Thursday Open Thread [6.7.12]
Atrios posits a simple topic:
America is richer than it has ever been and can no longer afford the things that it used to.
Discuss.
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Atrios posits a simple topic:
America is richer than it has ever been and can no longer afford the things that it used to.
Discuss.
Connect with us on the following social media platforms.
The sheriff of Nottingham will be on the fat mans radio program this afternoon at 3:30 supposedly taking calls. I’m sure Colley will toss him softballs all day and let him explain how he really is the ultimate authority. Colley was also trying to rally people to attend the public personnel meeting on Monday to support the sheriffs deputy who was fired, claiming it was a personal attack on Christopher.
What I want to know is how current are sheriff sales since they are running around playing cops and robbers?
Lots of Don Ayotte signs along route 30.
Which means Don Ayotte has lots of time on his hands.
Terry Schooley will not be running for re-election as the 23rd RD Representative. Thanks to Terry for eight years of great service!
Signs don’t vote.
What’s up with Obama apparently being a member of the New Party ( a fringe political party) in the 90’s?
You would think that we would have heard about this in the last election.
Given the wisdom of the non-fringe political parties, I take membership in a “fringe” party as a sign of intelligence. I don’t know anything about the New Party though. Don’t much care, honestly. They don’t exist in Delaware and I wasn’t about to vote for Obamney anyway.
“Lots of Don Ayotte signs along route 30.”
I counted signs on 6 residences. I assume one of them was Don’s home. Haven’t seen signs anywhere else. Is he running to represent Gravel Hill Road?
Ayotte signs are like mushrooms – they spring up where ever one can find a pile of shit
I’ve seen 1 on Route 9 near Harbeson Road.
I know you all are big supporters of John Kowalko, and you probably know I am not, but, please look at his blatant sabotage of HB 311 in concert with the Trial Lawyers Association, and then look at the contributions he has received from them! The mentally ill need legislators who stand up for them, because they so often can not stand up for themselves. I sat on the floor about five feet away from him during this committee meeting and watched the woman from the Trial Lawyers whispering to him and Ed Osienski and then Kowalko would parrot what she said to him. His opposition is not only disingenuous, it is downright abusive to a horribly marginalized population!
Bill Clinton smokes the peace pipe but doesn’t inhale:
I think when you include an acid comment like that, it doesn’t count as an apology. Apparently Bill thinks he is the only president entitled to benefit from raising taxes, and wants to keep it that way.
By the way, screw the fiscal cliff. This is our last chance to make the wealthy pay closer to their fair share and we need to grab it. It’s also our last chance to rebalance investment taxes to restore hiring and investment. The jobless recovery continues until we do.
The game’s afoot. We have so far been treating the upcoming tax cut expiration alternately with boredom and mockery, but pretty soon all the cool progressive kids will be talking about it.
Democrats are quibbling about whether to extend the Bush tax cuts under $1 million or under $250K. Stop fighting guys. We know what you are, now you are just haggling over the price. It’s moot anyway because Republicans are not going to pass a bill that decouples the high end tax cuts from the low end. This quibble over the cutoff point is just a waste of time. The only way to win is not to play.
Boehner is going to introduce a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts, perhaps permanently. Reid will be unable to block it. In the end it all comes down to an Obama veto.
Republicans have yet to select their hostages, but that won’t stop turncoat Dem concern trolls from pointing them out.
But Obama should know he has two damn fine hostages of his own: The tax cuts on the rich, and the automatic defense cuts. Those should not be given up without forcing the Republicans to break Norquist pledge, and to keep the safety net intact.
No more capitulation without getting something in return – something big.
that would be nice, wouldn’t it Puck…. Sadly we know what will REALLY happen.
The tax cuts will be extended forever, the defense budget will actually be increased, and … oh, we’ll say Americorps…. will be totally de-funded and the active service members will be given guns and sent to Syria.
Agreed. The only drama is, when will Obama publicly flip. He is the master of the December Surprise.
Obama has consistently — ever since he was campaigning in 2008 — supported keeping the tax cuts for families with income $250K or less. It can’t be much of a surprise when he advocates for what he has always advocated for. Interestingly, it is Nancy Pelosi who seems to be leading the charge for the $1M figure.
Obama has consistently — ever since he was campaigning in 2008 — supported keeping the tax cuts for families with income $250K or less.
This is a disingenuous restatement of Obama’s 2008 position, which was that the upper income tax cuts should expire while keeping the cuts under $250K. And now that it’s campaign season, that seems to be his position once again.
Before late 2010, Obama never let on that he would be willing to accomplish keeping the middle-class tax cuts by extending all the cuts.
Repealing the upper income tax cuts was Obama’s signature campaign promise. PolitiFact lists these both as broken promises:
Increase the capital gains and dividends taxes for higher-income taxpayers
Repeal the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes
The substitution of “extending middle-class cuts” is a mealy-mouthed ex post facto justification for breaking the other promises, which IMHO were far more important. There is nothing consistent about it; it was a December surprise.
he’s got nothing to lose anymore. If he loses the election Rmoney will definitely extend and expand.
also, dont try and take a hit at Pelosi on this. She has remained staunch on this from the beginning and is only now bending. Just in time for the White House to be “resolute”
The communication of this WH is awful. The people who have surrounded the president and advised him on political matters for the last 3 years should be run out of town on a rail. and really, shame on him for continuing to listen to them. Can anyone, based on facts, not your faith in Obama or what you want to see happen…. can anyone make a case why i should believe he’ll stick to his word this time? … keep in mind, i would very much like to. I just cant.
Pelosi already introduced and passed the “under $250K only” bill in 2010, but Obama let it die of neglect in the Senate. I’m sure she’s thinking “Burn me twice, shame on me.”
Besides, raising it to $1 million takes away the Repubs’ small business argument. Repubs won’t vote for it anyway, but it makes a much better Dem campaign ad to accuse Repubs of protecting millionaires.
Just like Pelosi was in charge of what happened in the House, Harry Reid is in charge of what happens in the Senate. Using your logic, Obama ought to get half credit for the House vote.
At this point you are just being obtuse about the fact that you can get whatever you can get past the Senate. It’s useful to your need for blame to bypass that fact, but there it is.
And you can spin it all you want, but the man has always stuck to idea of letting the tax cuts expire for everyone except for incomes below $250K. While it may have been a broken campaign promise to extend those cuts — he still did this in return for extended unemployment benefits and other stimulative measures that probably wouldn’t have gotten past the Senate. So it was a compromise — one that got people help they needed, but gave people like you an opportunity for willful blindness.
Republicans have yet to select their hostages, but that won’t stop turncoat Dem concern trolls from pointing them out.
Sometimes I hate being right.
Expiring all the tax cuts would have been tough medicine in 2010, but it would have been preferable to extending them all.
Reagan was forgiven for his vicious 1982 recession because it was seen to be corrective and necessary (debatable, but that’s the CW).
Obama too would be forgiven for expiring all the cuts and enduring a brief but necessary recession to fix the structural problems in the economy.
CBO predicts the automatic tax cut expiration plus the automatic spending cuts would induce a brief but shallow recession for the first two quarters, but growth would resume by the third quarter, on a much stronger basis in my opinion. I’m willing to take that medicine.
The wealthy screwed us bad in 2001 and have been feasting on the assets and earning power of the middle class ever since. Will we never make them pay the piper?
just as i was expecting. a thinly veiled insult for stating my thoughts, rather than a rational explanation like i was begging for.
I dont know how many more ways i can try and convey to you that i understand why he had to compromise. What im saying to you is, please, for the love of God, tell me why i shouldn’t think it will happen again. Why shouldnt i think that the GOP will take another hostage and the dems and Obama will cave?
I DONT WANT TO THINK THAT. but I do. Are you going to insult me again for facing a reality that i really think sucks?
BTW, if he DOES stand strong, no matter the final outcome, i owe you a drink. I’ll happily be wrong about this.
“Harry Reid is in charge of what happens in the Senate. ”
No, on that Pelosi tax bill Obama called for defeat by going AWOL.
1. He failed to issue a veto threat on full extension, which would have brought 60 Senators behind the middle-class bill.
2. When his campaign promise was on the floor he flew to Afghanistan, further signalling the Senate that his preference was full extension.
Those who don’t learn from history…
Yes and that would still be bullshit. Pelosi didn’t get the handholding but passed it and you have yet to articulate which 60 Senators wold have vote for extension. Especially since there were already Democrats off of the reservation.
You can deal with all of the fantasy you want, but don’t be here claiming that it is history. Because your only investment is in twisting up how your own government works so that Nancy Pelosi gets credit for what you like and Obama gets the blame for what Harry Reid can’t get done.
Harry Reid couldn’t pass gas without support from Obama. Unless it’s Republican gas.
so we agree. No one can give reason to believe anything other than….. the republicans will take a hostage, get everything they want, then kill the hostage when Romney wins. got it.