him Wednesday evening that a deficit-reduction deal needs to happen in the next four to five months, according to three sources familiar with the meeting. ...

“The president said it would be good to do this in the next five months because that is when we’ll be considering the [continuing resolution] and the debt limit,” said the lawmaker. “After August you start getting ready for the mid-term.”

Oh gawd.

White House officials have previously made clear the timeline they are most interested in is the one for the budget resolutions the Senate and House will begin debating this month. They believe a deficit-reduction deal can be achieved by moving legislation through regular order. ...

“There is an opportunity here to do what some members of Congress and leaders have said they would like to do, and we agree, and that is return to some sense of normalcy here, regular order, engage in a budget process and negotiation and debate that hopefully produces a bipartisan compromise,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Thursday. ...

The beatings will continue until morale improves. Ya know, whenever the town just north of me gets into fiscal difficulty, they always threaten to close the swimming pool ("Even the children!"). Then the deal-making takes place, and the swimming pool stays open. The difference between hostage-taking at the local and Federal levels is that the Feds actually do close the swimming pool, but with a Kafka-esque admixture of not really closing it for everybody, setting the hours with byzantine and inscrutable regulations, privatizing bits of it, and on and on and on, with the net result that only those least in need of using the pool are able to do so. "You mean it costs me $35 to rent a pair of swimming trunks?"

“I think it has to happen outside of regular order,” said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who joined Obama and 11 Republican colleagues for dinner at The Jefferson Hotel, when asked about the prospect for reaching a grand bargain.

Senators described the Wednesday’s meeting as friendly and constructive. Some of them emerged more optimistic of the prospect of a reaching a grand bargain this year.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate Democrats’ chief political strategist, declined comment on Obama’s timeline but said Republican colleagues appeared encouraged by the meeting.

“I talked to three or four of my Republican colleagues who were there and they were very positive about the whole tone of the meeting,” he said.

GOP lawmakers said the meeting broke no new policy ground. They said the president shared a deficit-reduction plan that was very similar to one posted on the White House website.

Well, so much for that stupid Ezra Klein column. The Republicans "checked the web site!" Who was puffing Klein up, anyhow? The White House?

“It was all about optics,” said the aide. “He’s doing this to show that he’s working with Republicans because there’s been a dip in his poll numbers.” ...

But Republicans who sat down with Obama dismissed suspicions from colleagues that his outreach effort is purely for show.

“I think he’s very sincere. I think he wants to try to figure something out. Today was a good step and we’ll see what happens now,” Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) told The Hill after leaving the hotel meeting.

GOP senators say the test will be whether the president continues to invite them to private meetings. Obama has indicated that is his intention.

“He indicated that he would be meeting with other senators at different times,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) who spoke with the president on the phone earlier this week.

Obama did not give McConnell a heads up about his plan to invite a dozen rank-and-file GOP senators to dinner. Instead, the GOP leader heard about it from colleagues.

At a press conference Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged Obama to remember his pledge from the 2008 presidential campaign not to cut Social Security benefits.

Sanders, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and a group of Democratic liberals introduced legislation to extend the solvency of Social Security by applying payroll taxes to all income over $250,000.

Gawd, Democrats suck.

1. Sanders is a fool and/or corrupt. As we know, all Obama did was promise not to "slash" Social Security. He's definitely planning cuts (the "balanced approach") which everybody will agree aren't slashes.

2. The Democrats are fools and/or corrupt. They should be talking about increasing benefits, not avoiding cuts! Duncan Black is the most moderate person in the world, and he gets it. Why can't Democrats? (Well, I know why -- their owners said "No?! Hell no!" but repeat, repeat, repeat....)

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Comments

Submitted by Hugh on

I like the statement about getting a Grand Betrayal done before they have to run on it. And also the bit about "private", i.e. secret meetings. Yeah, they can't let the public in on the public's business. If they had public meetings, where would it end, how could they stab their constituencies in the back? I mean they still would, but what about the children?

Alexa's picture
Submitted by Alexa on

Judd Gregg gave the August 1st deadline in a video of him taking reporter's questions after the kickoff of the Fix the Debt Campaign (which I've posted on several blogs, I think here as well, but haven't checked).

The piece below demonstrates that last year Geithner presented the plan to Republicans that would allow sequester to "linger" until August 1st, with them paying back the approximately 80 billion dollars that they 'sequester delay' cost, by cutting and/or taxing even more.

Talk about cynical!

And, the Obama Administration has confirmed this on numerous occasions, including in the excerpt and link below.

snip

Obama Seeks Aug. 1 Deadline for Tax Reform

By Zachary A. Goldfarb, Rosalind Helderman and Lori Montgomery
November 30, 2012

President Obama is seeking an Aug. 1 deadline for overhauling the tax code and making changes to expensive federal health programs, the final pieces of what the administration conceives as a far-reaching plan to rein in the national debt, senior administration officials said Friday.

The proposed deadline was included in a plan Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner delivered to Capitol Hill on Thursday as Obama’s opening bid in talks with congressional Republicans to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff.”

That plan generally mirrors previous deficit-reduction plans Obama has submitted to Congress. In all, it would reduce borrowing over the next decade by $4.5 trillion, officials said. However, Obama is proposing to dedicate about $200 billion of those savings to new measures to boost the sluggish economy, including additional unemployment benefits and extension of a temporary payroll tax cut for most workers.

The overall figure includes about $1.2 trillion in savings already in force as part of previous spending agreements with the Republican House. The White House proposes to raise $1.6 trillion in fresh revenue, with about $1 trillion coming in January, with the expiration of the George W. Bush tax cuts for high earners.

An additional $600 billion in revenue would be generated next year through a rewrite of the tax code. And $600 billion in fresh savings would come next year, with a little more than half coming from Medicare and Medicaid changes, such as higher premiums for high-income beneficiaries.

To ensure that Congress acts by Aug. 1, Obama is proposing to delay automatic spending cuts only through that date. The so-called sequester would then act as a new trigger to force congressional action. Delaying the sequester for eight months would cost about $80 billion, officials said. They recommended covering that cost with new spending cuts and tax hikes, but did not specify which ones.

Taken as a whole, the president’s offer contains $2.50 in spending cuts for every $1 in new taxes, officials said. However, revenue far outweighs spending cuts in new savings, with $1.6 trillion in taxes paired with a little more than $600 billion in cuts.

Still, the ratio is slightly better than what was described by senior Republican aides, who offered details of the plan after Geithner’s meeting with GOP leaders Thursday. At that time, GOP aides said the president had offered only $400 billion in spending cuts.

House Speaker John A. Boehner said earlier Friday that the negotiations over the fiscal cliff had reached a “stalemate” after Obama accused Republicans of holding the middle class “hostage” and declared that tax rates must rise for the wealthy as part of any deal.

snip

So as this piece indicates, the entire Kabuki episode we just witnessed was laid out and agreed to by both parties last November, or thereabouts.

As an aside, I've read that over the past several years, the rate of expatriation (from the US) has quadrupled.

If it's true, it's no wonder. :-)

Alexa

Rangoon78's picture
Submitted by Rangoon78 on

So, I've been accused of hating Obama: not true; no more than I hate the centurions who pierced the heart of Jesus. I'm all; "Forgive them father; the know not what they do."

So now the questions is what do those of us who are cool with the president, and his not knowing, go to those Democratic Party get-togethers at the pizza parlor and… you know, raise our glasses to toast our victory over those stupid Tea Party Republicans and the billionaires who bankroll them… Dunno. Go Dems!

Excerpts from:

A President Who’ll Cut Social Security – And Liberals Who Love Him Too Much
By Richard Eskow | March 8, 2013

This week the President hosted a dinner for Republicans leaders where he worked to sell his budget proposal, including his harmful plan to cut benefits through the “chained CPI.” National Security was the main course and Social Security was the dessert. And guess who wasn’t coming to dinner: The elderly, the disabled, or any policy experts who understand the disastrous implications of the chained CPI.

The Maddow/Klein exchange (which we’ll bring to you as soon as a transcript is available) is the crest of a building wave in pro-Democratic Party commentary which says, as Klein puts it, that “what we have here is a failure to communicate.” Klein says that at least “some of the gridlock (in Washington) is due to poor information.” Jonathan Chait bemoans the fact that Republicans ”won’t acknowledge (Obama’s)actual offer, which includes large cuts to retirement programs.“

Silly, silly Republicans. Klein quotes one reporter as saying of the White House, “They tell us three times a day that they want to do chained CPI!”

That’s right: The White House has been trying to impose this benefit cut on Social Security’s elderly and disabled recipients for years, and Republicans don’t even know. Neither do most Democrats, for that matter. They think they voted for a President who will defend those benefits, not work relentlessly to cut them.

But Democrats like Maddow, Klein, and Chait know better. They know exactly what Obama’s been trying to do. And their only complaint seems to be that he’s not doing effectively enough. We’re not hearing much from the ‘left’ side of the debate about the profound flaws, biases, and inherent cynicism behind both the President’s policy and his rhetoric.

Here are the facts:

Research suggests that Social Security cost-of-living increases are already inadequate. (See studies on “CPI-E” for more details on the best ways to increase them.)
Obama’s proposed chained-CPI cut would typically reduce benefits for 3 percent, and by as much as 6 percent for some recipients.
The White House’s decision to label this cut the “superlative CPI” is grotesque. It suggests that elderly women who receive an average of $950 or so per month are receiving “superlative” benefit increases each year.

This is shaping up to be quite a victory for the GOP. Unless something changes, they’re about to see a core Democratic program cut – and the Democrats will take the heat for it! The only thing that can stop that outcome is concerted public pressure from the Democratic base.

If things don’t change, we’ll remember President Obama for cutting Social Security – and his party will pay the price. Disabled and elderly Americans will pay an even higher price. And the Republicans will be laughing all the ways to the polls in 2014.

http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130308/democrats-whod-cut-social-security-an...

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

... as I just now realized, is that the Democratic rank and file doesn't know. The Republicans checked the web site; but the "progressives" like Maddow have been running interference for Obama so effectively that Democrats don't, or can't believe it if they do.

Just like single payer!

Submitted by jawbone on

with ensuring profit protection for the Big Health Industry players, along with cuts undermining SocSec and Medicare, along with protecting the Big Banksters by allowing them to become Too Big To Fail and way Too Big To Jail. There are other things Obama was tasked with, but they're not coming to mind just now.

And I'm not even touching on what he's done to civil liberties. Or slow walking judicial nominations and trying to put Cororatists on the bench.

Boy, has the voting public been played.

Confidence Man in Chief, our president.

Turlock