Mitch McConnell offers to give Obama everything he wants, and...

[Monkeyleg]

Don't know if you read or heard this, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered up a bill as a rider to another bill, as well as a standalone bill, that contained everything that Obama has said he wanted in a budget. 100% of everything: spending increases, tax hikes, the whole nine yards. And Harry Reid kept the bill from coming to the floor for a vote.

Either Reid doesn't think his Democrats will go along with what Obama really wants, or Obama and at least some Democrats aren't being serious in these negotiations. You probably won't read or see this in the MSM.

Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking.

[AZRedhawk44]

Go FSA, all the way!


Let's get this thing over with.

[dm1333]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/debt-ceiling-mitch-mcconnell_n_2251515.html

Mitch McConnell, the only man to filibuster himself!  I think this sets a new low for something, I'm just not sure what!   

[longeyes]

Giving Obama what he wants is not the answer. 

Telling the American people what is going to happen to them is the answer.

But that is something Romney should have done.

[lupinus]

You can tell them till you're blue in the face.

Nothing is going to convince them.

[longeyes]

Unfortunately, I think you are right.  Mass catastrophe is something that occurs, thanks to CGI, at the local cineplex.

[slingshot]

The President wants us to pass over the "fiscal cliff" as long as he wins the blame game.  It will fracture the Republican Party even further.  It is all about power.  What the President says publically and what's on paper I'm told are different things.  The Democrats are for increasing taxes.  Passing over the "cliff" will facilitate that.  The Republicans are not fighting to lower taxes, they are fighting to keep them the same as they are now and reduce spending.

[longeyes]

In the end – and by the end I mean in a couple of years from now – it will not matter. We are busted.

[seeker_two]

Really....if the US goes over the cliff, Obama will get everything he wants....tax increases, defense spending cuts, an issue to beat the GOP silly with....

.....win/win all the way.....for Obama only....

[birdman]

Really....if the US goes over the cliff, Obama will get everything he wants....tax increases, defense spending cuts, an issue to beat the GOP silly with....

.....win/win all the way.....for Obama only....

He will get everything...except a successful second term.  What the GOP should do is let him floor the accelerator, just approve all the tax cuts except the ones he doesn't like, and hold a million press conferences to say "we did what he wanted to show people why the Democratic Party sucks"
Wait two years and CRUSH the dems in the midterms, because Obama and the dems will OWN it at that point...no more excuses. 

I'd even be willing to take the 10-15k/yr tax hit that plan would cost me, if it meant a final arresting of progressive economics.

[Ron]

I'm with birdman on this ^

Getting pretty close to that philosophy on the social issues also.

Let the people get what they voted for, good and hard.

[RocketMan]

He will get everything...except a successful second term.  What the GOP should do is let him floor the accelerator, just approve all the tax cuts except the ones he doesn't like, and hold a million press conferences to say "we did what he wanted to show people why the Democratic Party sucks"
Wait two years and CRUSH the dems in the midterms, because Obama and the dems will OWN it at that point...no more excuses. 

I'd even be willing to take the 10-15k/yr tax hit that plan would cost me, if it meant a final arresting of progressive economics.

Never going to happen.  The GOP will lose more ground in both houses of Congress during the next cycle.  The country is trending permanently blue IMHO.  The full Congress will eventually be in Democratic hands, and the Presidency will remain so.  There will be even more folks dependant on the .gov teat by then, probably a majority, and they will vote as one would expect.

The 2010 midterms were a fluke.  It was suddenly 'fashionable' to be considered a 'conservative' at that time (thanks to the Tea Party for the most part), even though most folks had no idea what it really meant to be one.  That will never happen again.

[Ron]

It will depend on whether things get worse or not and how worse they get.

If the R's can hand it all over to the D's and the economy falls apart then there will be an opportunity to bring sanity to the system.

Whether the R's will even offer a sane alternative is an open question.

[RocketMan]

The R's don't really have an alternative.  Not one that matters, anyway.  It just kicks the can further down the road.

[roo_ster]

The GOP could run an actual conservative (social and economic), unlike the last few POTUS candidates(1).

Looking at the numbers on 2012, BHO got fewer votes than 2008, but Romney got even fewer and barely beat McCain's numbers in 2008.  Looks like the conservatives were not fired up like they were in 2010, when lots of GOP candidates claimed Tea Party sympathies.  OTOH, Romney showed the Tea Party his buttocks...and they stayed home.

The GOP can still win, it just needs to not run away from wildly popular issues (immigration restriction, & others), not piss all over its coalition members (how well did de-emphasizing social conservatism work in 2012, huh?), and offer an adult alternative to the drunk teenagers driving the federal family car.

Of course, if 3rd world immigration is not stopped and massive and ruthless efforts not made to assimilate those already here, the future is in the cess pit.



(1) 1980, 1984, 1988 are the last conservative campaigns the GOP ran.  GHWB in 1992 was a confirmed squish by his actions.  Dole 1996 was a GOP establishment, "tax collector for the welfare state" candidate.  GWB2000 tacked rightwards, and was lucky the Dems chose John Kerry in 2004.  McCain 2008 was Dole, only even more bellicose on foreign policy and as much an economic ignoramus as BHO.

[Ben]

I'd like to see Birdman's scenario happen, but agree with Rocketman that the Republicans will still take it in the shorts even if they try to show they went along with Obama 100%. The MSM will never give them a fair shake.

[seeker_two]

Never going to happen.  The GOP will lose more ground in both houses of Congress during the next cycle.  The country is trending permanently blue IMHO.  The full Congress will eventually be in Democratic hands, and the Presidency will remain so.  There will be even more folks dependant on the .gov teat by then, probably a majority, and they will vote as one would expect.

The 2010 midterms were a fluke.  It was suddenly 'fashionable' to be considered a 'conservative' at that time (thanks to the Tea Party for the most part), even though most folks had no idea what it really meant to be one.  That will never happen again.

^^^This....esp. considering that there really isn't any alternative on the horizon. Long Live Socialism....

[Waitone]

I think the Mcconnell gambit is to give Obama EVERY he asked for then when the vote comes spinelessrepublicans will vote "Not present", a la Illinois senator Obama before he went national.  The game is to hang everything around Obama's neck giving him no excuses.  Problem is I think democrats have so far outsmarted republicans it will never happen.

Establishment republicans deserve to take it in the shorts.  They have worked long and hard to achieve their me-too cred.  They deserve everything coming their way.  And they also deserve to be thrown in the ash heap of history.  Democrats need serious opposition to their agenda.  Establishment republican are not serious.  We need a new party that takes over the husk of republicans.

[longeyes]

Never going to happen.  The GOP will lose more ground in both houses of Congress during the next cycle.  The country is trending permanently blue IMHO.  The full Congress will eventually be in Democratic hands, and the Presidency will remain so.  There will be even more folks dependant on the .gov teat by then, probably a majority, and they will vote as one would expect.

The 2010 midterms were a fluke.  It was suddenly 'fashionable' to be considered a 'conservative' at that time (thanks to the Tea Party for the most part), even though most folks had no idea what it really meant to be one.  That will never happen again.

Take your dark scenario one step further. That step is the inevitable breakup of the country, not a permanent majority of Democrats.  The government has no way of satisfying the needs of this dwindling economy, and I do not believe the American people are really going to accept a total police state.

[Cliffh]

Never going to happen.  The GOP will lose more ground in both houses of Congress during the next cycle.  The country is trending permanently blue IMHO.  The full Congress will eventually be in Democratic hands, and the Presidency will remain so.  There will be even more folks dependant on the .gov teat by then, probably a majority, and they will vote as one would expect.

The 2010 midterms were a fluke.  It was suddenly 'fashionable' to be considered a 'conservative' at that time (thanks to the Tea Party for the most part), even though most folks had no idea what it really meant to be one.  That will never happen again.

I'm afraid that's the most likely scenario. 

A breakup of the country may or may not happen, depending on how "blue" the likely-to-separate states become before things go far enough downhill.

[longeyes]

I think the Mcconnell gambit is to give Obama EVERY he asked for then when the vote comes spinelessrepublicans will vote "Not present", a la Illinois senator Obama before he went national.  The game is to hang everything around Obama's neck giving him no excuses.  Problem is I think democrats have so far outsmarted republicans it will never happen.

Establishment republicans deserve to take it in the shorts.  They have worked long and hard to achieve their me-too cred.  They deserve everything coming their way.  And they also deserve to be thrown in the ash heap of history.  Democrats need serious opposition to their agenda.  Establishment republican are not serious.  We need a new party that takes over the husk of republicans.

+1

[slingshot]

Regardless of going over the "fiscal cliff" or Republicans caving to the President's demands...  The R's will be blamed initially for any result.  But HISTORY will place it on the President's head for better or worst.  I just hope there is a lot of history to write about.

Remember a guy named George HW Bush... "Read my lips, no new taxes!"  He probably lost his relection bid due to Ross Perot however.  But the D's played those words over and over again during the Clinton campaign.  It didn't matter that he agreed to some new taxes as part of a compromise....  he got stuck with the taxes and Obama will get stuck with whatever happens next.

I was thinking the other day....  I wonder how many Presidents have been elected with a tax increase being part of their campaign?  Obama clearly did, but I suspect this is rare.

[seeker_two]

Remember a guy named George HW Bush... "Read my lips, no new taxes!"  He probably lost his relection bid due to Ross Perot however.  But the D's played those words over and over again during the Clinton campaign.  It didn't matter that he agreed to some new taxes as part of a compromise....  he got stuck with the taxes and Obama will get stuck with whatever happens next.

And just who is going to replay Obama's words?.....the MSM?....

[RocketMan]

When you think about it, going over the fiscal cliff is a big win for Obama.  It provides answers to a leftist's prayers.  Major tax increases on everyone, not just "The Evil Richâ„¢", debilitating cuts to military funding, more government dependancy as a result of the almost inevitable recession.  Much blame to hand to the Republicans.  Wins all around.
It would not surprise me at all if Obama actually wants to go over the cliff.

[Boomhauer]

Of course he wants it. That crypto-communist wants to actively wreck the economy and they are doing their damndest.