{"id":5357,"date":"2011-07-10T01:59:33","date_gmt":"2011-07-10T08:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5357"},"modified":"2011-07-10T01:59:33","modified_gmt":"2011-07-10T08:59:33","slug":"budget-only-one-side-is-trying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/10\/budget-only-one-side-is-trying\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget: Only One Side Is Trying"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weekend has seen some rather stunning developments in the pending crisis from Republicans falsely linking the budget to the debt ceiling and using it to blackmail America to succumb to their class warfare.  The Senate Democrats have introduced their own plan.  John Boehner (R-OH) has cravenly abandoned the negotiations at the eleventh hour, and we have a strong indication that Obama did not cave-in to Republican terrorism, as so many expected him to do.  This will bring you up to date.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"10Dems\"Senate Democrats have drafted a sweeping debt-reduction plan<\/strong> that would slice $4 trillion from projected borrowing over the next decade without touching the expensive health and retirement programs<\/strong> targeted by President Obama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, Senate Democrats are proposing to stabilize borrowing through sharp cuts at the Pentagon<\/strong> and other government agencies, as well as $2 trillion in new taxes, primarily on families earning more than $1 million year<\/strong>, according to a copy of the plan obtained by The Washington Post.<\/p>\n

With debt-reduction talks under way between Obama and congressional leaders,<\/a> Senate Democrats are unlikely to adopt the blueprint. However, it has gained broad support among those eager to chart a path to solving the nation\u2019s budget problems without making politically painful cuts to Social Security and Medicare\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/p>\n

On the surface, this sounds excellent, but I can\u2019t give this a thumbs up or down until I get to examine the plan in detail.  There is one budget plan, however, that I do endorse and enthusiastically support: The People\u2019s Budget<\/a> [PDF], by the Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

What may take place at today\u2019s summit is now in limbo, because, in an all too common Republican ploy, John \u201cAgent Orange\u201d Boehner has withdrawn from the negotiations, demonstrating that he never intended to negotiate in good faith.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"BonerOrange\"<\/p>\n

House Speaker John Boehner is abandoning discussions with the White House<\/strong> on a large-scale debt deal slated to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction. The bone of contention is Boehner’s insistence on no tax increases<\/strong> in the deal. Instead, Boehner said the talks should focus on reaching a smaller debt-reduction deal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

"Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes," Boehner said in the statement\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <TPM<\/a>><\/p>\n

Boehner wants to pursue a smaller [short term] deal for one reason only.  He wants to extract more concessions, give nothing in return, and begin the blackmail all over again.  Just say no.<\/font><\/p>\n

The best news coming out of this is that, the reason Boehner blinked may well be that he learned that Obama will not cave-in this time.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"SocialSecurity\"Here’s potentially good news<\/a><\/font>, following Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s meeting with President Obama Friday. <\/font><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) reassured angry House Democrats that a proposal to change a key measure of inflation linked to Social Security was not likely to be part of a debt ceiling deal, lawmakers said Friday. <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

Pelosi calmed Democrats upset over a proposal to change how the Consumer Price Index is calculated that would curb Social Security benefits, dimming the prospects of an idea once floated as an area of bipartisan support.<\/font><\/p>\n

"She basically reassured the group that there’s no way it’s going to happen," said Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), following a Friday afternoon meeting of House Democrats in the basement of the Capitol building. "After this, I do not think reducing the CPI in any way is a viable option."<\/font><\/p>\n

Let’s hope so, because a Chained CPI might not be considered a Social Security cut by some of the debt ceiling negotiators, but by any other name it’s still a cut<\/a><\/font>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Daily Kos<\/a>><\/p>\n

Chained CPI is a significant cut as I calculated here<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

Since the beginning I have said that, unless Democrats cave-in first, Republicans will, because the first and worst hurt in a crisis over failure to extend the debt ceiling are the banksters.  Republicans will not throw banksters under the bus.<\/font><\/p>\n

This still isn\u2019t over, but it\u2019s most refreshing to have something positive to say.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weekend has seen some rather stunning developments in the pending crisis from Republicans falsely linking the budget to the debt ceiling and using it to blackmail America to succumb to their class warfare.  The Senate Democrats have introduced their own plan.  John Boehner (R-OH) has cravenly abandoned the negotiations at the eleventh hour, and […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}