we may have lost the present battle, but...

[Enrique]

http://www.patrick.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123250965

(...)

"Some of the cuts we agreed to will be painful," the president said. "Programs people rely on will be cut back. Needed infrastructure projects will be delayed. And I would not have made these cuts in better circumstances. But beginning to live within our means is the only way to protect those investments that will help America compete for new jobs - investments in our kids' education and student loans, in clean energy and life-saving medical research. We protected the investments we need to win the future."

(...)

everyone take a drink! :beer:

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[Tippy]

2. We didn't lose...We slowed them down and got people who were following all this

To really begin THINKING....And it rellly pissed of the tea party...last I hard they were thinking about primaring several

[phleshdef]

3. I don't know why anyone here thought a better outcome would be possible with a GOP house.

Take a fucking civics class or something.

[Enrique]

4. so we will fucking lose every single fucking battle?

because the GOP can't possibly lose? the GOP has to get everything they fucking want? and we have to fucking like it? that's not fucking civics, that's fucking stupid.

[phleshdef]

6. No, its fucking law and math. I know thats an inconvenient thing to discuss around these parts.

The fact is, the Republicans can say "no" all day long. And they don't have to pass anything to say "no". They can simply leave funding out for something and no wins the day just based on that.

The President does not hand Congress a list of cuts to approve. The Congress hands the President a list of funding approvals for him to sign off on.

If we had the same majority in the house that we had in 09 and 2010 with a Senate that has 60 progressive minded Senators, then we win, because then we have enough people to say yes. The problem is, we only had half of that. We didn't have the numbers in the Senate and reconciliation only gets us so far when compared to the list of things we need to do.

So yes, its fucking civics. Its how our laws work. Its how the numbers played out. You don't like it. I don't like it. But that also doesn't change it. Ignoring reality isn't going to make it any better.

[Enrique]

7. I love these lectures

I love how it's "civics" that every political fight is predetermined. That every loss is unavoidable. When we controlled the House, the civics lesson centered on the senate and the filibuster. Now that they control the House, they automatically win because of that. Because of "civics".

[phleshdef]

9. In all fairness, they aren't even close to winning everything they want because of the Senate.

The really extreme shit isn't getting past the Senate and its for the same reason that we couldn't get a public option or an unemployment/middle class tax extension without a tax extension for the wealthiest. The Senate is still very much stuck in a state of perpetual centrism. Its why social security isn't being privatized and why Medicare won't be either. Its why the EPA is still funded and its why abortion is still legal and its why DADT is still repealed.

But when it comes to funding programs that have funding reallocated every single year, yes, they automatically win because they have all the real power to fund or not fund a program this year. We funded all this same shit that they are cutting, for 2 years, when we had the majority, because we had enough control to approve it. (But somehow, in your world, we were losing everything during that time, yet you are basing the defunding of those same programs as your premise to say we are losing, which doesn't make any logical sense whatsoever).

I understand what you ultimately want. And we are likely not in any disagreement over those things. But it will absolutely not happen without a progressive majority in the house, a filibuster proof progressive majority in the Senate and a President willing to sign off on it. Without all three of those things, there will be no improvements in taxes and revenues, there will be no single payer healthcare, there will be no adequately regulated financial system, there will be no significant investments in new energy and the elimination of contributors to global warming. As progressives, we want things that really rock the boat and every member of congress that is not a progressive hates the very idea of that. We have to outnumber them by enough margins to make their hatred irrelevant. Thats political reality.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. To say we "lost" this battle isn't entirely accurate

We didn't lose funding for ACA, NPR, EPA, and, most importantly Title X. The Republicans lost THAT battle. I'm not happy about the cuts (nobody is) but Republicans didn't get all of what they wanted there either. Want the funding back? Let's work hard(er) to elect more (progressive) Democrats to Congress in 2012 and keep Obama in the WH. Republicans don't give up when they suffer setbacks. They soon return......and in greater numbers. We should too IMHO instead of just giving up.

[pscot]

13. We're doing the Obama Limbo

How low can we go and still call it a win?

[vaberella]

16. AGREED! n/t

[BklnDem75]

5. LOL. Maybe you've had too many

[JoePhilly]

8. The fact that our country, and our government, is deeply divided, is ignored.

[myrna minx]

10. Losing is for winners!

:crazy:

[high density]

11. "And less people will vote for me in 2012

because people won't give a shit that I cut the budget, they will care that the economy is still trashed and they don't have a job. And the teaparty people I'm apparently trying to reach would never dream of voting for me in the first place. I am going to continue to alienate my base to please the Republicans while claiming a hollow victory for myself simultaneously."

[FrenchieCat]

14. Elections have consequences.....

and just like 2008 had consequences that obviously the Republicans hated with a passion, and they did everything in their power from rank to file to stop some of it.....and the result is that Dems didn't get all that they wanted;

then so did the 2010 election have consequences that obviously the Democrats will hate with a passion...and so the question is will the rank & file do everything in their power to stop the Republican agenda...or will they whine and point fingers and act like the onus is not on them?

Facing the fact that Congressional Republicans now hold the purse strings and have a lot of power, including the media in their back pocket, should be facts that we acknowledge.

At this point, I almost want Democratic Activists to keep pissing on Obama instead of fighting back against the Republicans, and witness a Republican elected to the Presidency, and Republicans win back the senate. I almost want to see that, because it appears that the only time that folks appreciate anything is when they no longer have it.

[RBInMaine]

15. Once again a humdrum comment from the glass-half-empty wing.