(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
While there is a lot of angst on the part of the left and progressives over President Obama putting Social Security on the bargaining table for some meager tax concessions, they are still no closer to an agreement with the Republicans on the looming debt limit. Obama has rejected any temporary deal that would just kick the can down the road, possibly making the debt limit an even bigger issue in 2012 and a door for the Republicans to get the Bush/Obama tax cuts extended, or worse made permanent. The President has also said that he would not renew them again but after the last 3 years, can we realistically believe anything he says. After all, he is now doing what Bush could never have gotten away with, putting the safety nets for our seniors, disabled and poor on the line to protect the wealthiest.
Today. The Speaker of the House, John A. Boehner, clearly stated, “There is no agreement, in private or in public.” The House recess for July 18th has been canceled signally that no agreement is in sight.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi met pivately with the President today. Prior to her meeting Ms. Pelosi clearly indicated that she would resist efforts to tie the deal to Social Security.
“Do not consider Social Security a piggy bank for giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country,” Ms. Pelosi said to reporters on Capitol Hill after the meeting. “We are not going to balance the budget on the backs of America’s seniors, women and people with disabilities.”
Last night Keith Olbermann looked at this current state of these discussions.
Boehner: “We are not going to raise taxes on the very people that we expect to invest in our economy and help grow jobs.”
Olbermann: “Shut up. If they were reinvesting in the economy, we wouldn’t be in this position, moron. They’re keeping the money.”
Rep Raul Grivala: “Without overwhelming support from our caucus, this would be a difficult bill to pass”
Pres. Bill Clinton. They quadrupled the debt before me and double it after. Suddenly it’s the biggest problem in the world”
Ryan Grimm: “Obana has been dangling safety net cuts for the last several weeks. He created the cat food commission . . .
The idea that Obama is the defender of Sociual Security isn’t going to get you very far.
“One dime a month is enough to put many elderly in the poor house.”
Considering today’s news about jobs and unemployment at 9.2%, this, to put it bluntly, sucks.
Up Date: As of last night Speaker of the House Boehner rejected the “deal of the century” because of a few billion in tax “cuts”.
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worse than the percentage given us. People who no longer receive unemployment insurance but are still unemployed are not factored into those figures! So, realisticly, it would be more like 18% to 20% unemployment. The last that I knew of, some months ago now, there were some 54,000,000 people who are forgotten people, i.e., lost their jobs, exhausted their unemployment insurance and after long and heartbreaking efforts to find employment finally just gave up. These are the people whose voices we do not hear from — what means have they?