Economy, Obama administration

Obama cornering the Republicans

Posted on: July 11th, 2011 by ecthompson md No Comments

Okay, if you want to truly cut spending and get our financial house in order, here you go -

From TPM:

President Obama tried to use the bully pulpit to pressure Congressional leaders to wrest free of some of their ideological binds and come together to hammer out a long-term debt deal, warning both sides he would not accept a temporary 30- to 60-day stop-gap fix.

"I have been hearing from our Republican friends that it's a moral imperative for us to tackle our debates and deficits in a serious way," Obama told reporters at a briefing Monday. "So what I've said to them is let's go. It is possible for us to construct a package to involve both parties to take on their sacred cows."

"We might as well do it now, pull off the band aid, eat our peas," Obama said.

With the clock ticking down for both sides to reach a deal on raising the debt-ceiling, Obama is urging Republicans to back away from their insistence on no new tax increases and Democrats from refusing to agree to any changes to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

It looks to me that this is the moment of truth for the Republicans. They have an opportunity to show the American people what they are made of. Can they handle it?

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Grannyspatchworks

Of course they can't handle it--otherwise they would have by now. The GOP's behavior is embarrassing--they are acting like stubborn children.  This is nothing more than a game of "chicken" for them.  And--they seem to forget that they are hurting the very people who helped get them into office--perhaps we need to show the GOP, in large, vocal numbers, that we want compromise, otherwise they will not be voted back in.

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Jeff

Between the crazy right and crazy left, most of the country lives.  I think this no compromise position could haunt the GOP in 2012.  Most of the middle favors compromise.  If they refuse, they should find themselves replaced.  That wave of 2010 will be overrun.  It happens over and over because the winners are too stupid to understand the governing from the middle with compromise is the way the people want it.

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EC Thompson, MD

exactly right but, of course, were counting on the Democrats not to put their foot in their mouths. I'm not sure that we can count on that. To me, the Democrats remind me of Leon Lett in the Super Bowl after he picked up the fumble and was running towards the goal line. He started celebrating before he got the touchdown and the ball was knocked out of his hand at the 1 foot line. To me, that is the Democratic Party in a nutshell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTeqQY_T2mE

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  • Errington C. Thompson, MD
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