This is pathetic. I wiill not support Republican policies even if implemented in a compromise by Barack Obama.
Yesterday, I did a diary of slight hope: President Obama Showing Some Fight On Debt Limit
I was wrong. That hope lasted less than one day:
White House officials have opened the door to a deal with Republicans that would allow the U.S. to increase its ability to borrow, potentially easing worries in financial markets that the country might default on its debt.
President Open to Deal on Debt Cap.
Softening the administration's earlier insistence that Congress raise the so-called debt ceiling without conditions, officials now say they won't rule out linking an increase of the borrowing cap with cuts aimed at reducing the deficit—even though they'd prefer to keep the issues separate.
The shift by the White House comes at a critical point in a debate about the country's fiscal future. Last week, Congress and the president inked a deal to avert a government shutdown, shifting the focus of debate to the next milestone: The point in the next few weeks when the U.S. hits its borrowing limit. Republicans in Congress insist that any vote to raise the debt ceiling be accompanied by new spending limits or other deficit-reduction efforts.
President Open to Deal on Debt Cap
Anything to pay off the extortionists.
President Obama is going to win over the Republicans!
The dual purposes of Obama’s big deficit reduction speech: The Post has a preview of tomorrow’s speech, and it appears it will have two goals: Premise his approach to deficit reduction on the bipartisan debt commission, in an effort to present his own approach as a responsible, middle-ground alternative to Paul Ryan’s vision, one that genuinely spreads the pain around evenly.
But at the same time, a key goal is to win over Republicans, by persuading them the President is serious about deficit reduction and deeper spending cuts, in hopes of enticing them to vote to raise the debt ceiling.
The Plum Line
The only way to win over Republicans is to implement their extremist policies.
I cannot support this. I will not support this. Silence is betrayal. I will be silent no more.
Update I: Conflicting reports on the speech tomorrow. Probably both true. Obama likely will reconcile some progressive measures with setting the "left" alternative deep in Republican territory. A good diary based on LA Times story (although the author implictly attacks me, no hard feelings) tells us that Obama will "draw a sharp contrast" with rs.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Reporting from Washington—
President Obama will call for shrinking the nation's long-term deficits by raising taxes on wealthier Americans and requiring them to pay more into Social Security, drawing a barbed contrast with a Republican plan to save money by deeply slashing Medicare, Medicaid and other domestic spending.
Obama will offer some spending cuts, including trims to the Pentagon's budget, but his speech Wednesday is likely to provide Americans with a vivid choice between higher taxes or fewer benefits, issues that will color the national debate straight through the 2012 election.
And this from Time magazine:
President Obama will use the Simpson-Bowles commission report as a framework for the deficit reduction plan he's set to unveil Wednesday afternoon. Starting from the center will only exacerbate liberal frustration over the White House's negotiating tactics. Early indications that it's willing to make concessions on cuts tied to the debt ceiling vote won't help matters. As for a deal suddenly materializing from the Senate's bipartisan Gang of Six, also working from Simpson-Bowles and getting closer to going public, Tom Coburn says that's not going to happen:
Read more:
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/...
We'll see tomrorow. But remember, what Obama proposes will be the left alternative, the Democratic plan.
I pray there is no deal. Because it can only move further right to make a deal.
Austerity when unemployment is 8.8% and millions are not being counted because they have been out of work for so long.
It is immoral. And austerity-lite, if we even get that, is no victory.
The job destroyed may be your own.