I'll meet you halfway...

The problem as I see it is: SOME/MOST Democrats and MOST/SOME Republicans.

:D

Seriously, the problem is politicians who look out for A> their own selfish interests, B> their Party's selfish interests and a very VERY distant 3rd, the welfare of the country...

Why is it that the vast majority of newly elected CongressCritters become millionaires virtually overnight???

I saids it befores and I'll says it agains....

The *ONLY* difference between a Democrat and a Republican is who buys them...

CW, you have said it yourself. Remember your NASCAR Congress idea???

Me?? I know that all politicians are crooked and corrupt..

YA'LL still believe that it's only Republicans that are crooked and corrupt...

Ya'all are in error...

Michale

(I can't resist...)

No, no. The problem as I see it is: SOME Democrats and MOST Republicans.

Heh.

-CW

The article is spot on because it identifies the problem with BOTH PARTYs in the pursuit of an agreement that is most beneficial to the country...

Ironically enough, it says what I have been saying here for years...

The problem is NOT Republicans...

The problem is NOT Democrats..

The problem is politicians pursuing Party agendas and serving Party ideology at the expense of the country...

THAT is why we are always in conflict..

Because ya'all still believe that a Democrat politician is better than a Republican politician...

And ya'all believe this despite absolutely NO supporting evidence and a MASSIVE amount of evidence that indicates the contrary...

Michale

So... You like the article... :D

Michale

And Hoover is still being blamed for the great depression. When it happens on your watch...

Plus, I still occasionally read some Clinton blame in comments now and then.

Whatever. Politics. Very entertaining. If they all agreed and did a perfect job, we would not be here.

But seriously, what do you think of the article??

Actually, not too bad. Much better than the usual far right opinion pieces you post. The two main problems I have with it is:

The President is not a CEO. The US Constitution specifically limits and grants his powers in a way that using the term "Chief Executive" for both jobs does not make the duties and powers of those jobs synonymous. He can try to influence but in the end, budgets, debts and taxes are specifically congresses domain.

Two, until a significant portion of the pentagon is on the block, spending cuts are meaningless. I see lots of talk about cutting the left's sacred cows but nothing about cutting the right's sacred cows. Until that changes, there is no real compromise. It has to happen from congress. The president is using the military at the moment and will not try to reduce it. Nor is it his job to try...

But a huge problem with cutting the federal government in significant amounts, is what do you do with large sudden increase in unemployment? The automatic spending cuts, according to the article you posted would end up with 700,000 people losing their jobs. Economic recovery, reduction of unemployment, cutting the deficit and reducing the size of government are all great goals but they interact with each other in ways that doing them all at the same time will be somewhere between counter productive and impossible.

It Works Both Ways :D

I'll get to the other once I am at my shop..

Michale

OK, I'll bite. What's "IWBW"?

On immigration, check the polling. Obama's plan is a lot closer to what the American public is behind than anything Rubio's put out. To say nothing of the extremist Republicans in the House...

I'll check your article link out, but I gotta get to bed now...

-CW

Yes it does.. IWBW :D

As far as mentioning Bush, do you mean here in Weigantia or amongst Democrats..

Because, to this day, Bush is STILL being blamed for the state of this country by Obama and the Democrats...

OK, I read further in your comment, and you do seem to spread the blame around a bit, so maybe that was too harsh. Still...

's OK... I is a big boy.. :D

On immigration, Obama DID NOT introduce a bill.

I never said he did. But he DID come up with a plan.. And it was "leaked" to the public and was about as popular as Obama's budgets... :D

So far, Obama's ideas are more popular on the subject than the GOPs. Fact.

Not really?? Obama's ideas were so bad, his spokescritters had to disavow that it wasn't really a plan at all.

At first I thought you were taking me to task with that reality-based comment, but then I read Michale's comment. You should be aware that the reality-based guarantee only applies to the columns, not the comments.

Ouch! And the ref takes a point away!! :D

But seriously, what do you think of the article??

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/you-may-be-right-mr-president-but-this-is-crazy-20130220

Reading it, I got the feeling it was coming from you.. :D

Michale

Heh. Actually, it was a sense of "I'm free!" See my comment (that I am about to write) on Thursday's column entitled "Status Update" for more details as to why I was in this particular frame of mind.

And, inquiring minds want to know -- what did you think of the whole "before Republicans decided it was a taboo word" thing as well? This is how they used to define (and how they got the media to define, across the board, I might add) "compromise," say, two or three years ago.

Michale [2] -

Once again, you're guilty of what you're accusing others of doing. Who has mentioned Bush for the past six months? Other than you? Heh. That knife cuts both ways, pal.

And, actually, the only whiny and bitchy types I've seen on my teevee screen recently are the Republicans complaining that it's "Obama's sequester" without explaining how they ALL VOTED FOR IT. 73 percent of the House Republicans voted for it. So please explain, how is this all the Democrats' fault?

If you'll note in the article, I pin the blame on "both parties in Congress" -- who are ultimately responsible for the fix we now find ourselves in. The House is Republican. If they hadn't agreed to the sequester, it NEVER would have happened. Sorry, but those are the facts.

To put it in your terms: "Obama suggested the bed. Harry Reid got the bed through the Senate with half the Republicans voting for it. John Boehner got it through the House with over 170 Republican votes. Now Congress has to lie in the bed that EVERYONE made." Your bias is showing again, because you refuse to admit that there are, indeed, Republican fingerprints ALL OVER this bed. Democrat too, but let's be a little reality-based, here.

OK, I read further in your comment, and you do seem to spread the blame around a bit, so maybe that was too harsh. Still...

On immigration, Obama DID NOT introduce a bill. Neither did the "Gang of Eight" or as I like to call them, "DC-8". They're all running things up the flagpole. What's the problem? They're all equally entitled to do so, no matter what your petulant senator thinks.

So far, Obama's ideas are more popular on the subject than the GOPs. Fact.

SF Bear -

Good to hear from another voice in the conversation! At first I thought you were taking me to task with that reality-based comment, but then I read Michale's comment. You should be aware that the reality-based guarantee only applies to the columns, not the comments.

Heh. Heh heh.

:-)

-CW

ALL OF US RECEIVE THE BENEFITS SO ALL OF US MUST SHARE THE SACRIFICE - EITHER IN THE FORM OF HIGHER TAXES OR LOWER GOVERNMENT BENEFITS

Where's the vaunted principle of COMPROMISE ya'all go on and on about?

As I predicted the only compromise the Left is interested in is having the RIGHT make all the compromises...

That's not compromise..

That's tyranny...

Michale

Democrats must challenge their orthodoxy as well. While annual revenues are roughly what they were in 2006 — just a few years ago — spending has increased by $1 trillion every year since 2008.… We must recognize that even though raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans makes good politics, it does little to solve our nation’s financial crisis…. All of us receive the benefits so all of us must share the sacrifice — either in the form of higher taxes or lower government benefits.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/you-may-be-right-mr-president-but-this-is-crazy-20130220

Even if you are talking about Social Security (as opposed to the budget)the statement is untrue. There are a least a half a dozen ways to insure the long term stability of that program without cutting benefits.

Discussing and solving difficult political problems is challenging under the best of circumstances, it becomes imposable if we operate in parallel realities.

Change "Republican" to "Democrat" and "Obama" to "Bush" and you will have an apt description of the Bush years and beyond...

This was painfully on display last Sunday morning's political chatfests, when the Republicans rolled out their talking points on two different subjects. On the budget, Obama is "failing to lead." On immigration, Obama's attempts to lead are "dead on arrival" -- sight unseen. Got that? Obama has to lead, but when he does lead, Republicans will kill any proposal with his name on it, just because. The doublethink is jaw-dropping in scope.

It makes perfect sense when one considers that "Obama" and "leadership" are mutually exclusive...

Obama and the Democrats came up with the idea of the sequester. As David pointed out so eloquently that was the "compromise"....

NOW, when it looks like it's going to happen, they are all whiney and bitchy about it and trying to blame the GOP for it..

In your Rove commentary yesterday, David made a list of why Republicans are bad.. #3 was "The amount of hubris"

I pointed out that Democrats are equally guilty of this and this is a perfect example..

Obama and Democrats have made their bed. Now they are whining that they might actually have to lie in it..

The first is that the Republican House voted for the sequester.

Then that seems to belay the idea that Republicans are against ANYTHING Obama...

It works both ways... :D

Meaning neither party is solely "responsible" for it happening, or at the very least both parties share the blame equally.

Exactly...

So, Obama and the Democrats whining and blaming Republicans is JUST as ridiculous as Boehner and the Republicans whining and blaming Obama...

Wouldn't you agree???

The problem is a failure in leadership.

If he does not, then Obama will introduce his own bill.

Obama DID introduce his own bill.. At least his administration ran a bill up the flagpole in a "leak"..

It was as popular as Obama's budget's have been..

John Boehner recently called on the president to offer up a "detailed plan that can pass Congress," chock-full of spending cuts and with no new revenues. Republicans have been playing this game for a while

And Democrats have been playing the game for a while where they detail a plan "chock full" of taxes with no spending cuts...

I have a new acronym...

IWBW :D

Here is the problem that Obama and the Democrats simply REFUSE to see..

You can't get to fiscal responsibility without spending cuts on entitlement programs..

Taxes alone WILL not create fiscal responsibility..

All taxes do is just give the administration more money to spend..

This isn't going to happen, needless to say. Even if Obama did wake up one morning and decide to put together a draft bill with everything Republicans wanted, the chances are they'd vote it down anyway, just because it came from him.

And yet, the GOP DID vote for something that came from Obama...

Of course, this probably won't happen either. With the sequester looming, Congress is in the middle of a week-long vacation. Just like they took a big vacation right before the fiscal cliff. If we were really serious about solving our budget problems, we should be treating Obama and the congressional leadership like a jury right now. Lock them in, don't let them contact anyone in the outside world, pay them less than minimum wage, and feed them bad deli sandwiches and coffee until they come up with a solution. Take away their cell phones and other electronic devices. Maybe limit bathroom breaks, too. Now that's a "sequester" that might actually work wonders.

Completely agree..

Republicans aren't THE problem...

Democrats aren't THE problem...

THE problem is that our leaders seem to think that Party ideology is more important than the welfare of the country...

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/you-may-be-right-mr-president-but-this-is-crazy-20130220

THIS ^^^ is the problem....

Michale

Republicans define "show some leadership" as "please propose 100 percent of what Republicans want and zero percent of what Democrats want, and we'll vote on it -- and then blame you later for it."