Senate Rejects Bipartisan Task Force to Tackle Deficit

[Appaholic]

CBO: Federal deficit projected at $1.35T

WASHINGTON – The Senate Tuesday rejected a plan backed by President Barack Obama to create a bipartisan task force to tackle the federal deficit this year despite glaring new figures showing the enormity of the red-ink threat.

The special deficit panel would have attempted to produce a plan combining tax cuts and spending curbs that would have been voted on after the midterm elections. The measure went down because anti-tax Republicans joined with Democrats who were wary of being railroaded into cutting Social Security and Medicare.

The Senate vote to kill the deficit task force came just hours after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted a $1.35 trillion deficit for this year as the economy continues to slowly recover from the recession.

"Yet another indication that Congress is more concerned with the next election than the next generation," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., a sponsor of the plan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100126/ap_ ... ama_budget

[danefan]

Please someone blame this on Obama.

[CID1990]

This was part trial balloon, part populist grandstanding.

No White House sends this kind of call over to the Senate without already knowing what is going to happen. If the Obama administration truly did not know, they there truly IS nobody at the helm.

[Col Hogan]

This was part trial balloon, part populist grandstanding.

No White House sends this kind of call over to the Senate without already knowing what is going to happen. If the Obama administration truly did not know, they there truly IS nobody at the helm.

Exactly...with the headcounting the party leadership does before a vote...the outcome of this had to be known...

So, did the White House set up the Senate to take a fall???

[houndawg]

There won't be any bi-partisan anything, anytime. Jim DeMint said the republicans were going to break Obama with health care and that's what they intend to do.

[Baldy]

Please someone blame this on Obama.

No, but you will probably see Valarie Jarrett or David Axelrod or Robert Gibbs go on the Sunday shows and blame Bush.

[danefan]

Please someone blame this on Obama.

No, but you will probably see Valarie Jarrett or David Axelrod or Robert Gibbs go on the Sunday shows and blame Bush.

but...............................if you think about it............................it kind of is Bush's fault.

If Bush Admin didn't destory the Republican party then we wouldn't have such a one-party power in Congress and there may actually be some bipartisan activity.

[Baldy]

No, but you will probably see Valarie Jarrett or David Axelrod or Robert Gibbs go on the Sunday shows and blame Bush.

but...............................if you think about it............................it kind of is Bush's fault.

If Bush Admin didn't destory the Republican party then we wouldn't have such a one-party power in Congress and there may actually be some bipartisan activity.

No doubt Bush was one of the main factors, but the Republican Party pretty much destroyed itself.

[Ibanez]

Please someone blame this on Obama.

No, but you will probably see Valarie Jarrett or David Axelrod or Robert Gibbs go on the Sunday shows and blame Bush.

You see, Bush used to sit in the Oval Office. And now, his legacy is a ghost that haunts it's halls. It wasn't Obama, it was Bush's ghost controlling Obama.

[Ivytalk]

I guess we still have Pete Peterson, Warren Rudman and the rest of the "Concord Coalition" to serve as "deficit hawks" if the Senate won't do it. That is, if any of those old coots are still alive.

[native]

This was part trial balloon, part populist grandstanding.

No White House sends this kind of call over to the Senate without already knowing what is going to happen. If the Obama administration truly did not know, they there truly IS nobody at the helm.

Exactly...with the headcounting the party leadership does before a vote...the outcome of this had to be known...

So, did the White House set up the Senate to take a fall???

No! The Congress was tired of getting set up over and over again by the White House.

This time, the Senate set up the White House for the fall!

[houndawg]

No, but you will probably see Valarie Jarrett or David Axelrod or Robert Gibbs go on the Sunday shows and blame Bush.

You see, Bush used to sit in the Oval Office. And now, his legacy is a ghost that haunts it's halls. It wasn't Obama, it was Bush's ghost controlling Obama.

That's actually a fairly accurate description, Baldy, if by "ghost" you mean the results of Dubya's Eight Years of Miserable Failure and Pathetic Incompetence.

[Rob Iola]

You see, Bush used to sit in the Oval Office. And now, his legacy is a ghost that haunts it's halls. It wasn't Obama, it was Bush's ghost controlling Obama.

That's actually a fairly accurate description, Baldy, if by "ghost" you mean the results of Dubya's Eight Years of Miserable Failure and Pathetic Incompetence.

Then how, seriously, does Obama manage to lose Ted Kennedy's seat before he's even been in office for 1 year? Bush's fault, right?

[houndawg]

That's actually a fairly accurate description, Baldy, if by "ghost" you mean the results of Dubya's Eight Years of Miserable Failure and Pathetic Incompetence.

Then how, seriously, does Obama manage to lose Ted Kennedy's seat before he's even been in office for 1 year? Bush's fault, right?

Obama was running for Kennedy's seat? I did not know that.



I think the populace is up to here with the ruling class and in no mood to aim carefully before lashing out. If the Republicans aren't careful they will be in the unusual position of returning to power too quickly; before the Democrats have time to once again clean up after their pitiful attempt at leading us into the new millenium.

[youngterrier]

...it's almost as if they don't want to reduce the deficit...

[houndawg]

...it's almost as if they don't want to reduce the deficit...

I doubt it, they reduced the hell out of the deficit while Clinton was Prez.

[CID1990]

This was part trial balloon, part populist grandstanding.

No White House sends this kind of call over to the Senate without already knowing what is going to happen. If the Obama administration truly did not know, they there truly IS nobody at the helm.

Exactly...with the headcounting the party leadership does before a vote...the outcome of this had to be known...

So, did the White House set up the Senate to take a fall???

It's a win-win for the White House. Right now, the Obama Administration is in a funk and the Prez's numbers are sagging. Everything he has done and said over the last two weeks has had a populist bent. The banks, Wall Street, offering spending "freezes", you name it. All he is doing is throwing a populist bone to the Senate knowing that it won't go anywhere so he can point to Congressional obstructionism to his agenda.

This is actually a pretty childish if not desperate move, if you ask me. Anybody can see what is going on.

[native]

You see, Bush used to sit in the Oval Office. And now, his legacy is a ghost that haunts it's halls. It wasn't Obama, it was Bush's ghost controlling Obama.

That's actually a fairly accurate description, Baldy, if by "ghost" you mean the results of Dubya's Eight Years of Miserable Failure and Pathetic Incompetence.

Unfortunately for you and your hero, dawg, that ghost is the shadow of Bush's piss poor performance that little Barry cannot seem to escape.

Even a partisan like me could never have imagined that Obama would actually make Bush look good!