dagblog - Comments for "Prez: Debt bargain in December? Nah, I'm dumb as a fuckin' stump--don't blame me for current (kabuki) coming train wreck..."

You don't???? WTF????

we are stardust — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:22:49 +0000

In reply to I guess we would have to

You don't???? WTF????

I guess we would have to

jollyroger — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:37:15 +0000

In reply to (No subject)

I guess we would have to believe that Obama really, really wants to win. (not 2012, but "the future")

Me, I don't feel it.

The problem with the program

jollyroger — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:35:20 +0000

In reply to Well, are these folks, these

The problem with the program as stated by Obey is that it requires someone (eg Obama) to be out there talkin' shit.

Anybody talkin' shit? Cause I don't hear them.

Well, boy, howdy, that sure

jollyroger — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:33:56 +0000

In reply to Ezra Klein discussed this

Well, boy, howdy, that sure is working out well for them.

Not to mention us...

(No subject)

we are stardust — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:52:50 +0000

In reply to Prez: Debt bargain in December? Nah, I'm dumb as a fuckin' stump--don't blame me for current (kabuki) coming train wreck...

Dick, my link is from

Obey — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:49:46 +0000

In reply to Well, are these folks, these

Dick, my link is from December. They were thinking that far ahead. That link isn't post-hoc interpretation or anything. I'd like to think this is just rank incompetence. But it isn't.

As for the MSM, it's scary. I switched on CNN after taking a break from the news and even on CNN international it's all about Blitzer freaking out over a picture of some guy's junk. I didn't know what was going on, but it's like reality is a bad parody of an SNL sketch. Good God...

Well, are these folks, these

Richard Day — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:26:25 +0000

In reply to Ezra Klein discussed this

Well, are these folks, these pols really that smart?

I think they think they are that smart; they think they are great chess players; but I wonder if they really think that far ahead!

MSM is more worried about what is contained in Weiner's shorts or Palin's cranium than the moves being made on the Congressional chess board!

Ezra Klein discussed this

Obey — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:51:38 +0000

In reply to Prez: Debt bargain in December? Nah, I'm dumb as a fuckin' stump--don't blame me for current (kabuki) coming train wreck...

Ezra Klein discussed this back in december. The Democrats' thinking back then was not to raise the debt ceiling during the lame duck session so that they would force the GOP to themselves propose radical cuts during their new majority, and then the Dems could ride the outrage all the way to the next election.

What's important to understand about the debt-ceiling vote -- where Democrats and Republicans will either strike a deal to increase the Treasury's borrowing cap or the country will collapse into default -- is that it's not like Democrats have simply forgotten about it. It's not that they haven't realized that they could tie it to the tax cuts, which Republicans want and which will add $900 billion to the debt. It's that they simply don't want to. “Let the Republicans have some buy-in on the debt. They’re going to have a majority in the House,” said Harry Reid. “I don’t think it should be when we have a heavily Democratic Senate, heavily Democratic House and a Democratic president.”

The theory goes something like this: Republicans will demand sharp spending cuts in return for lifting the debt ceiling. Let them. "Boehner et al have had the luxury of proposing all sorts of ideas that bear no relation to reality," says Jim Manley, Reid's spokesman. "Next year, they’ll have to lay it all out. No more magic asterisks, no more 'we’ll get back to you.’ "

It seemed like a bad strategy to me back then and I said so. It was basically a lets-let-the-GOP-destroy-the-country-so-we-can-win-an-election strategy. I.e. the Dems win by abdicating their responsibility to the country and letting the GOP have their way.