Despite failing to get 14 votes, deficit commission optimistic

[sabra]

Source: MSNBC

President Obama's deficit-reduction commission just adjourned and was unable to get the 14 votes (out of 18) necessary to force Congress to vote on its proposal.

But with more than a majority backing the proposal, commission members said they were optimistic Congress could still tackle deficit reduction along the lines the proposal recommended. "We should not let this proposal fall by the wayside," said GOP Sen. Mike Crapo, who supported it. "We have shown that we can get a supermajority to pass this kind of legislation."

Said co-chair Alan Simpson, a former GOP senator: "I will walk home proudly, with my head held high."

Read more: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/03/5573531-despite-failing-to-get-14-votes-deficit-commission-optimistic

[Larkspur]

1. Simpson should be escorted to ye old French guillotine

That's what they would have done to aristocrats like "Scrooge" Simpson a couple hundred years ago.

[No Elephants]

4. If only I had learned knitting.

[displacedvermoter]

23. Who appointed him?

[Larkspur]

29. Obama

[displacedvermoter]

31. So does SImpson go to the guillotine alone?

[emulatorloo]

2. Mike Crap-o

What an appropriate name.

So glad to hear this news, so happy this piece of crap did not get the necessary votes.

KICK AND REC

[laughingliberal]

3. A super majority of 18 hand picked people? Some accomplishment. Look for this to be the blueprint

for Obama's budget.

:nuke:

[No Elephants]

6. Good point!

[emulatorloo]

14. I think you are misreading. They couldn't get the 14 votes out of 18

Simpson lost. Cat food commission is done, it is over, it was rejected.

When Mike Crapo talks about a super majority he is living in fantasyland. You know the Republican place where every lie is true.

[Donnachaidh]

18. The Dems rejected freezing fed salaries too

But that was done, regardless.

I suspect this evil *finding* will be the blueprint Obama will use - just so he can avoid being blamed outright for future austerity cuts.

[laughingliberal]

19. Right, they didn't get 14 but they're touting how they still got a majority.

And I fully expect to see a bunch of it in Obama's budget. He's been unwilling to come out and lend any criticism, whatsoever, to what Simpson and Bowles proposed.

[Fearless]

5. Well Republicans promised to scuttle all Democratic plans...

Republicans have scuttled the "deficit commission", DADT, single payer and the public option, unemployment benefits, and they're trying on the tax cuts, on health care, and Social Security.

Wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP! Democrats, they're playing you as fools!

[indepat]

7. So the rabidly RW Deficit Commission didn't get the necessary 14 votes supporting their

rabidly RW solution to the deficit issue caused by 20 years of rabidly RW fiscal and tax policies which have created massive Federal debt and have been a genesis to our current national economic and unemployment woes. I'm confident the next Congress will do all in its power to assure that rabidly RW tax and fiscal policies are continued and social security gutted. ;)

[Historic NY]

10. And you thought he was stacking the deck.....go home alan...

I think this is called an excercise in futility, designed as such.

[indepat]

36. I can therefore take comfort our social security and Medicare won't be gutted

;)

[Altoid_Cyclist]

8. I think that what he meant to say was this;

I'll slither back home with my belly on the ground.

I still can't believe who was picked for the commission. Well, actually I CAN believe it and that's the sad part.

[Fearless]

9. How many votes did it get... who cast them... and so on.

[tpsbmam]

11. Vote report

No/anti votes: Max Baucus (D), Xavier Becerra (D), Jan Schakowsky (D), Andy Stern (Labor D), Dave Camp (R), Jeb Hensarling (R), Paul Ryan (R)

Yes/pro Votes: Bowles, Simpson, Kent Conrad (D), Richard Durbin (D), Alice Rivlin (D), John Spratt (D), Tim Coburn (R), David Cote (R), Michael Crapo (R), Judd Gregg (R), Ann Fudge (I)

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/03/news/economy/fiscal_commission_vote/?cnn=yes

[KamaAina]

33. That's Tom Coburn

somewhere, some poor soul named Tim Coburn is seething at the idea of being confused with possibly the worst of all 100 Senators (until Rand Paul is sworn in, anyway).

[KamaAina]

34. Note that three repukes voted No

which would have given them their 14.

And of those two, Hensarling is headed for the House leadership, while Ryan will become chair of the House budget committee. Wonder why they voted No? Because the plan allowed retiress to purchase brand-name cat food instead of store brand? :sarcasm:

[xchrom]

12. I think - unfortunately - they have reason to be optimistic.

The 'horse' is now out of the barn - appeals are being made for
The admin to hold a leadership summit on it,
Durbin came on board, etc.

I just think the hand writing is on the wall -- and
It isn't Jan schakowsky's writing either.

[emulatorloo]

15. Illinois DU'ers need to be burning up Durbin's phone line.

This thing is totally discredited.

[gratuitous]

16. The 14 vote requirement is in the process of being jettisoned

You're precisely right that the handwriting is on the wall, and it's isn't Jan Schakowsky's writing. The so-called final report is being primped for its prime time debut, and every Republican as well as their media henchmen are raring to go to enact the least effective, most punitive proposals from the report, including raising the retirement age and cutting social security benefits for future retirees.

Anyone who insists that the Commission blew its deadline and didn't follow its own by-laws will be summarily dismissed as either some beady-eyed nit-picker or Not Serious About Deficit Reduction. It is going exactly as I predicted it, and Beetwasher is going to owe DU ten bucks.

[molly77]

17. When exactly did Dick Durbin turn? I remember that he was one of

a few who fought so hard to keep overtime for nurses, firefighters and policeman being abolished. Bill Frist was majority leader and that bill would have saved his family a ton of money. Don't know how many republicans could argue so forcefully for it. Right after 9/11. I used to be a nurse and have worked plenty of overtime. Not being paid for it would have been beyond awful. i.e. you are tired, a wrong dose or medicine could kill somebody...and then not even get paid extra. It was unbelievable to me.Kennedy, Harkin and Durbin were wonderful speaking for US.

[laughingliberal]

20. Not sure exactly when but was quoted as saying cuts to SS would be necessary a few weeks ago. nt

[Nite Owl]

26. He said this in the spring

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/04/29/durbin-says-bleeding-heart-liberals-should-be-open-to-medicare-and-social-security-cuts/

Some liberal he is. He was picked because he would do what he was told to do in my opinion.

[KamaAina]

35. Read Schakowsky's writing here

a seven-page summary of her plan. Figures it'd go over like a lead balloon. It makes too much sense. :eyes:

http://schakowsky.house.gov/images/stories/1202_Schakowsky_Deficit_Reduction_Plan.pdf

[xchrom]

38. +1

[tpsbmam]

13. How many ways can I find to say "fuck you" to Dick Durbin?

From WaPo

Durbin hailed the vote as "a breakthrough" that sends a strong signal that "people on the left have got to join with people on the right to find a solution" to the soaring national debt.

[purrFect]

21. "more than a majority" - newspeak

Do they even say who and how they voted?

[emulatorloo]

27. Vote Count here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4640644&mesg_id=4640719

[somone]

22. Optimistic = More bribes, it'll pass

[bluestateguy]

24. I told you so.

As is common with these ridiculous blue ribbon commissions made up of old Washington hangers on and washups, they accomplished nothing, produced nothing and will be duly ignored by Congress.

[Major Hogwash]

25. Simpson just got fucked by the donkey, but he's too stupid to know it!!

Whenever a jackass like Simpson gets nailed, he acts like everything is coming up roses, even though the rest of the world knows he just took it in the kiester!!

[laughingliberal]

28. I don't think we'll know who was fucked until we see Obama's budget. I expect it'll look a lot...

like a Simpson wet dream.

[Kelvin Mace]

30. Of course they are optimistic

The report will be adopted by the Obama admin for implementation. And between his Republican administration, the GOP controlled House, and Senators like Lieberman, Baucas etc, it will pass.

His advisers are telling him it will get him re-elected in 2012. Instead it will get Palin elected.

[KamaAina]

32. Sen. Baucus just voted to reject the plan

see post #11 above.

[xxqqqzme]

37. Since it failed, do they still get paid?

What was the budget for this blatant attempt to gut Social Security and lower the 2%ers tax rate to 26%? What did each commissioner 'earn'?