Grand Bargain Express: Obama, GOP Mount 'Fiscal Cliff' Campaign Blitz (ABC News)

[Poll_Blind]

ABC News: Obama, GOP Mount 'Fiscal Cliff' Campaign Blitz (16 minutes ago)
Reuters: Obama says hopes for deficit deal by Christmas (24 minutes ago)

[div class="excerpt" style="border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: none; border-radius: 0.3846em 0.3846em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Obama, GOP Mount 'Fiscal Cliff' Campaign Blitz[div class="excerpt" style="border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: none; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3846em 0.3846em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"] President Obama, Republican lawmakers and an army of independent advocacy groups have mounted an aggressive new public campaign to highlight the stakes in a deal to avoid an economically toxic package of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts could take hold in 35 days.

The push has all the makings of a political campaign -- coming just three weeks after Election Day -- but with the nation's debt taking center stage instead of an individual candidate.

--snip--

A trio of union groups -- the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union and the National Education Association (NEA) – last week launched a $300,000 TV and radio ad campaign across five states calling for higher taxes on the wealthy and no "cuts to vital services."

Some of the ads reportedly ran during televised coverage of Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

--snip--

AARP, the Business Roundtable and the National Coalition to Preserve Social Security and Medicare have each readied campaigns of their own, hoping to remind lawmakers of their opposition to significant changes to entitlement programs.

And so begins the mad scramble for.....for what exactly? For a shit deal we get screwed on by Grover Norquist's lame-duck catamites?

Who the fuck thinks that's a good deal? Sounds more like the "Hasty Hot Mess" than a "Grand Bargain".

Maybe we should do something a little, oh, a little less chicken-with-its-head-cut-off. Like wait until the new year when we're in a better position to bargain, as Democratic House Rep. Peter DeFazio has suggested!

[div class="excerpt" style="border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: none; border-radius: 0.3846em 0.3846em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Obama says hopes for deficit deal by Christmas[div class="excerpt" style="border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: none; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3846em 0.3846em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he hoped to reach an agreement with Congress before Christmas to avoid the looming "fiscal cliff" and shrink the budget deficit, and ramped up efforts to rally the public to press Republicans for action.

Obama encouraged Americans to use Twitter - with the hashtag #My2K - and other social media to swamp their lawmakers with requests to act quickly to keep their tax rates low.

"Our ultimate goal is an agreement that gets our long-term deficit under control in a way that is fair and balanced," he said at the White House.

"I believe that both parties can agree on a framework that does that in the coming weeks. In fact, my hope is to get this done before Christmas," Obama said.

CHUGGA-CHUGGA, CHUGGA-CHUGGA, SOOO-OOON! SOOO-OOON!

PB

[David__77]

1. best deal is NO deal...

Lets put the cards on the table.

[Poll_Blind]

3. Right now it isn't. Not with that batch of lame-duck Tea Partiers stewing in Congress.

You can't please that crowd. You can't.

PB

[WorseBeforeBetter]

2. "Fair and balanced."

*That* can't be good...