so they only had 11 votes rather than go down in defeat

[xchrom]

they adjourned.

the white house deficit commission that is.

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN.aspx

just fishing around -- more here.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/02/obama-deficit-commission-plan-wont-win-14-votes/

[n2doc]

1. yea! Round one to the good guys. n/t

[Me.]

2. CSPAN Says They Failed To Get The Votes

They can spin it all they want, they failed

[xchrom]

3. unfortunately -- it'll be back.

now they want to bring the admin in on this.

[Me.]

8. They Will Certainly Try

That's why the voices on the left have to keep getting louder and louder. Jan S.'s statement was wonderful as she pointed out the sham claim that all would be sharing the pain.

[MineralMan]

4. Round 1...KO

This commission is finished. Now, we have to fight it in Congress. The report will not get an up or down vote on its recommendations. Some of them will be re-proposed, though, in Congress, and we have to remain watchful.

This went as I expected.

[monmouth]

5. I wish there was a pic of Alan Simpson when it failed. Creep...n/t

[SidDithers]

6. Is anyone really surprised that the "catfood" commission is dead in the water?...

so all the "they're cutting Social Security!!" hysteria was just noise?

:shrug:

Sid

[JoseGaspar]

7. You might want to actually read the news before you create it...

The votes against came from 3 right-wing Republicans and a right-wing Democrat (Max Baucus), mainly because the cuts didn't go far enough. Baucus opposed because of the impact on "rural America", before getting to his real beef (farm subsidies).

Only three voted against the proposal "from the left" (Becerra, Schakowsy, and Stern).

Even without Baucus, the cutters would have gotten their 14 votes except that the Republicans think they can get an even better "deal".

How did Obama's own appointees vote? The answer was five-to-one in favor.

The Commission did exactly what it was supposed to do: it made deficit reduction synonymous with cuts to "entitlements" (Social Security above all) and showed "broad bipartisan agreement" on that basic premise.

The question is now how many fingers will be lost and through what mechanism; not whether amputation is on the table.

[xchrom]

9. It'll be interesting if the white house deficit commission

Gets it's wish re: a white house summit with
House and Senate leadership.

[JoseGaspar]

11. I think it depends on the Republicans.

If the Republican Congressional leadership is feeling particularly bullish on their future prospects, then they will let the Commission fade and cherry-pick the report. Otherwise, some kind of Summit will probably happen. There is a great big plum in the middle of the Commission report that nobody is talking about: the reduction of corporate tax rates (only in America could you get a proposal for Corporate Tax reductions in the middle of "Deficit Reduction".

If a Summit occurs, the Commission report will be the beginning of "compromise" and not the end. It will be the new "reasonable".

[jtown1123]

13. These proposals will be back seeing as that Obama's appointees

absolutely LOVED this proposal.

[gratuitous]

10. The Commission had to disband as of Dec. 1

And that whole 14 vote thing? It will morph into a "guideline" rather than a "requirement." The Commission's work is done, and its mission has been accomplished. It has inched forward a whole batch of ineffective proposals that will do nothing to reduce the deficit. The added bonus is that many of those ineffective proposals will land hard on the underclass, particularly raising the retirement age and reducing social security benefits for future retirees.

Now it's time for the next stage, and that is the catapulting of the propaganda so that these punitive measures can be enacted. In the next few days, expect to hear high praise for the "bipartisan" recommendations of the Commission (as if hidebound conservative millionaires have no common interest with right-of-center millionaires), the absolute need to honor the "majority" opinion of the Commission (this argument will be seriously put forward by the minority Republicans, and nobody in the popular media will laugh), and the urgency now that Something Must Be Done.

If you insist on bringing up trifling little procedural matters such as the failure of the Commission to meet its own deadlines or to operate by its own rules, you will be deemed an Unserious Person as concerns such a serious matter as the Deficit. Your beady-eyed nit-picking can then be ignored by the popular media, as the deficit peacocks joyously go about their work. The goal of that work is to continue to allow the wealthy to party on and on with Treasury money while forcing the vanishing middle class and the burgeoning underclass to pay for it.

[unblock]

12. i figured it would fail as soon as the cochairs released their own plan.

really seemed to me like they wouldn't have done that if they thought they had agreement.