Matt Wuerker for December 26, 2012

Well, Paul Ryan was one of the Republican participants.-Paul Ryan, the fiscal conservative who voted for both Bush tax cuts, both unpaid wars, Medicare Part D and the Bush stimulus, not to mention all his earmarks.-Paul Ryan, the budget policy wonk who’s proposed budget didn’t balance until ten years out. Even then, he couldn’t explain it to Fox “news”. The budget policy wonk who proposed a budget, but ’hadn’t run the numbers’. -Who, indeed?

Obama didn’t have anything to do with it, he is not in CONgress.

A roller coaster, although thrilling at times, is by it’s very nature in balance. As long a you don’t count the stimulus power to get it back to the top.This illustration is lacking an actual ‘cliff.’

Remember that Obama’s power of negotiating with Republicans is limited more than any prior president. Anything he’s for, they’re against; even if is a great idea that was their idea in the first place. They hate the president more than they love their country. The only way to lead them is to ask them what they want, and when they completely fail to come up with ideas, step in with a solution that doesn’t require their cooperation.

It’s truly fascinating when the opposing side complains about the tactics used by their opponents.Of course it only points to the short term memory who make those types of accusations. The same tactics, stalling, submitting laws that are not designed to pass but to communicate a message, changing tune after agreeing, all tactics that have been used by both parties.Trying to qualify the party you support as having done it less only proves my point, and it doesn’t matter how much one or the other does it, they both do. I’m curious, do you use that failed logic on your children? “Well, you only took three cookies, Tim took six, he’s bad!”Of course if you had any integrity you wouldn’t disagree, but . . . . . .

if you put something terrible in place so that something will get done, that doesn’t mean it Will get done. A huge majority want the tax RATE to be the same for the 1% as for the rest off usIt isn’t who pays WHAT , it’s who pays at WHAT Tax RATE!, 10 to 15 for the richest, right now, while for everyone else pays at a rate of 45%.The GOP wants to give them even bigger tax cuts! .

A camel is an excellent “design” for its intended “application”, a result of long trial and many (extinct) errors. The Congress is full of design flaws such as Boehner & McC. Let’s hope it evolves …

Republicans have gone from being the loyal opposition to being just the opposition.-Being willing to once again damage the credit rating of the United States in order to protect the interests of the wealthy is NOT patriotic.

^ I don’t have a link, but there was a pretty famous one during the health care debate where seven Republican senators introduced a proposed change on something that was being debated at the time.-Obama came out in support of it.-The seven senators immediately removed their support and McConnell announced that they would be filibustering the change.-The day after Obama was elected, the strategy was laid out and McConnell announced it — the Republicans’ primary goal was to defeat Obama. They did not waver from this strategy ever.-There have been numerous other examples, but I’m too lazy to find the links. You can probably think of some. The thing is, that many of the republican proposals are good ideas and would be helpful to the nation, but they become lost as they are filibustered for the purpose of trying damage Obama.-And I don’t think McConnell’s stunt was an exercise in the absurd. He tried to embarass the Democrats and would up being the one who was embarrassed.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but disliking inconvenient facts doesn’t make them false. A book was published in April this year about the meeting held DURING Obama’s inauguration, it was reviewed by just about very news organization, and the Republicans named didn’t dispute that the meeting took place. Are you calling those Republicans liars?

The list of Republicans includes the House Majority Leader and Romney’s VP running mate, so this wasn’t just a few renegades.

From one of those news sites: "As President Barack Obama was celebrating his inauguration at various balls, top Republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to submarine his presidency at a private dinner in Washington.

The event — which provides a telling revelation for how quickly the post-election climate soured — serves as the prologue of Robert Draper’s much-discussed and heavily-reported new book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives.”

According to Draper, the guest list that night (which was just over 15 people in total) included Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). The non-lawmakers present included Newt Gingrich, several years removed from his presidential campaign, and Frank Luntz, the long-time Republican wordsmith. Notably absent were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) — who, Draper writes, had an acrimonious relationship with Luntz."

I’m an independent so I look at both cons and lib news so I can figure out the truth of the matter.

One thing I’ve notice is that the Republicans seem to be trying to think up a plan to fix this mess; whether you agree with their plans or not is up to you but I don’t see any Democrat plans on how to fix this mess.

So instead of telling me how horrible the Republicans are, tell me what the Democrat’ plan are. How to they expect to put people back to work or stop us going off the cliff? Stop telling me how bad some’s plan is and tell me how great your plan is.

Plan B – of course it didn’t fly but at least it was an idea.

Regarding the 2 parties and their “plans”, here is what I understand to have happened last week:

Obama offered to freeze all current tax rates for incomes below $250K, which applies to 98% of Americans, and raise the incremental rate by 4 points for the remaining 2%Then Boehner said he’d agree to a rate freeze for all incomes below $1 million.Then Obama raised his offer to $400K, which now applies to more than 99% of Americans.Then the House Repubilicans fought among themselves, couldn’t bring anything to a vote and left for the holidays.

Question 1: Who is protecting who?

Question 2: Do the Republicans understand that Obama’s 99% applies to at least 46 of the 47% that voted for Romney?

Most of the articls I read talk more about the Republican plan than any Dems plan. What I see in the Dems plan is a lot of talk about what they want as a result but no clue on how to achieve it

I believe it is fair to say that the Democrats want to raise taxes more than they want to reduce spending, and the Republicans want to reduce spending more than they want to raise taxes. This shouldn’t be news to anyone, as this is what both parties historically want.

The Democrats then said HOW and by HOW MUCH they want to raise taxes. That’s also fair, given that it is their top priority.

But the Republicans won’t say HOW and by HOW MUCH they want to reduce spending. They want Obama to propose the spending cuts. Why? Because they lost seats in the House and Senate in the last election largely over their approach to spending cuts. And now they want Obama to do their dirty work for them. If they know the “right” thing to do, why don’t they proudly say so?

Considering his visibility since the election, is it possible Paul Ryan now “sleeps with the fishes”?

Mastersrane, btw, the camel, both Bactrian and dromedary, are among the most efficient animals ever designed. Bison bison, of the North American plains is another, far more efficient at putting on meat per pound of forage than cows.

Which, we’ve worked pretty hard at exterminating efficient species, so why can’t we get smart, and analyze politicians more carefully, and maybe destroy a little of the habitat, like K Street, that keeps them so fat, and useless?

Sorry to have to disrupt your FOX thinking, but some 66% or two-thirds of Americans do NOT consider it to be President Obama’s cliff. They consider it to be the Republicans in the House of Representatives problem!!

And this country was far better off, and more able to so incredible things for Americans back in the late 1940’s through the mid 1970’s. Then the top tax rates were at least twice what the are now, and even the wealthy were relatively happy (at least before they became the greedy “ME” generation).

If you can not realize these facts, then your knowledge of American History is relatively nil!!

ARodney said, 1 day ago

…“Remember that Obama’s power of negotiating with Republicans is limited more than any prior president. Anything he’s for, they’re against; even if is a great idea that was their idea in the first place. They hate the president more than they love their country. The only way to lead them is to ask them what they want, and when they completely fail to come up with ideas, step in with a solution that doesn’t require their cooperation.”

An’ we’re supposed to actually survive FOUR MORE YEARS of THIS????????

rightisright said, about 19 hours ago

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. —Winston Churchill

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*Ol’ Winny might have had a good point there, but I keep reading that “rightisright” is usually wrong…but this time, I think you are onto something solid…One thing I DO know…socialism in all its extreme forms is the antithesis of what our Founding Fathers created in their grand an’ novel experiment in government. What their wise an’ noble efforts imbued America with became the reason that our nation evolved into the hope of millions of immigrants from all over the world, who sought to flee oppression, poverty, an’ the absence of opportunity, liberty an’ individual freedom. We are very imperfect, but our nation nonetheless came to stand for what’s good an’ right in the world – a shining beacon of freedom, liberty, opportunity, fairness, charity and hope. Socialism – like a cancer – destroys these ideals from within…I don’t mean Social Security, either. I mean that we’ve gone too far – ‘way too far – in replacing hope with handouts, an’ opportunity with obligation. Almost half our working age population is receiving government assistance (other than Social Security retirement) – they are on food stamps, child or dependent subsidies, and many other forms of literally being paid by the gov’t. NOT to become productive members of American culture…We are morphing into a true welfare state…just look at the numbers – it is undeniable. We are rapidly creating a parasite population…the have-nots an’ the will-nots living off the efforts of those who are productive…those who value the nobility of honest work, those who have the moral character to NOT become society’s sponges…Eventually, all that will be left is the nanny-state, the “gimme gov’t.” – the ‘something for nothing’ system that rewards sloth, and literally robs the working in order to give to the non-working, who’ve been conditioned to believe that they are better off living off the government than living off the sweat of their brow.