We'd better start taking these things serious. Yesterday, a visibly frustrated President Barack Obama emerged from a failed meeting on a budget deal and said he would demand daily sessions with House Speaker John "cry Me a River"Boehner until an agreement was hammered out to prevent a possible U.S. government shutdown at the end of this week.
President Obama spoke not long after Speaker Boehner's office issued a statement that insisted the two sides remained far apart and that Republicans had never, as the White House contends, agreed on $33 billion in cuts to the federal spending allotment for the remaining six months of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. Oh Really? That's not what I heard and certainly much different from the way they were talking since January...Can you say- "Flip Flop"?
President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid met in the White House Tuesday as the clock ticked toward a midnight Friday expiration of the government's spending authority.
"We are closer than we have ever been to an agreement. There is no reason why we should not get an agreement,"President Obama said in a surprise appearance in the White House reporters briefing room.
The president said Boehner and Reid were meeting later Tuesday, but if that session produced no agreement he would summon both men back to the White House Wednesday and daily thereafter, if necessary.
"Myself, Joe Biden, my team we are prepared to meet for as long as possible to get this resolved," Obama said.
President Obama had barely finished speaking when House Speaker Boehner strode before microphones to insist that the White House and Senate Democrats bow to demands for deeper cuts.John Boehner is under extreme pressure from newly elected House members, many with allegiance to those ultraconservative malcontents, You guessed it,The Tea party, to slash spending, the size of government and lower taxes.
Short of a long-term deal,House Speaker Boehner has proposed an agreement that would keep the government running for one more week and cut another $12 billion in spending. John Boehner has already orchestrated action by Congress to pass a pair of stopgap bills, so far cutting $10 billion from an estimated $1.2 trillion budget to fund the day-to-day operations of government through the fiscal accounting period.
President Obama said he would only accept another short-term funding extension, of two or three days, to get a longer-term deal through Congress. But he ruled out a longer extension to allow negotiations to continue.
"That is not a way to run a government. I cannot have our agencies making plans based on two week budgets," President Obama said. "What we are not going to do is once again put off something that should have been done months ago." Bravo Mister President...I couldn't agree more.
But House Speaker Boehner countered by saying Republicans "will not be put in a box" of accepting options they refuse to endorse.
The Democrats accused the Republicans of pushing for harmful spending cuts and attaching a social policy agenda to the must-pass spending bill.House Speaker Boehner counters that the White House is pressing gimmicky budget cuts. And so on and so on and scooby dooby dooby! As Sly said-''We got to live together."
Looks to me like a government shutdown appears increasingly inevitable. The White House has begun advising government agencies on the proper steps in preparation for a shutdown of the government. Republicans on Monday disclosed plans to instruct lawmakers "on how the House would operate in the event Senate Democrats shut down the government." See how they worded that...'Senate Democrats shut down the government."
Did you really not see this coming? Do you even care? This is the result of many of you not voting in November. I know...I know, I keep going back to that...But look at what is happening....Government on the verge of shutdowns...Republican governors shamelessly cutting education money, crippling unions rights to bargain collectively,et al. I saw all of this coming. You didn't? The President was having a hard enough time when his party had control of the house and the senate..Now that he no longer has that luxury...It's only going to get worse...We've allowed some pretty scary people to get elected.. We are just starting to pay for that!
2 comments:
The last 3 sentences have really done it for me! Thats the whole sha bang bang!
It does not make sense to stop the process of government because a few tea partiers are hard-hearted and mean-spirited! It is a shame that they were elected in the first place with the goal of destroying the presidency of Mr. Obama. But sometimes "Maude has to kick" us to get our attention. (Do you remember your mother and my mother talking about "Maude" and the consequences of wrong-doing?)
Perhaps some will wake up with a good swift kick!! They are in Wisconsin where a recall of elected officials has started. Yesterday, a stalwart Republican judge was defeated by a newcomer Democrat for a seat on the bench which will decide whether unions can bargain for workers. In Arizona, transplant operations for the poor are again being paid for by the state Medicaid.
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