Obama Sees 'Way Out of Mess'

[ej510]

Source: National Journal

http://cdn-media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=10252&format=homepage_fullwidth

With the House in seeming chaos, the stock market dropping, and the deadline looming, President Obama on Friday morning demanded that Congress take action to raise the debt ceiling, declaring that “the time for putting party first is over. The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now.”

Compromise is reachable, he insisted, saying, “There are plenty of ways out of this mess.” But he added ominously, “We are almost out of time.”

>snip

He said that bills sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could work. “There are plenty of modifications we can make to either of these plans in order to get them passed through both the House and the Senate and would allow me to sign them into law,” he said.

Compromise, he insisted, is possible.

“Keep in mind, this is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart. We're in rough agreement about how much spending can be cut responsibly as a first step toward reducing our deficit,” he said. “We agree on a process, where the next step is a debate in the coming months on tax reform and entitlement reform.”

Read more: http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/obama-sees-way-out-of-mess--20110729

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I give up! Compromise is possible. It is if you give the cons what they want.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Okay, I give up. What compromise? To finish off the country? nt

[ej510]

3. He wants to make cuts which will hurt the poor.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. Can't he say, 'NO, I WILL NOT HURT THE POOR OF THIS COUNTRY!!'

Why isn't he doing that? Why isn't his wife saying anything? What's going on?

[ej510]

10. Third way democrat.

[AndyTiedye]

26. Default, and the Even Deeper Cuts that Will Follow Will Hurt the Poor More

The cuts that are being discussed are minor compared to what they will force on us after default.

That is why the Teabaggers are rejecting it. They know they can do even better after we default.

[LaydeeBug]

52. Oh BULLSHIT. He has the Constitution and refuses to fight for US. He's never met a poor person he

HASN'T thrown under the bus.

[lark]

14. Not just the poor are in his gunsights

It's the entire working class which he is jonesing to hurt. Wants to take a good chunk of our SSI money so the rich and rich corporations don't have to pay taxes and he can keep the wars going. That's what this is all about, stealing our money, delegitimizing unions and forcing the working class to accept slave wages. "They" (Koch's, Norquist, Rove) only want a 2 caste society, like the banana republics - owners and slaves. They don't care about America one iota other than what they can use to rape and pillage for their own personal growing wealth and powers. Obama is enabling the first steps in this direction by enabling the rich to steal our money.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

39. Why would he want to do that??? Why would anyone want to hurt the already poor? nt

[FreeBillClinton]

21. Compromise = protect Wall street, screw the middle class and poors.

[Angry Dragon]

2. I do not like his last statement ...... not at all

[monmouth]

4. It's as if he just learned that word and is hanging on to it like a dog with a bone..n/t

[DJ13]

Screw compromise, now is the time to just pass a clean bill

Theres no time left to hash out a compromise, its time for Obama to give up on that stupid idea.

[Demeter]

6. +15 Trillion BRAZILLIAN!

It's not a stupid idea, it's a nefarious plot to steal social security, medicare, medicaid, and anything else that they can sneak in.

A Clean Bill of Health for the nation and its long-suffering people!

[msongs]

5. not much left to give away anymore. his republican agenda is almost complete nt

[pam4water]

7. The light at the end of the tunnel is the bus Obama is going to throw us Social Security under.

[michaz]

9. It is time to say to the Republicans, "Enough of this, we have given you more

than ample time to deal with this. We are done, no more compromise!" It may be unacceptable to many but it is a hard truth.They have played us like a fiddle and we have let them. If Obama does not or can not use the 14th then the people need to learn a hard lesson as we all will. Sometimes you just can't get things across to people no matter how hard you try without a hard hit to the head or in this case the pocketbook. I for one am damn sick of waiting for these idiots to get themselves together and it is obvious that they are not going to. Enough!!

[mvd]

12. I agree. Any more compromise and the Tea Party gets near 100%

The President should be laying out that entitlements, the poor, and middle class need to be protected. Instead, it's the same old thing. Does he want to be mediator or President? Yes, the Tea Party is causing the stalemate with their own selfishness, but I don't like our proposals either. Just invoke the 14th amendment or executive privilege - to avoid default, who will really get on him?

[AndyTiedye]

24. The Supreme Court Would Not Allow Him to Use the 14th

They would make one of their instant, emergency, non-precedent-setting rulings in the Bush v. Gore tradition.

[mvd]

27. I'd like to see them try to stop him

And I think it would have to go through the courts.

[AndyTiedye]

31. The Supreme Court Ruled Really Fast in "Bush v. Gore"

They can move quickly when they want to.

[mvd]

32. That doen't mean it will happen again

I believe they have ruled against suing for this kind of thing. If this is the only way out without giving 100% to the Tea Party, do it and then fight if needed.

[AndyTiedye]

48. The Current Court is Even More Partisan than the 2000 Court

[mvd]

53. That still doesn't mean they will do the same thing in every case

As I said, this isn't something like Bush v. Gore, where they had to install Bush. There is no other option IMO since the Tea Party goes against everything Obama proposes, and the Repuke leadership folds every time.

[No Elephants]

41. Assuming someone sues, he can still cut checks faster than the SCOTUS can act.

[AndyTiedye]

49. They Can Act Almost Instantly When the Republicans Need Their Help

Remember Bush v. Gore? They ruled really fast when it started to become evident that Bush would lose if the recount went forward.

[No Elephants]

40. They could do nothing until after the fact, if then. And who would sue? No one

who wants re-election.

Portraying Obama as helpless doesn't fix anything.

[fascisthunter]

Electing Third Way Dems is a bad bad idea

and yes, they are as bad as many republicans.

[Amonester]

15. Third way Dems should campaign on their intended agenda, not a convenient

travesty.

If they promise change, they must be honest about the changes they intend to make, and not say, for example, no special interests in their administration, then the next thing you learn is that, once elected, special interests are put at top of the most important positions in their administration.

That behavior is not honest.

[fascisthunter]

29. THANK YOU... if their ideas were so good, why not run on them

instead of acting like a progressive.

[No Elephants]

42. As bad? Obama has gone further toward cutting OASDI, Medicare and Medicaid

than any Republican to date.

Ordinary Democrats would be screaming if a Republican were proposing what Obama has been proposing, but they make excuses for him. Democrats in Congress would stop a Republican President who was trying what Obama is trying. Let's see if they stop Obama. I wouldn't bet on it.

[No Elephants]

43. We call out Republicans for voting against their own interests, then we do it ourselves.

[LiberalCatholic]

11. Straight up or down vote

that's all we need...

[AndyTiedye]

25. That Possibility Vanished the Moment the Teabaggers Took Over the GOP

[alp227]

13. I just left a message at Speaker Boehner's DC office

saying "Raise the darn debt ceiling already...stop playing politics." I'm predicting either a default of debt ceiling raise by executive order.

[Plucketeer]

22. If I read Obama right this morning

what he DIDN'T say about an executive action pretty much rules out his taking such. Yet another disappointment with this "leader". :evilfrown:

[Fearless]

16. No compromise with those who want to kill/enslave us. None.

[Gin]

17. instead of "compromise" lets call it "con-promised"

[Fearless]

18. +1

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[benld74]

20. Just Raise the Effin Debt Limit PERIOD!!! Measure your dicks on your own time!!

[paulk]

23. Obama keeps tying the deficit to the debt ceiling

reenforcing the Republican meme.

kind of makes one wonder who's side he's on

or maybe it's the "conservative" meme

and that explains everything!

[closeupready]

28. Obama's 'way out' is if he 'gives up'. Seems like, time after time.

Sick of that.

Fight back, Obama. :mad:

[ej510]

34. Can't fight back if you agree.

[sofa king]

38. Why yes, he's "given up" here on DU a dozen times just today.

According to you guys.

But in reality, President Obama is a master of the art of the possible, and he has not made a single "compromise" that is not both reversible after he creates a more realistic future political climate (hint: we have to toss the Republicans out of the House, and scare the hell out of Republican Senators by doing that), and also deeply politically damaging to his adversaries.

They don't want to compromise with him now because they know he's going to game that deal so that it turns around and screws 'em. One of the major sticking points right now is that the GOP is desperately, desperately trying to reverse the details of their previous compromise over the tax cuts, which they have only now realized has f&^%d them so bad that they've practically given up on keeping the House and are trying to prevent a Democratic supermajority in the Senate in 2014.

Each time, the President uses variations of the same tactic. He "shows away," publicly stating that he's willing to consider this or work on that, all the while using an array of political maneuvers so that once the doors close on public debate, he can force the Republicans to give up everything else for the one thing they're paid to do: keeping rich people rich. So he gives them a taste of that, and takes everything else, down to the very expiration dates on the deals he cuts, for himself.

He's playing you, too, all of you who cannot discern between what is talk and what is results, what a President can actually do and what he can't, what is a vote to keep a shitty bill moving along and what is a vote to pass a final version of a (maybe still shitty) bill. For you folks, and you don't know who you are, he stakes out a position in the center, and speaks moderately and reasonably.

Which apparently enrages some of you. But it also makes you pay attention. It forces you to think a little harder about who's really trying to screw you, and how. And most importantly, it's making all of you watch and see what's going to happen.

So watch, for crispfookinsteaks, and see what happens.`

[No Elephants]

44. LOL!

[Kelvin Mace]

30. So, my choices are:

The Obama/Dem plan: Get my teeth kicked in by guy wearing combat boots.

The Republican plan: Get my teeth kicked in by guy wearing STEEL-TOED combat boots.

Well damn, I just can't wait for November 2012.

[Blecht]

33. Lesser of two evils, you know

And all that crap.

[Kelvin Mace]

36. Yeah, I know

just getting rather tired of it.

At this point, I cannot ethically vote for Obama, so I hope he got a lot of mileage out of his "bi-partisanship" act, Whoever he was performing for will have to give him votes and money, since people like me will not give him our vote, and will have no money to give thanks to his actions.

What I would love to see is a primary challenger, but there is just no spine left in the Democrats.

[alp227]

37. So you won't shed a tear when Bachmann wins in 2012? n/t

[No Elephants]

45. Yes, but I'll also shed one when Obama wins--and I believe he will

The closer to Republicans Democrats govern, the less effect that threat has.

Plus, people are sick of voting out of fear. Sick of holding their noses while voting.

That's why I was so very happy to vote for Candidate Obama. But, very soon after, I met President Elect Obama and President Obama's been the worst of the three.

Just how far right do you want this country to go? Because, as long as Democrats believe, as they do now, that they can safely ignore the left, they will keep going right. And then the right will move further right, so people can tell the difference between them and Democrats. And then Democrats will go further right. And so on.


At what point, if ever, do we say, "Okay, that's it. Now, you've gone too far. Enough. We want Democrats in office again and we'll do whatever it takes to accomplish that--and voting for Republicans in Democratic clothing doesn't cut it."

Or, do we just keep admiring the Emperor's new clothes, no matter how far right the U.S. keeps going?

Koch brothers' dream scenario.

[JoeyT]

46. I don't think she'll win,

but no I won't. At least then maybe the Democrats in the Senate and Congress will be willing to stand up for themselves. They won't have the "leader" of the party pushing the destruction of safety nets. When it's the leader of the other party they blocked it.

[yurbud]

35. he's joining GOP in playing SHOCK DOCTRINE game: create crisis, then use it to ram through

policies the people would never accept at leisure.

[lunatica]

47. It looks more and more like heads we lose, tails we lose

as a country. No matter what we will all suffer loss. Even the idiocrats.

[primavera]

55. But the good news is...

... if you're rich enough to own private jets and luxury yachts, you will continue to be able to get tax breaks for them.

[lebkuchen]

50. I hope it helps GOP voters find a way out of their own assholes

If only they could envision a country with 6 weeks of paid vacation for each worker (like Germany et al), and a budget to support it.

[Doctor_J]

51. Here's a pictorial representation of the president's plan

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hRuMJUsUOF8/TimmJf5Gs1I/AAAAAAAAYww/HY8cIXN3tm8/s320/white+flag.jpg

[primavera]

54. Ahem. The two parties bloody well ought to be miles apart.

The lunatic fringe wants to destroy government and restore feudalism. Dems had better not be "in rough agreement."

[CreekDog]

56. yes, there are lots of old and poor people to step on

but that is ONE of the ways out.

it's just not the ONLY one.

:sigh: