Obama looks to make big deficit deal with GOP

[jsr]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-takes-first-step-to-avoid-government-shutdown/2013/03/06/f50c79da-8671-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_story.html

House votes to avert shutdown as Obama looks for big deal
By Rosalind S. Helderman and Philip Rucker

With a government shutdown now unlikely, Obama is focusing on a new round of talks that the White House hopes could break the fiscal impasse. After more than two years of negotiations with GOP leaders that did not achieve a “grand bargain,” the president is courting rank-and-file Republicans who may be interested in a deal that pairs cuts in entitlement programs with a tax overhaul that would include new revenue.

There appears to be a growing desire among leaders at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to reach an accord that has eluded them. At the dinner, Obama and the Republicans spoke about the opportunity to work together through the budget and debt ceiling debates over the next four to five months, according to attendees.

Aides say Obama accepts that the sequester cuts are here, for now at least. But he wants to replace them quickly with a deal that includes overhauling entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security in exchange for raising $600 billion in new revenue by rewriting the tax code.

White House aides said they are encouraged by recent comments from Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and other Republicans that they are willing to consider a grand bargain that includes tax increases, although GOP leaders have resisted any new tax revenue.

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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/g-o-p-senators-give-obama-dinner-thumbs-up/

G.O.P. Senators Give Obama Dinner Thumbs Up
By JACKIE CALMES

In the Senate, however, a number of Republicans are known to support higher tax revenues if Mr. Obama and Democrats agree to significant long-term reductions in future spending for the fast-growing entitlement programs, chiefly Medicare and Medicaid but also Social Security – just the trade-off Mr. Obama supports. Mr. Coburn and Mr. Chambliss, for example, are members of a bipartisan group that has supported a deficit-reduction plan with more additional revenues than the president has proposed.

The thinking in the White House is that with Congress’s Republican leaders – Speaker John A. Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican minority leader – refusing to bargain with Mr. Obama on higher revenues, the president’s only route to a so-called grand bargain for deficit reduction is to go around the leaders to build a bipartisan consensus.

If such a bargain can get through the Democratic-controlled Senate with a few Republicans’ help, that will put pressure on the Republican-controlled House to follow suit – even if House Democrats’ votes provide the margin of passage. That is just the dynamic that in the past two months has allowed Congress to send to Mr. Obama bills raising taxes on wealthy Americans, providing aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy and reauthorizing a law on violence against women.

[Skittles]

1. it's as if we never won the election

[cliffordu]

3. Yep. This shit is as sad as it can get.

[tularetom]

2. I guess nobody in the WH realizes the people who voted for him don't want him to do this

Or else they do realize it and don't give a shit because they don't really work for the voters.

And they sure as hell haven't learned anything about austerity from watching Europe fuck it up.

[LiberalLoner]

4. Like a broken record, I say: they want to cull the herd.

And the herd is us.

[MrSlayer]

5. Oh yeah, he's got them just where he wants them.

We are so fucked. No one even gives the things that will actually fix the problems a thought. It's all austerity, all the time with these fucks.

[Cali_Democrat]

6. Yikes

I hope this isn't true.

[Demo_Chris]

7. Chained CPI

"significant long-term reductions in future spending for the fast-growing entitlement programs, chiefly Medicare and Medicaid but also Social Security"

President Obama believes that seniors (still America's most powerful voting block) will have no real problem with this so long as the cuts only devistate future retirees -- like their kids and grandkids. The President is probably correct about this. Chained CPI is the slow death of Social Security. It's a cancer. If you are currently retired it's not going to impact you all that much -- or not immediately anyway. If you are currently collecting and live long enough you'll see a significant reduction in your purchasing power, but if you are in your twenties or thirties or even forties it means no social security for you.

Again, our President thinks that today's seniors will have no problem with that. He believes that so long as they get theirs they could not care less what happens down the road.

I would like to believe that the President is wrong about this.

[tecelote]

8. The government needs money to run...

So, we can take it from the wealthy donors who helped get our good representatives elected.

Or, we can wrench it from the grubby hands of the poor and middle class who have no voice anyway.

[newfie11]

9. Why the hell did I bother voting!

So who is buying Obama?
I freaking give up!

[FirstLight]

10. ...and yet

many DUers here get all bent pout of shape when I say it all the same game, whether there's a D or and R...they say "stop with this false equivalency BS!"

Look, I will admit that the Rethugs are more open and despicable about their motives...but ALL our elected people are bought and paid for...unfortunately, even our POTUS. I am beginning to think it is all a big scam, we never had a choice to begin with. The tactics and the pain inflicted may look different, but it's gonna happen no matter who is in office. Because that it the way the "Corporation" wants it.

as mentioned upthread...the 1% are hoping to cull the herd...no bones about it.


The rest is just Theater, and I have lost my sense of Hope ...can you hear THAT, Mr. President?

[razorman]

11. I have doubts about how much good this approach will do, particularly with these senators.

McCain and Graham are not trusted by much of their own party. If they cooperate with the president and try to fix things, they will be accused of being turncoats. I really do not think President Obama will be able to make much headway toward his 'grand bargain' with this bunch, even if they want it, also. Their influence is waning.

[Jasana]

12. I hope you are right. nt

[MadHound]

13. Face it, the 'Pugs and Dems are doing nothing more than playing a game,

It's called good cop, bad cop. They've dressed it up a lot, with all sorts of kabuki theater and what not, but that is what it boils down to, good cop, bad cop. And you know what, any cop will tell you, while the bad cop is all storm and bluster, it is the good cop who gets the job done, who puts the squeeze on.

Face it, Obama is the good cop, and boy howdy, is the squeeze being put on.

[JaneyVee]

14. Obama should say:

"Fuck off. YOU guys are the ones up for re-election in 2014 and if you don't meet MY demands I will personally come to your hometown and campaign against you. I will unleash OFA in all of your districts and you all will be unemployed so fast you won't have time to clean out your lockers".

[spanone]

15. the house will tell him to go fuck himself.....