“Eat Our Peas” – Obama Pushes for Big Grand Bargain in Press Conference/ DDAY

[KoKo]

“Eat Our Peas” – Obama Pushes for Big Grand Bargain in Press Conference
By: David Dayen Monday July 11, 2011 8:55 am

President Obama continued to press for a maximalist debt limit deal in a White House press conference today, saying that “I’m prepared to take on significant heat from my party to get something done.” However, he made a few key statements that give insight into the negotiations.

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Whether you think the insistence on a big deal that would include cuts to entitlements is a tactic or sincerely felt, it’s clear that the President believes strongly in getting it done. He echoed Bob Dole’s comment about everybody getting in the boat so it doesn’t tip over. He is clearly willing to be unpopular among his party in order to get a deal done, which is says is a component of how to improve the economy, although not the only part. “We should eat our peas,” he said, adding that “I have a stake in John Boehner successfully persuading his caucus that this is the right thing to do. Just like he has a stake in me persuading my caucus.”

On cutting entitlements, he made his pitch thusly. “Medicare in particular will run out of money and we will not be able to sustain that program… If you’re a progressive who cares about the integrity of Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid, then we have an obligation to make sure we make those changes required to make it sustainable on those terms… We won’t make progress on the values we care about without getting our fiscal house in order. If you care about those things, then you’ve got to be interested in figuring out how we pay for all that in a responsible way.” As for Social Security, which he acknowledged is not the source of any deficit problems, he basically said that, as long as we’re doing a big deal, we might as well throw that in. “The reason to include that in this package is, if you’re going to take a bunch of tough votes, you might as well do it now,” Obama said. He did not specify the changes.

So tactical or not, he’s certainly committed to a big deal that includes trimming benefits and some revenues, in a ratio massively tilted toward cuts. “I would want more revenues, and fewer cuts to programs for middle class families,” he said. “But that’s the point. I’m willing to move in their direction to get something done. And that’s what compromise entails.”


MORE COMMENTARY on WH PRESSER at.......

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/07/11/eat-our-peas-obama-pushes-for-big-grand-bargain/

[CakeGrrl]

1. Unrec for misleading spin

Anyone who listened to the presser heard him say that now was the time to take steps to shore up SS for the long term and to include a vote on that in this package instead of re-building the political momentum to do it later.

FDL? I'll pass. Hamsher is nothing but a Republican-cozying instigator.

[eilen]

3. Article written by David Dayden

I am aware he possesses his own brain. His article is an excellent analysis.

[jtown1123]

11. Agreed. Anyone who saw the presser knows "strengthening" doesn'tmean adding revenue

Obama clearly stated, his party will not be happy with entitlement changes he is pushing. Logically, they would be happy with raising revenue so we can deduce cuts are being proposed.

[Scruffy1]

28. I had to turn it off.

When he started joking about what is a matter of life and death for many. Doesn't this POS know how to call a SOB a SOB. FDR did. He's a chump and a loser. Or maybe since he got so rich he decided he was one of them.

[Baclava]

2. Give peas a chance n/t

[DJ13]

5. ....

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_03ZsOqnNpdM/S9xhWaRrOhI/AAAAAAAAE6g/V7lBICs5vhU/s1600/whirled+peas.jpg

[jefferson_dem]

4. FDL?

:rofl:

[mike_c]

6. how about ending the fucking wars and taxing the rich fairly...?

Obama's is no compromise-- it is a direct attack on the new deal. It's the neocon domestic economic wet dream, wrapped up and delivered by democratic hands. He admits that social security is not part of the deficit, but proposes cutting benefits or eligibility ANYWAY as part of deficit reduction negotiations, just for the hell of it?! Social security is one of the most successful government programs ever-- it hasn't contributed one dime to the federal deficit. The only arguments against it are ideological, and Obama has come down on the side of the neocons.

Stop the goddamned wars. Tax the rich. Problem solved. And before the partisan apologists reply that "he can't do that without republican support," stop and consider for a moment the real meaning of that statement: "he can't push through real solutions to the problem so he'll settle for completely and utterly wrong-headed solutions that do nothing to really solve the problem."

This is leadership?

[kath]

13. +1000. "direct attack on the new deal" - YEP!

I really, really really wish he'd be primaried, or step down to make beaucoup bucks form his Repub corporatist buddies, or something.

He totally, utterly sickens me.

[KoKo]

25. That might be a start...but it was NEVER MENTIONED..in his Presser and Not ASKED

except by one lone reporter (forget his name) and President fluffed it off and never answered........:-(

[msongs]

7. Obama promoting the republican agenda is not a bargain nt

[robinlynne]

8. he is always willing to move in their direction. unlike the rest of the country.

Why give it away beforehand? That means you will have to give more and more and more. Why is he not screaming from the rooftops that the Bush tax cuts are all we need to end and the deficit problem is fixed. Why did he not let those tax cuts expire in December. DOnt tell me it is because of the small amount of money he got for the unemployed. Had he let the tax cuts expire we would not be in this mess, and he could help the unemployed.

[woo me with science]

9. Shhhh. I think I might hear a response from America.

(K&R)

[Aerows]

16. LOL

That's certainly my response.

[theaocp]

10. I believe SS can pay full benefits until

2037, n'est-ce pas? Might as well throw it in, then. What a clown.

[mimitabby]

12. tax the rich tax the rich tax the rich

[Maru Kitteh]

14. God forbid he should ask the anyone to grow up.

Especially since he was clearly asking republicans to grow up.

[lib2DaBone]

15. This isn't about the deficit.. it's about smashing middle class back to the stone age.

Obama and the TeaPublicians getting their marching orders directly from the Koch Bros., who get their orders from the Federal Reserve, who get their orders directly from the Rothchild and Warburg Banking families.

This is a Fascist dream come true. They have been working all these years to crush the New Deal, and it's finally going to happen.

[Volaris]

17. I have a question (and it might be a stupid one, I'll let the rest of you decide)...

but since the Pres. just went out on really thin limb with his own Party to get a deal cut, doesn't that mean that if Boehner walks away from it (under pressure from Cantor who wants the Speaker-ship all to himself, no doubt) that the GOP is not just fucked, but fucked PUBLICLY, on the record and therefore fucked HUGE?

a three-to-one deal (cuts to revenue increases) is a pretty good get on what would be an otherwise mundane debt ceiling increase if your a 'Bagger-type; even THEY have to know by now that if they drive this car over the cliff, they will suffer an electoral wrath like none seen in a very long while...

(and yes I DO believe the Pres. could have gotten very close to the same political outcome on all this WITHOUT pissing off his own Democratic caucus, but that's not where we are at the moment, so I'll leave THAT to those much smarter than I...)

comments and opinions are always welcome...

[eilen]

19. I think with this situation you end up with

both caucuses pissed off at their respective assholes and the public entirely disgusted with both parties.

[KoKo]

21. Agree....and, this isn't what we hoped for...but, it is what it is.

[jberryhill]

24. Yes

[Aerows]

18. Wealth distribution

100 people have a 100 slice pizza. 1 person (top 1%) takes 35 pieces. The next 9 people (top 91-99%) take 38 slices. The remaining 90 have to divide up the remaining 27 pieces among themselves.

The problem isn't the 90 people. The 9 people aren't really so much of a problem, though they can afford to give up a little bit. The problem is the greedy SOB taking 35 pieces.

This whole "debt negotiation" is trying to take even more pizza away from the 90, just so the 1 person can continue to take 35 pieces that they don't need.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. CUT DEFENSE IN HALF. END THE DRUG WAR. LEGALIZE AND TAX MARIJUANA.

There are your peas, buddy.

[Danger Mouse]

22. Eat our peas, Mr. Obama?

From where I sit, this plate of peas looks like a big old heaping helping of BULLSHIT.

[KoKo]

23. Maybe he should have added: Root Crops and Berries and Oatmeal

into that equation. You can live a long time on one serving a day of those ...and if that isn't your taste...then add, Root Crops, Corn Bread, Beans.

After all most of the starving during Great Depression lived off Corn Bread, Collards and Beans...and if you couldn't do that..you did "root crops" from the places that only squirrels and feral pigs ventured into.

A little squirrel meat, rabbit and snake supplemented the rest of the diet.

[BiggJawn]

26. But I *LIKE* peas.

Indeed, I'm having a can of Batchelor's "Mushy" peas with dinner tonight.
And Polish-style Beets n' Horseradish, too.
Maybe he should have said Broccoli. Poopy Bush hates broccoli.

[KoKo]

27. lol's...but, I get your point.