Let's Make A Deal

The NY Times highlights the meeting of minds all over the world:

Boehner and Obama Nearing Deal on Cuts and Taxes

Heads of Europe Back Broad Plan to Rescue Greece

N.F.L. Owners Vote for Tentative Labor Deal

 It's just so beautiful to see people coming together.

 

Comments

[Ignatz]

Excellent article by the hit and miss George Will on Barry, the debt ceiling and the Tea Party.

[Clarice]

The latest from The Hill:
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/172895-reid-confronts-obama-budget-director-on-possible-debt-ceiling-deal

[hit and run]

It's just so beautiful to see people coming together.

Right now
Over me

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

It's truly heartwarming to see the Senate Majority Leader display that level of trust in the President's negotiating skills. It must give a real boost to the President's ego to know that his leadership skills have been so effective in uniting his party. I'm sure that Senator Reid would join me in saying "Good For You!, Mr. President".

[Clarice]

But gosh, Rick, all the reports to this point was the R's were coming apart.

And here's the account from the AP stenography pool:
"WASHINGTON (AP) — It's hard to know which is more surprising: a Democratic president pushing historic cuts in spending, including Social Security and Medicare. Or a Republican-controlled House refusing to accept the deal and declare a huge victory for long-sought GOP goals.
Political orthodoxy has been turned on its head ever since President Barack Obama stepped up his call for a bipartisan "grand bargain" to raise the national debt ceiling and avert a default on U.S. obligations. The deal would include $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years, mainly through steep spending cuts but also including up to $1 trillion in new federal revenue.
Those are far bigger targets than typical budget negotiations. And the spending cuts would seem more appropriate for a Republican president than a Democrat.
Some pundits and political insiders say Republicans should leap at the offer. But there's a hitch: The new revenue — mainly from overhauling the tax code and lowering rates by eliminating or limiting a broad swath of loopholes, deductions and tax breaks — presumably would violate a no-net-tax-hike pledge that scores of Republican lawmakers have signed."

[Clarice]

**reports to this point were..."*

Niters Between the heat and Pepco, I'm finished tonight.

[Jim Ryan]

The NYT readers are going apoplectic over there. They want the corporations to pay for the welfare net instead of making off like bandits. Just hike taxes on the rich, problem solved. Is that innumeracy (a trillion must be a scootch more than a billion which must be a scootch more than a million which is thousands and thousands)? Or some sort of delusion caused by ideology? Disappointed in Obama. Poor judges of character?

[Jim Ryan]

If you lower some tax rates and eliminate some tax deductions, then whether you've cut or increased taxes is a question which should be answered by running the numbers on this year's revenue (i.e., what would the revenue be had these rates been used and these deductions been eliminated?) Here's the problem. Suppose the result of that calculation is a net decrease in taxes. This means the proposal decreases taxes. But if the lower taxes cause an increase in revenue over the coming years, and this is scored in the back and forth over the bill, then Dems get to use this as way of portraying the GOP as breaking its no-tax-increase promise. Thus would the Dems at long last accept the Laffer curve as valid and use it, along with the news media's help, as a campaign talking point about the GOP as hypocritical tax hikers.

[Jim Ryan]

The most recommended comment over there at NYT (out of 500 comments):

There is no reason for cuts to the social net. If we want to save 5 trillion dollar over ten years, let the Bush tax cuts expire.

Innumeracy? Fantasy? Some sort of social disease? A fetish or compulsive disorder? Or just simply the triumph of ideology over easily discoverable facts?

[Boatbuilder]

Will has it right. He needs to reread Hemingway, use shorter words and many fewer commas. But he has it right.

Jim Ryan--It is not ideology. It is religious belief.

[Jim Ryan]

In future centuries historians of social disease will write books about regular Americans putting up with the American left:

...They didn't have a real grasp of what they were dealing with: a full-blown socio-psychological disease, much like the suicidal religious cults of their time (cf. Professor McGuillyCutty's Jonestown and Washington DC: A Comparison of Social Suicides). Sometimes those living close to persons suffering from madness cannot recognize it. It appears merely as ignorance, unreasonableness, and inappropriate emotions, all of which may be explained as deriving from mere mistaken beliefs, simple errors. When in fact it dawns on those living with the insane that what they are dealing with is insanity, often it is too late for them to protect themselves from the destruction insane people wreak. 20th-21st Century America is just such a case. One can only pity the 60% of the population who remained sane for what they went through. In the following treatise, I shall lay out the etiology of the disease in the French Revolution and Marx, and....

[MarkO]

We are the world,
We are the children . . ..

[matt]

great story today. A package I sent to Soylent on November 10 last year was returned to me today. It went to A'Stan and then back to Ft. Campbell and then finally to me.

Unfortunately, almost everything had expired, but the Christmas coffee is still good. Will send more out this week.

[Donald]

Sorry to OT, but I promise I'll eat a salmon...

Any great advice for Seattle area?

DOT (Or Somebody) know how I can get access to the mothball ships in Bremerton?

I really need a picture. Bad.

Thanks.

[henry]

You can always count on the Dems. Lawsuit filed in Federal Court over redistricting.

Two parts of this are funny. The suit was filed in June, before WI maps were available (they passed the legislature Wednesday).

And the reason for the suit "Under the legislation, Democrats have little chance of attaining and retaining a majority in either the Senate or the Assembly, or in the congressional delegation, giving them little ability to overcome minority status at any point over the next decade"

[Jim Ryan]

Is that The Onion, Henry?

[Jane]

It's 179.6 degrees here this morning.

Tell us Al Gore, what should we do?

[narciso]

From a Patterico link, this is ABC News, spinning itself faster than a Tasmanian devil:

resident Obama is holding onto a 7 point lead over his chief Republican rival, Mitt Romney, in the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll.

If the 2012 election were held today, 51 percent of adults said they would pick Obama compared to 44 percent who would support the former Massachusetts governor. (They were tied in early June.) Important to note, however, is that among registered voters, Obama’s lead over Romney narrows to 49 percent to 47 percent. No other Republican challenger fares as well as Romney in head-to-head matchups against the president. http://abcn.ws/nUXx7F

But there’s a bigger take away from the new numbers than just the 2012 horserace.

“Obama looks to have turned the budget debate to his advantage,” writes ABC pollster Gary Langer. “His position on the deficit is more broadly popular, he’s taking less heat than the GOP for unwillingness to compromise and he’s got a sizable lead in the view that he cares more about protecting the middle class.”

[Jane]

"Under the legislation, Democrats have little chance of attaining and retaining a majority in either the Senate or the Assembly, or in the congressional delegation, giving them little ability to overcome minority status at any point over the next decade"

Sounds like justice to me.

[Captain Hate]

LOL @ Langer; yeah that's why he called all the congressional drones to a meeting yesterday to figure out how much of the shit sandwich they can throw out with the Friday news dump. I hate to sound uncharitable to retards, although their overweening hubris removes any guilt, but the MFM's continual self beclowning is hilarious.

[Chubby]

right ...

((Greece Faces ‘Restricted Default’ After Debt Accord, Fitch Says
July 22, 2011, 7:15 AM EDT

July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Greece faces a “restricted default” after the European Union crafted a 159 billion-euro ($229 billion) bailout for the nation, which includes getting bondholders to assume part of the cost, Fitch Ratings said.

Greece would be cut to “RD” should the plan be implemented, Fitch said today in an e-mailed statement. The ratings company cut Greece by three levels to CCC on July 13.))

LUN

[narciso]

Meanwhile, the Devil's Advocate for Gitmo detainees, and The Sinaloa Chamber of Commerce, 'unexpectedly' does this:

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing subpoenas as part of preliminary investigations into News Corp. relating to alleged foreign bribery and alleged hacking of voicemail of Sept. 11 victims, The Wall Street Journal reported in its Friday edition, citing a government official.

The issuance of such subpoenas, which would broadly seek relevant information from the company, requires approval by senior Justice Department leadership, which has not yet happened, the person said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/22/us-justice-department-prepares-subpoenas-in-news-corp-inquiry/#ixzz1SpoAK5h4

[Jane]

The issuance of such subpoenas, which would broadly seek relevant information from the company, requires approval by senior Justice Department leadership

Unlike operation gunwalker...

[Extraneus]

Debt To Me: Obama, Geithner Could Face 'Impossibly Difficult' August

If the White House and lawmakers cannot reach an agreement to raise the country’s debt ceiling by the Aug. 2 deadline, it will fall to President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to determine how Uncle Sam pays his bills -- indeed, which bills the federal government will pay, and which it will set aside -- once the country has no more borrowing power.

[Jack is Back!]

Does it bother anyone else that Obama, after 2 1/2 years of job-killing, economic misery, total and perfect incompetence and a complete mastery of narcissitic arrogance, is holding a 7 point lead over anyone, much less Mitt?

Who the hell are those people (49%)? Do they work? Do they have families? Self-esteem and respect? Is our gene pool this polluted?

[Extraneus]

Who the hell are those people (49%)?

Didn't someone post a most-voted-for comment at a NY Times story yesterday, to the effect that the federal gov't can increase revenues $5T by eliminating the Bush tax cuts?

Most NY Times readers evidently believe that, even though the federal gov't only takes in a total of about $1T per year in income taxes.

I believe that answers to your question.

[narciso]

Yes it's a bogus poll, but taking that into consideration, it does illuminate some truths:

Despite fierce campaigning and the rise of Michele Bachmann, who is popular among Tea Party Republicans in particular, it is Palin who would come in second to Mitt Romney if the 2012 GOP primary were held today, according to the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll. Romney has 26 percent support for the nomination among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, while Palin has 18 percent. Michele Bachmann comes in third with 12 percent, with the rest of the field only scoring in the single digits."

[narciso]

One positive thing though, it looks like Lindsey won't be 'Mikey' in this particular Life Cereal commercial, for now anyways.

[Janet]

We are such a prosperous country that I think some citizens don't feel the crunch yet. Young people that voted for "cool" Obama are still living off of Mom & Dad's prosperity.
...& then there are those that will always vote for their keeper/provider..the government. They don't really want freedom. Freedom comes with responsibility.

[centralcal]

Good Morning:

Scary, no?

[DebinNC]

Hillary looks genuinely happy. Obama's woes are a daily reminder that she'd have been a much better choice, and she's probably anticipating a joyous retirement.

[narciso]

Let's be fair though, if you had to present some semblance of coherence on our foreign policy, attention to appearances wouldn't be so high on the list of priorities.

It's it wonderful though, that 75% of Lebanese
and 90% of Egyptians, don't think their countrymen like Ziad Jarrah and Mohammed Atta
were behind 9/11, according to a Pew Poll, sarc.

[Captain Hate]

Unlike operation gunwalker...

The chinless coward should be in front of Congress now explaining just what priorities he's given the department and why it shouldn't be considered the Stasi v2.0.

[Captain Hate]

she's probably anticipating a joyous retirement.

With Slick and without Huma? I think that explains the trail of broken capillaries and growth rings.

[Extraneus]

Simply put, there is no political demographic at all where the CCB/BBA doesn’t get majority support.

[narciso]

How does Veeshir, rather succinctly put it,
BEOTWE?

According to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), North Korea's weapons programmes are now benefiting from technology from Iran.

Pyongyang also possesses technology that would enable Iran's uranium enrichment programme to increase its output. However concrete evidence that North Korea has supplied the Iranians with its superior equipment has not been uncovered by IISS.

[Janet]

Condoleezza Rice was so professional. How does our MFM get away with painting conservatives as racist? We are almost MADE to ooh & ahh over libs....while they are visibly a bunch of unprofessional kooks.

and how bout this story - Obama admin. urging UN to make "climate change" a priority.

"U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice lashed out at countries – unnamed – that were blocking progress."

Wasn't Bolton suppose to be the hot tempered one?...How bout we hear a little about Susan Rice lashing out!

[narciso]

As for that rumor Captain, didnt it begin with that muck eating bottom dweller, Musto,
and in light of what we know of the Abedin clan, is it more likely that she is like Nadia
Al Bakari, the bold progressive of the family, or the converse.

[Captain Hate]

Yes that's probably true and obviously more likely, narc; and I'm sure she's getting an earful from the nutjob wing of her family for the fine choice she made for a husband.

[BR]

Operation Fast and Furious - Gunwalker:

The next hearings will be on 7/26/11. Article.

Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley called it reckless.
I'm saying criminal activity with political intent plus coverup. Watergate + deaths.

[narciso]

We have gone beyond Python to Red Dwarf absurdity, this is after Heller btw, and
what Obama and his pals at the Joyce Fnd.
wanted.

The district has been without a federally licensed dealer since April, when Charles W. Sykes Jr., the only person in the district licensed to transfer and register handguns purchased in another state, lost his lease. Sykes has had trouble finding an affordable location that also meets the city's zoning rules requiring gun-related businesses to be at least 300 feet away from schools, libraries, playgrounds and other locations.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/21/dc-zoning-change-allows-gun-sales-at-police-hq/#ixzz1SqFFeAfL

[Melinda Romanoff]

PM of Sweden's office bldg bombed in Oslo.

[Melinda Romanoff]

NORWAY (I'm a geographical inept.)

[Jack is Back!]

The guy from Red State is guest host for Boortz this morning. Driving back from Publix I heard him talk about a meeting he was in in DC where there were a number of Freshmen Rep Congress critters, some Rep Senators and one of them being Lindsay Graham. Graham got up to speak to the masses assemble and read a piece out of Stephanopolous' book in which he George stated that the Clinton Admin was ready to cave in 1995 but before they could the Repubs under Gingrich and Dole softened their position. If they had waited 24 hours, Clinton and Co. would have accepted the GOP position.

ln other words, of all people, Lindsay Graham is urging the GOP to stand firm on these negotiations and not give an inch. Who'd have thunk that?

[Captain Hate]

Yeah BR; "reckless" is wayyyyyy too charitable a description. That implies boozed up kids out on a lark.

[narciso]

'Dogs and Cats, living together, human sacrifice, mass hysteria,' JIB, also I spot
bearded Spock over in the corner,

[Janet]

A question -
In that Maher show where they were laughing about rage sex...who was the dupe that just sat there & smiled? He was wearing a brown t-shirt....and who is the girl?

[Ranger]

For the number crunchers this morning (via RCP):

How to Understand Obama’s Chances in 2012

The basic premise can be summed up with this quote:

What I think these numbers suggest is that, absent a considerable redefinition by the incumbent president, he or his party’s nominee is likely to run just about as well (or poorly) in the next presidential election as his party’s House candidates did in the most recent off-year elections. The off-year vote represents a settled opinion on how the president and his party have performed in nearly two years in office, and unless the president takes a significantly different course toward governing, as Bill Clinton arguably did in 1995-1996, then that settled verdict remains more or less in place. Or so the numbers suggest.

This helps explain why Obama is so desperate for a debt deal he can claim as implimenting big cuts. It would allow him to redefine his "course toward governing", and give him a fighting chance next year.

[Captain Hate]

Steny Hoyer: The Balanced Budget Amendment would make it virtually impossible to raise taxes. As an alumnus of the University of Maryland, I'd like to communicate my deep embarrassment at the school's role in inflicting Steny upon the public at large. He attended college well before I did, when standards were obviously significantly lower; although I'd be lying if I didn't admit there were plenty of dimwits in my midst.

[Janet]

Never mind,I found out - Chrystia Freeland (Reuters) & Marc Cuban.

[Rick Ballard]

Donald,

The mothballed carriers at Bremerton are clearly visible using Google Earth. Take a screen shot and edit away.

[Ben Franklin]

Is this, at least, a partial solution to Media Humpdom?

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/07/11/a-hippocratic-oath-for-journalists/

A Hippocratic Oath for Journalists

July 11, 2011

"What do we do about the power of the corporate media? Here’s one answer.

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 12th July 2011

Is Murdoch now finished in the UK? As the pursuit of Gordon Brown by the Sunday Times and the Sun blows the hacking scandal into new corners of the old man’s empire, this story begins to feel like the crumbling of the Berlin Wall. The naked attempt to destroy Brown by any means, including hacking the medical files of his sick baby son, means that there is no obvious limit to the story’s ramifications(1).

The scandal radically changes public perceptions of how politics works, the danger corporate power presents to democracy, and the extent to which it has compromised and corrupted the Metropolitan police, who have now been dragged in so deep they are beginning to look like Murdoch’s private army. It has electrified a dozy parliament and subjected the least accountable and most corrupt profession in Britain – journalism – to belated public scrutiny."

I loathe the word 'embedded' as it implies, indeed guarantees, a consensual, inappropriate relation.

I think he has the correct view of the proper role of journalism, but I'm not sure most journalists are attracted to that profession out of a sense of public service.

Ironically, journalism of today became a growth industry post-Watergate, when 'speaking truth to power' became popularized and glamorized by a string of self-serving movies and television shows
making a super-hero out of the investigative journalist.

Not much glamor in reviewing libraries chock-full of information, from which you seek a single nugget of 'a-Hah!!'. Much better to get stories by mixing with the powerful and short-cutting the road to publication with half-baked ideas related by those who have an agenda.

I know that oversimplifies it, but who's gonna read my words?

[DebinNC]

The c-c-b bill is on deck in the Senate now via CSPAN. Reid needs 51 votes to table it, preventing a vote on the bill itself.

[Janet]

*Mark Cuban*

[DebinNC]

Sen. Manchin (WV) votes against c-c-b, signalling the Dems are sticking together to kill it.

[Melinda Romanoff]

European debt is rolling over. The markets have figured out there's no "there" to the deal, because it has no scope for Spain or Italy.

Going to get ugly.

[Captain Hate]

Remember last year when Manchin was called so conservative a donk that he may as well be a Repub? That worked out well....

[Jane]

Every one of these A-holes have to be held accountable for this vote. 72% of the country wants a balanced budget amendment. It should be a huge election issue.

[Ben Franklin]

I'm beginning to think nothing will ever come of this. Too many are involved. It's like Arab Spring without the Pitchforks,,,,,,,,

http://order-order.com/2011/07/22/mirror-journo-speaks-out-against-morgans-version-of-events/

"Mirror Journo Speaks Out Against Morgan’s Version of Events

Today’s guest publication is The Australian, not normally Guido’s first choice for news, but somehow they got the interview that he was chasing all morning. James Hipwell, the former Mirror journalist whose insider information about the paper under Piers Morgan puts the former editor’s denials into serious doubt, has spoken out for the first time in five years. He claims phone-hacking was rife and that “bosses” were in on it:

“I know that for one simple reason: I used to see it going on around me all the time when I worked at the Daily Mirror. I sat right next to the show business desk and there were some show biz reporters who did it as a matter of course, as a basic part of their working day. One of their bosses would wander up and instruct a reporter to `trawl the usual suspects’, which meant going through the voice messages of celebrities and celebrity PR agents. For everyone to pretend that this is some isolated activity found only at the News of the World is ridiculous, it’s just a lie.”

Hipwell says, depending on legal advice, that he is likely to offer his insight to Lord Leveson’s inquiry. This is very bad news for Piers Morgan…"

[narciso]

To be fair, Captain that was only the first
edition of the crop report, that they picked
up in a garage in Downtown Philadelphia.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Boehner says "not close to a debt deal, going to be a hot weekend in DC."- Reuters, breaking.

[Extraneus]

72% of the country wants a balanced budget amendment.

But what to they know? This is a complicated issue, not the type of thing the average citizen can be expected to understand.

[Ben Franklin]

"Going to get ugly."

Mel;

As a trader, I know there are constraints on what and how you forecast.

However, would you kindly give me a guesstimate (if you can) what percentage drop in us government obligations might occur when
tshtf......

[Captain Hate]

Sooooo the grand strategery of the geniuses is playing out as follows:

1. Steny makes a dimwitted comment.

2. Durbin doesn't chew gum and whips the donks into tabling cap, cut and throw granny into the chipster

3. ???

[DebinNC]

It's primed for Obama, the Great Triangulator, to ride to the rescue.

[Melinda Romanoff]

The dollar is the linchpin. Everything hinges on that, IMO.

Revisiting the Argentine debt events would be an excellent primer.

[Ben Franklin]

China is a world-class counterfeiter. Marlboro Brand purloined in the 90's made billions for them. It took experts to identify the packaging as fake. Just a drag on the crap was enough, but if you are examining thousands of cartons.............

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/22/us-china-apple-fakestore-idUSTRE76L20U20110722

Customers angry, staff defiant at China's fake Apple Store

Melanie Lee
Reuters US Online Report Technology News

Jul 22, 2011 10:25 EDT

KUNMING, China (Reuters) - Customers at an apparent Apple Store in the Chinese city of Kunming berated staff and demanded refunds on Friday after the shop was revealed to be an elaborate fake, sparking a media and Internet frenzy.

Long a target of counterfeiters and unauthorized resellers, Apple Inc was alerted to the near flawless fake shop by an American blogger living in the southwestern city, more than 1,000 miles from the nearest genuine Apple stores in Beijing and Shanghai.

"When I heard the news I rushed here immediately to get the receipt, I am so upset," a customer surnamed Wang told Reuters, near tears. "With a store this big, it looks so believable who would have thought it was fake?"
,

[Captain Hate]

Does Bammy even know how many sides a triangle has?

[Rick Ballard]

I believe it's actually primed for the Krauthammer finish - $500 billion in cuts exchanged for a six month extension of the debt ceiling.

That means we can have this discussion again as part of the President's three year job performance review in February.

I don't foresee a B+ in his future.

[Mikey]

The reason Obama needs a big deal is because a small deal would not preclude a downgrade in debt rating. He can triangulate all he wants, he ccan laim to be a neo fiscal hawk, but if a grand bargain comes after a short term extension with a debt downgrade, it would hurt him politically in a major way. That is why he needs a big deal now and he needs Boehner more than Boehner needs Obama.

House Republicans did their job in passing popular legislation, all now falls onto Obama and the Senate Dems.

Finally ignore the media, they will try to pin a default on the Republicans. But Obama is not running for reelection against the House but against a candidate who is untarnished by the current debate.

[Donald]

I've done that Rick. I wanna walk up to it (I know I can't do that) and show it to my wife.

Kinda means something to me.

[Donald]

Mean't to say I know I can't go on it.

[Threadkiller]

Sorry CH, it should be:

1. Wake up to "I Got You Babe" on the alarm clock.

2. Steny makes a dimwitted comment.

3. Durbin doesn't chew gum and whips the donks into tabling cap, cut and throw granny into the chipster

4. ???

Repeat tomorrow.

[Appalled]

Ben Franklin:

Seems to me that hacking into somebody's phone is illegal. Rather than complian about the evils of corporate media, it would be better if the UK just arrested the people responsible for conducting illegal acts, and allowing lawsuits against the perpetrators.

Also, this does not seem to have been limited to Murdoch's papers. This seems to be a British tabloid thing more than just a Murdoch thing.

Finally, I just can't avoid the suspicion that if the media could have figured a way to hack into Sara Palin's cellohone, they would have done it, and wondered why anyone was offended.

[Ben Franklin]

Woot ! There it is....."Even in a default, there is money to be made. So-called “vulture” funds pick over the non-performing bonds discarded by disheartened investors. In the summer of 2002, a few months after Argentina stopped honouring its debts, a brave buyer could have purchased a distressed bond in the secondary market for 20 cents on the dollar or less. On February 25th, he could have swapped it for crisp peso-denominated paper worth 35 to 37 cents: a tidy annualised return of 25% or more."

Mel;

How is 2001 different from today?

[Ben Franklin]

"Finally, I just can't avoid the suspicion that if the media could have figured a way to hack into Sara Palin's cellohone, they would have done it, and wondered why anyone was offended"

Didn't someone hack her email, to much public outrage?

[Ben Franklin]

"Finally, I just can't avoid the suspicion that if the media could have figured a way to hack into Sara Palin's cellohone, they would have done it, and wondered why anyone was offended"

There was some commotion when her email hacked........

[narciso]

Actually, Appalled,when someone did hack her Yahoo account, (Kernell) they did blame her for making it easy, and furthermore for the affrontery of having a private account in the first place,

[Melinda Romanoff]

Argentina didn't have a choice. The Admin does.

Big difference.

[Ben Franklin]

"Big difference."

Please elaborate....

[Captain Hate]

The Argentinian peso was a wonder of grossly inflated currency; at one point I figured I could be a millionaire for $12.85

[Extraneus]

The BBA was a bargaining chip: Force the Dems to go against it, hope they say something as stupid as Hoyer did, then give it up as a compromise.

One way it could play out...

Boehner, shaking head sadly: "It was the right thing to do, but the Democrats just wouldn't agree to restrictions on raising taxes, so we had to drop the Balanced Budget Amendment until after the 2012 election. Hopefully, we'll be able to pass it after that."

The House Republicans can then pass whatever they want. Maybe even a clean debt limit increase, to saddle Obama with being unwilling to agree to any spending cuts.

Boehner again: "The president wouldn't agree to any of our proposed cuts unless they were accompanied by damaging tax increases, and never proposed any of his own cuts, so we had to kick the can down the road in order to avoid a default."

What's Obama going to do? Call him a liar? Who refused to negotiate in public?

The Dems can't stand in the way of a clean short-term debt limit increase, so the question is whether to give Obama a fig leaf or not.

[narciso]

From a contemporaneous Time account:

Palin's other Yahoo! account (gov.sarah@yahoo.com) had already been hacked, so to speak, by federal authorities who are investigating her role in the firing of Walt Monegan, Alaska's public safety commissioner. Critics charge that Palin fired Monegan for refusing to dismiss her former brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper. (The scandal has already earned a -gate suffix.) After Tuesday's hacks were made public, both private accounts were deleted — an act that could technically constitute destruction of evidence.

The Alaska governor could also face charges for conducting official state business using her personal, unarchived e-mail account (a crime); some critics accuse her of skirting freedom-of-information laws in doing so. An Alaska Republican activist is trying to force Palin to release more than 1,100 e-mails she withheld from a public-records request, the Washington Post reported last week.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1842097,00.html#ixzz1SqXP5KpJ

[Ben Franklin]

Scare tactics - Max Boot

http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/07/21/max_boot_doesnt_scare_me

[Jane]

Is the cloture vote still going on?

[RichatUF]

Sooo much outrage when Palin's email was hacked (or when the media gets IRS tax records {like the Koch brothers or Bennett}). The progressives don't like to be mocked.

Anyway. The Euro bailout isn't big enough for Italy or Spain and the Senate tabled the House's CCB. Maybe we can get some good news on the NFL front and finally get the Redskins to field a decent team.

[narciso]

The problem, as I recall, Melinda can straighten me out, is that Menem had instituted some level of austerity, at the
national level. The provincial governors, had spent 'like drunken sailors' also Mr. Andrea Mitchell's round of interest rate hikes, 'unexpectedly'caused the cost of their debt to 'necessarily skyrocket,' who knew that would be a result.

[BB Key]

CCB defeated in Senate 51-46

[Porchlight]

Well well well. Now what?

[Ben Franklin]

" there is almost no ideological diversity within the group: essentially all of the current Republican governors are quite conservative, taking moderate positions on at most one or two issues. Also unlike the Democrats, there is no correlation between the ideology of the governors and the ideology of the states. Whether you have a Republican governor in a fairly liberal state like Maine, a moderate state like Ohio, or a conservative one like Idaho, his agenda is likely to be highly conservative. (The closest thing to an exception — the outlier in the chart — is Gov. Gary R. Herbert of Utah, who shares some of the moderate tendencies of his predecessor, Jon M. Huntsman Jr.)"

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/g-o-p-governors-swing-right-leaving-voters-behind/

Do we live in a linear world, wherein we go one direction to infinity? Or do we live in a three-dimensional, where going far enough to the right, brings you back to the left?

[Captain Hate]

also Mr. Andrea Mitchell's round of interest rate hikes, 'unexpectedly'caused the cost of their debt to 'necessarily skyrocket,' who knew that would be a result.

Wasn't the situation that I mentioned above so bad that debt holders would only accept payment in dollars? Sucks when your currency goes in the toilet and you owe everybody. Thank God for us that every other currency is such garbage.

[DebinNC]

Politico notes the 51-46 vote, but doesn't mention which 2 lucky Dems Reid allowed to either defect or not vote.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Dig in.

[Porchlight]

Poor Nate Silver. It's just so perplexing when voters decide to elect conservatives.

[Jane]

Is 51-46 the breakdown in the senate.

Obama is doing a townhall in MD and making an ass of himself - by lauding the free market system.

He is such a liar. The crowd is soooooooo in favor of "shared sacrifice".

[Ben Franklin]

It's scary that it was so close. Empty, symbolic Kabuki.

[Ben Franklin]

"Dig in"

Holy Moly, Mel. Can you give the bulletized version?

[DebinNC]

Senate: 51 Dems...2 Indies...47 Repubs

[MarkO]

Hell, we all like to see sacrifice shared. We favor good over evil. Duke over Carolina. See the trend?

The problem for us (whoever we might be here) is that our speech writers are not quite up to the task of demonizing Barry.

It's not about sharing the sacrifice, we are all doing that under Obama's heavy economic mistakes. Rather, it is about easing or eliminating the sacrifice of lost jobs and slow growth. We've already shared; now let's get rid of the problem.

[RichatUF]

CH-

Sort of. Argentina to fund their deficits at a better rate "dollarized" much of the external obligations. The second problem was they had a currency board with a hard 1:1 peg. As the dollar soared during the 90's, the peso also soared, which killed Argentina's exports, then employment, then government spending exploded to try to patch up the cracks (an esp. bad problem at the state level as the federal government assumed state obligations). (This is a gross oversimplification of the problems) It ended in tears as their banking sector collapsed and their political system collapsed as they slid into one of the world's largest ever defaults. They then went through an ugly depression they still haven't recovered from. Looks like an Obamaonomics blueprint.