Budget talks: This is getting nasty

Only liberals eat it.

 

Even badder!

 

Isn't Soldier Field sodded with foie gras?

 

I don't see how the tea party are villains for wanting to cut the deficit.

That's all we heard during Bush 2nd term from the libs.

 

While I disagree with over-regulation - and recognize government's tendency to expand and intrude - I think no regulation is demonstrably worse. Because it puts public health at risk.

It's silly to say that because a food service business is small it should be exempt from reasonable local standards for food handling and preparation. Are you willing to argue that only chain restaurants be inspected by the health department? That smaller, family-owned restaurants - like every one in Chinatown, say - not be subject to inspection?

 

From todays Politico:
"DRIVING THE FALL - President Obama's remarks in the State Dining Room at 1:52 p.m. (All four broadcast nets broke in with special reports; all but Fox showed the Dow as the president spoke)"

 

Maybe there was a better way to do it than simply refusing to govern.

 

Better way has been failing for years. Serious deficit cut discussions have only come about because of The Tea Party taking a stand.

We've been kicking the deficit can down the road for years and only making it worse.

 

I'm not sure that's true. Certainly there was a way to negotiate this whole thing - including debt/deficit reduction - weeks ago, and without driving the US off a cliff.

But because of how this was done, it seems pretty obvious the Tea Party's main goal was to kill government. Which is why I kept referring to it as ritual suicide. It was theater, certainly, but the point was never to rein in government spending. Rather it was to punish and destroy the ideologically impure.

 

Ok lets say they just rubber stamped spending increase. Do you really think that serious deficit discussion would have taken place?

 

Why assume a rubber stamp spending increase? Freeze everything.

Better yet, why not begin this discussion months ago - especially if the entirety of your platform is fiscal reform - by calling all the relevant parties together and saying "Look, we can't go on like this. We need to increase revenue, cut spending and cap the deficit and the debt. We're serious about this and won't kick the can down the road."

Then a reasonable position to take might have been a phased drawdown of spending;, a phased extension of the debt ceiling for another 12 months to get our ducks in order and avoid a credit collapse; a phased increase in revenue (either by closing loopholes or incremental increases in certain kinds taxation) etc., etc., etc.

That's not what happened. What we got instead was a kamikaze attack. Even Boehner couldn't believe what was happening.

 

That was done with Simpson/ Bowles commission. I think they put out a lot of good ideas that warranted discussion. Instead of getting behind the ideas Obama choose to ignore.