Sorry about no Open Thread yesterday, gang. It is 18 days until the Mayan-predicted End of the World, so I think we all in prep mode.
After meeting with Tim Geithner last week, is it fair to say that the GOP is in disarray? Seriously, they have no coherent response to the WH offer, and I’m heartened (just for today) by this:
Secretary Geithner was nonplussed when responding to Boehner’s shocked reaction to the White House proposal.
Geithner told Wallace, “[GOP leaders] are in a tough position now, they are trying to figure out where they go next, we might need to give them a little time to figure out where they go next.”
Geithner defended the initial White House deficit plan, during a blitz of Sunday morning talk show appearances.
“It’s a very good plan and we think it’s a good basis for these conversations,” said Geithner on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “What we did is put forward a very comprehensive, very carefully designed mix of savings and tax rates to help us put us back on a path to stabilizing our debt, fixing our debt and living within our means.”
I’m looking for daily signals that the WH is dealing from its genuine strength here.
Yesterday was the 57th anniversary of Rosa Parks taking a seat in the white section of the bus.
It’s really amazing to see political reporters dutifully passing along Republican complaints that President Obama’s opening offer in the fiscal cliff talks is just a recycled version of his old plan, when those same reporters spent the last year dutifully passing along Republican complaints that Obama had no plan. It’s even more amazing to see them pass along Republican outrage that Obama isn’t cutting Medicare enough, in the same matter-of-fact tone they used during the campaign to pass along Republican outrage that Obama was cutting Medicare.
And let’s not pretend that the GOP knows that the press will treat them with kid gloves — it is why they keep saying the most remarkable BS. Who will call them on it?
What interests you today?