Boehner is presenting the House GOP caucus with 2 options.

[aaaaaa5a]

From CNN:

Option 1: First Boehner will see if he has 218 votes for the Senate bill with an add on for as of yet unspecified spending cuts. If he does no have the votes he will move to option 2: A straight up or down vote in the house!


My take: This is fun to watch. The tea party and the GOP are breaking up. Obama is dividing and conquering the GOP.


The House GOP has been beaten.

[TDale313]

1. This is getting interesting.

[bluestate10]

2. Not according to some on DU. As far as they are concerned, Obama caved before negotiations started. n

[Cha]

7. Then they can Echo that for Senator Bernie Sanders, too..

or do they just save they special disingenuousness for the Prez?

[JoePhilly]

13. So Bernie voted to cave??

[aaaaaa5a]

25. What does that tell you?

If this were a bad deal, do you think Bernie would have supported it?

[arendt]

27. Bernie traded his vote for dairy price support

There are very few deadly votes for a Vermont politico. Dairy prices are one of them.

Bernie is saving his ass. At least he got something TANGIBLE for his vote.

[JoePhilly]

39. So what you mean is Bernie, just like all of them, can be bought.

[Tempest]

45. No, what he means is that Bernie is looking out for his CONSTITUENTS. n/t

[JoePhilly]

48. But Obama isn't?

[Tempest]

49. Not sure where that came from since I made no such claim.

Or are you just looking to pick a fight?

[JoePhilly]

50. Others have.

[zbdent]

14. And newly re-elected, noted "most liberal" Sherrod Brown ...

(well, whomever the right-wing nutjobs want to smear at the moment is labeled the "most liberal X in the Y" ...)

[Odin2005]

31. Sanders is a Capitalist running dog of the international bourgeoisie!!!

[Cha]

32. I knew that..

[aaaaaa5a]

10. With due respect, we have some critics who simply don't know what they are talking about.

I think too many critics take their "marching orders" from the Huffington Post. But Arianna has never been a big fan of Obama. She wasn't even sure she was going to vote for him during the election. It is not always a good source to get editorial information. She is more of an opportunist than anything else.


If you want to know who is winning this debate, just look at what is going on. The GOP is in shambles. The Dems are unified and holding tight. The grin you have been seeing on Joe Biden's face all day is real!




?6

[Cha]

17. Exactly, and, it's not just Arianna's cue that is clueless.

But, really..someone like her who says she doesn't know who she's going to vote for because living in a cave would be the only way she could dodge that choice. Either she's like Trump and going for mittLies or she's not.

Those complaining that PBO could have gotten a better deal are Ignoring that he's dealing with a political party that doesn't care about the working people or anybody but the top Kochies, Adelsons, Murdochs, Etc Etc Etc.

Awesome pics of Smiling VP, Joe Biden, aaaaaa5a!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!

[aaaaaa5a]

24. Thanks! nt

[freetrucker53]

28. Joe's smile

How often do you see him not smiling?

[Odin2005]

35. He's like everyone's favorite grandpa!

[Odin2005]

33. Ariana is a RW opportunist and HuffPo is a tabloid rag.

Her "conversion" was a cynical business PR stunt.

Her rag peddles New Age Woo-Woo from people like Deepak Chopra.

[Tempest]

47. HP is getting worse

More and more entertainment and other non-political stories are taking up all their content.

It's as if they are trying to imitate the National Enquirer.

[Tempest]

46. THANK YOU!

I've been doing my best to counter the misinformation coming from HP in their forums, but it's a losing battle.

Every hour they print something else against Obama that has nothing to do with him.

[longship]

34. Oh Noooo!

Not Obama concern!!!!!

Oh dear! I am so worried -- wringing my hands as I type this in.

[DCKit]

44. What are you typing with? My mind is racing. nt

[RomneyLies]

3. Under the first scneario, they get ZERO Dem votes, so the caucus has to get at least 216.

Currently the breakdown is 191 Dems to 240 Pubs. It takes 216 for a majority.

If 25 Pubs refuse to go along on the first scenario, it's done.

All it takes is 50 - 75 Pubs in the second scenario, assuming some liberal Dems buck the vote, but that breaks the Hastert Rule and threatens the speaker gavel.

[PDittie]

4. If Boehner can't get a few Republicans to form a majority with Dems

then the biill fails and the House GOP looks like obstructionists.

If they revolt against Boehner and elect Can'tor speaker, then the obstructionists will be in charge.

It's a lose-lose-lose unless they pass the bill (and they won't).

[aaaaaa5a]

5. Option 1 will included 300 billion dollars in spending cuts.

Of course that isn't likely to pass. And even if it did, it is dead in the senate.

[bhikkhu]

9. except that they haven't proposed anything like that

their rhetoric is "spending cuts", but they never propose anything of substance - as they can't get anywhere close to that figure without cutting defense, or starving grandma, or pulling the plug on medicare benefits. None of which they have the guts or the gall to do.

[geek tragedy]

6. They'll put tons of spending cuts in there to get the caucus united

Then the bill dies when the Senate refuses to consider it.

[Cha]

8. that sounds about what Koch would want.

[CakeGrrl]

11. Agreed.

The President is looking at the big picture gameboard, not just trying to cause short-term pain for satisfaction's sake.

Yet some still continue to think that the

Communist
Socialist
Lazy
Illegitimate
Kenyan
Colonialist
Muslim
Welfare-Loving
America-hating
Freedom-hating
Usurper

is the GOP's best friend. What with all the love they show him.

[humbled_opinion]

18. Judge a man by actions not words...

Answer me this...

Where was the discussion on ....

1. a VAT?
2. Actually Rasing the tax rates not just letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the rich?
3. A banking and trading transaction tax?
4. An annual tax on gun ownership?
5. A wealth Tax?

Not a single word by the President on anything like those......but he did come up with the brilliant SS chained CPI.....

Why?

[Myrina]

19. +100

Thank You.

[CakeGrrl]

26. If you had seen his presser yesterday,

He stated that they were forced to do a deal in increments since the current Congress was essentially not up to the task of a more comprehensive deal.

That said, what such a pared-down FIRST deal does is clearly allow the public to see exactly what the House GOP finds distasteful. There is nowhere for them to go to hide behind an excuse NOT to approve the few actions in this deal.

Some people can't see the forest for the trees.

If you don't like dealing with the GOP in congress? Make sure people know why they shouldn't vote them in, as they repeatedly do.

[humbled_opinion]

43. I did watch his presser...

I listen to everything the man says and then I watch his actions, nowhere in his presser did he indicate that the new bar was 450K and that he would be taking only half of the revenue but that isn't even my point...

You act like these negotiating points are actually from the left...

We are negotiating on their terms, they claim that spending is the problem and we don't counter... We ask for revenue and they offer us less than what we get if we simply do nothing and somehow this is some magical 3 dimensional chess to you...... Pollyanna...

You can't even adequately explain why we allowed this thing to pass..... Doing nothing and the Democrats starting tomorrow could have introduced legislation that both gave tax break to those making (whatever they chose) and increased taxes to 60 percent or more on the rich...

So you tell me are the rich paying their fair share? President Obama now beleives so....


400 to 10 it passed in the house if this was such a lousy deal for Repubs more should have took a stand and they didn't you don't see the brick wall thats in front of you because you are too busy admiring the forest.....

Even now the right is saying finally Democrats decided to make tax rates permanent for working families something that Republican House, Senate and White House couldn't get done in 2003....

[freetrucker53]

30. Agree

I posted something similar yesterday. Why does Obama have to always go for the entitlements?

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

12. Boehner is wasting his time with the first option to strengthen his position among the far-right

He wants to show that he cares about their concerns when in actuality, he should just go ahead with the second option because it would most likely pass with majority Democrat support.

[humbled_opinion]

15. LOL

The Democrats have such a low bar in the debate why wouldn't they be grinning, hey guys we only managed to get a tiny bit of revenue from the top 1 percent when we tried to get the top 2 percent we failed yeah it's true the GOP are kicking and screaming but we agreed in a bipartisan way that the tax rates would be permanent you know the rich are now paying their fair share.

So tell me again who has all the the leverage coming up on this debt ceiling debate?

[Major Nikon]

16. It's going to be a long 4 years for them

Since Obama doesn't have to worry about getting reelected he can leverage the Senate against them and use the bully pulpit to maximum effectiveness. Midterms could get quite interesting as well. Traditionally a 6 year president will lose ground in the mid-terms, but this one could very easily go the other way. The GOP simply can't go on doing business as usual or they will go the way of the Whigs.

[Cleita]

20. Let's hope it's an up and down vote on the bill as passed by the Senate.

The only spending cuts that I think would be acceptable are to our bloated military. I doubt if Republicans would agree.

[plethoro]

21. The Republicans are in a non-winnable position.....

If they pass it is because they "caved" and yielded to increased taxes for the rich. If they don't pass it they will look like selfish morons to most of the voting public. No way to win.

[DCBob]

22. I have to say this is a smart move by the orange man.

this gives him cover to allow the vote to proceed on the Senate version. Looks like we will have a signed deal by the end of the night.

Cheers!

[Coyotl]

23. The House is irrelevant now.

The Senate will be leading from now on. The House either follows or the Rs lose in 2014.

[Odin2005]

29. It's about time our side uses Divide-And-Conquer on the GOP.

It's quite obvious what Obama is doing, he's working on eroding the lock-step party discipline the GOP has had since 1994. He is provoking the GOP establishment and the Teabaggers to fight amongst themselves, forcing Boehner to look across the aisle to get votes and enraging the RW extremists.

[longship]

36. Bing-Bing-Bing-Bing!

Give the guy some credit, people. Odin2005 and the OP have it right. This is a lose/lose proposition for the Repubs. And it could divide their caucus no matter which path they take.

I like this thread, except for the Obama-is-giving-it-all-away concern posts.

[Odin2005]

37. The concern trolls are as predictable as a cold winter in Fargo.

Nothing is ever good enough for them. I mentioned several times that nothing progressive can pass the House and they just get flustered and make excuses.

[ReRe]

38. Go PO!

The vote is nigh...very soon. It's 9:11pm ET right now.. Turn on C-Span!

[SoapBox]

40. tsk, tsk...

What IS a drinking, smoking, golf playing, Orange Boner to do????

Sweat I hope!

[James48]

41. We're ALL screwed!

They just uploaded the Senate bill onto Thomas.loc.gov

GO take a look at the last version of H.R. 8- it's the Senate version the House is about to vote on.

BILLIONS in tax credits for rich people.

Sickening.

Section 317- tax loopholes for television companies. Great.

Section 324 - a 100% exemption on the capital gain of small company stock. Wonderful.

Section 329 - let's blow off the RUM tax in Puerto Rico. Magnificent.

What the hell is that crap? ? ?


Every special interest and their brother has gotten tax gimmicks added or extended.

here is the whole thing:

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc112/h8_eas.xml

[RedstDem]

42. A definite win for Obama

and a good harbinger of things to come, but I'm no fan of of any "deal", I would have have jumped over the cliff because 400K as a cutoff is giving the 1% a free ride still.