House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) appeared on "Meet the Press" yesterday and presented an interesting argument regarding looming, automatic sequestration cuts. It's so amazing, let's annotate this one paragraph.
"You know, the problem is, David, every time you turn around, the answer is to raise taxes [1]. And, you know, he just got his tax hike on the wealthy. And you can't, in this town, every three months, raise taxes [2]. And again, every time, that's his response [3]. And, you know, we've got a spending problem. Everybody knows it [4]. The House has put forward an alternative plan [5]. And there's been no response in any serious way from the Senate or the White House [6]."
Ready for this?
[1] Democrats aren't proposing a tax increase; they're proposing a compromise including spending cuts and new revenue through closing tax loopholes.
[2] The new revenue from a slight increase in top marginal rates was the first increase in income tax rates in two decades. Once every 20 years is not the same as once "every three months."
[3] "His," in this case, refers to President Obama, who's repeatedly offered congressional Republicans overly-generous offers on debt reduction. Indeed, that's what he's done "every time."
[4] We don't have a spending problem. We don't have a spending problem. We don't have a spending problem. We don't have a spending problem.
[5] In this Congress, the House has not put forward an alternative plan to the sequester. It simply does not exist in this reality. There were alternatives in the last Congress, but as Cantor probably knows, bills do not carry over from one Congress to the next, and if House GOP leaders want to offer an alternative, they'll have to write one and then vote on it, not lie about its existence.
[6] Both the White House and Senate Democrats have unveiled different proposals to replace the sequester, and unlike Cantor's imaginary plan, they exist. What's more, both Democratic alternatives are built around compromises on the larger policy, while Republicans insist they will not compromise at all.
All things considered, it appears the House Majority Leader has no idea what he's talking about.
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I wished Mr. Benen could one day shift gears and would no longer pretend to believe that the Republicans have "no idea what they are talking about" - or any other euphemism he likes to use.
Everybody knows they know the facts, know exactly what they are talking about - and are just plainly lying.
No they aren't. Benen is.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/02/06/fact-check-harry-reid-deficit-reduction/1895903/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/many-2011-federal-budget-cuts-had-little-real-world-effect/2013/02/09/11938e3e-6bc6-11e2-a396-ef12a93b4200_story.html?hpid=z1
Vokoban:
Ah, yes... but in this world of CYA 'journalism', pointing out the liars and the lies is verboten from on high.
1 - According to your logic everything that changes revenues upwards is a tax increase. With that position, then so what? The only tax increase in the last 20 years was the recent one. So with inflation, if spending remained the same, then we'd be behind.
2- Budgets are passed by BOTH parties. I'm sorry, but show me the part in the Constitution that says, if you raise taxes once, you can't raise them again.
3 - Fake deficit reduction. No fake remark.
4 - False. So when we started spending more than we were taking in, why didn't the Republicans do anything about it. Obviously this is a Republican spending problem.
5 - Republican plan? Where is it? You link other things. Boehner has said that they have NO plan and that the Democrats in the Senate need to come up with a plan. So who is lying? You or Boehner?
6- No comment.
See? Shooter validates my point.
So if we act as if the earnest hairstyles that the Republican leaders leave us to fulminate upon are in fact of no merit , then the satisfaction of leaving the innuendo and chicanery behind is the most useful position , because then we have nothing .
Dealing with a slippery conundrum is best left to sure hands . Stopping all communication because of an indifference to grading shades of grey , is just self defeating . Mitch McConnell along with Eric Cantor , Paul Ryan , and an obscure fellow who answers to happy hour as Boehner are the towers of virtue that we either talk to , or forego the pleasure of drawing them into attempts to modify their belligerence .
If in reading other styles rooting about trying to understand the different approaches to policy , you may be reminded that a good portion of the country subscribed to the illusory ideas behind the half termed ones tweet about "The Affordable Care Act" , and the supposed death panels counseled within . This brought to you by a shade of grey that installed gunsights on her ideological opponents , only to discover that when the murderous intent worked , reloading meant something about landscaping .
It seems to be then a marginally better idea to pretend that the nations highest officials are at least at an even chance to care more about governing , than about their image . Insufferable as it is , until something better comes along it is an approximation of the best we have .
At the very least we will have understood the reason for our failure , step by step , rather than awakening one morning unprepared for the angels trumpeting salute , bombastically declaring our hopelessness , and a coming deluge .
One really has to give little Kapo Eric credit for his unceasing efforts to expose the ancient anti-Semitic slur that all Jews are really smart.
/snark
"Kapo": a term for Jews who collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. In my book, a good description of any Jew who would be a Republican.
Shooter, so what should we cut from the budget? I'm for cutting defense, corporate welfare and farm subsidies. What about you? All I hear from Republicans is the need to cut Social Security and Medicare. I'll believe Republicans are interested in spending cuts when one of them votes to cut government spending in their district , or in the case of a senator, cutting spending for their state. Otherwise, it's just empty talk.
1% across the board would be just fine. Think the nation would crumble and fall for the want of 1%? I don't.
if it appears the house majority leader has no idea what he's talking about, then the host of meet the press has a responsibility to introduce his propaganda to facts. why should he be allowed to spew nonsense unchecked?
Because he gets paid to do it...David Gregory has ruined a great show in record time...the corporate media will not give in to evidence based facts for their shills...and the shills will not be honest...it doesn't matter the network...the whole idea is to make money off of dishonest dialog....there are a few who don't but they are being drowned out by the megaphone of big bucks...
Given that the host of "Meet The Press" doesn't have the brains to find the zipper on his fly with both hands on a clear day with a two-hour advance notice, I doubt we will ever see Dancin' Dave do anything involving intelligence, skill, talent, or ability. How that worthless braindead piece of scum I scrape off my shoe ever got where he is...
My mistake - he's doing just what his corporate owners want.
Cantor's picture is beside the definition of "weasel" in the dictionary.
And to think that I thought of him as a dung beetle...
The Wolverine is an endangered species , whereas the only danger Eric Cantor faces is he accidentally may stumble , and reveal he knows , and has always known the truth . This would be difficult to explain to the Wolverines who are accustomed to nothing but a certain inalterable truth , kill or be killed .
Cantor is hailed as a great leader , a truly endangered species . Never fear Virginia ! Cantor and his ilk can believe what they will , but dear old Eric will never be known as more than just another hack .
It might be better , despicable as it is , to express that the loaded nonsense that has no beginning and no end is directly attributable to the same characters who do all the pointing .
Finger pointers meet projection , shame , meet your owners . Both embarrassments confined to the party of denial , the political party of the USA that just doesn't care , the GOP .
One thing that we definitely know about Cantor is that if he is remembered in history, it will be as a big douche.
He respects women so much that he continues with the GOP's WAR ON WOMEN.
Good job, Cantor. With your continued efforts, it will certainly be a really long time before another Republican walks into the White House as President.
Nothing shooter242 can say will change this FACT.
Canotr's picture is also right beside the definition of the term "Kapo" - a Jew who collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust, to end up in the last cattle car to Auschwitz.
Can you believe that a woman actually had children with this man?
Can we really be sure she isn't a "Stepford wife" and they aren't "Stepford children"?
"All things considered, it appears the House Majority Leader has no idea what he's talking about."
Oh, he knows. He doesn't give a damn, and since lying hasn't cost the GOTP their jobs, they figure that the sheeple will continue to lap it up. Exhibit A - look at Blankman's "defense".......
If the Dems cannot recommend a tax increase every three months, how come the Republicans can recommend a tax cut every other day?
Keep punchin' bflynch , yah got 'em on the ropes !
And despite repeated requests, repubs have yet to identify the cuts they want to make. They whine and wheedle constantly that it's up to the president to identify the cuts that they want to make. They haven't got the backbone to admit they want big cuts in social programs, because they know their own constituents are strongly against them. Beyond that, they steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the fact that simply cutting spending on those social programs doesn't make the problems disappear. Making the kinds of cuts that repubs rant about in a suitably fuzzy manner would turn this country into a land where the elderly end up homeless and dying without Social Security or Medicare, where the poor end up dying from easily treatable medical conditions without Medicaid, and families of the unemployed are turned out hungry into the streets without unemployment benefits and food stamps. As the saying goes, every nation is one meal away from revolution.
If Republicans identify the cuts they want to make, then it would be the same as handing the Dems the 2014 elections on a platter. But if Dems and the President propose the cuts, then Republicans get to run against those cuts when the truth is that the really want those cuts. Truth is a hindrance to reelection of Republicans.
Exactly. I love the idea of spending cuts, especially from the Pentagon. I can even see cuts in social spending, as long as the person proposing the cuts can tell me how they will address the issues that the cut social programs deal with at the present time. If you want to cut Medicare, show me how you will address the healthcare issues of the elderly without just hanging them out to dry. Personally, I feel pretty certain that we could cut healthcare costs tremendously just by changing how doctors are paid. I get a salary, as do many people in this country. Many more are paid an hourly rate. Yet doctors get paid by the procedure, which has led to significant issues of healthcare fraud by doctors who care for nothing more than making money. If a salary is good enough even for CEOs and Wall Streeters, then why not a doctor? Works great in other countries.
I just bought a special pair of Wingnut Glasses... They allow me to see the knives sticking out of the backs of these weasels. Cantor has an amazing amount of cuttlery protruding from his backside, Boehners fingerprints are clearly visible...
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you
in time - It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
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Oh the eternal optimism of the lad shot down in front of his house with his wife by a fan !
FRP: All we can do is imagine... Just imagine what a man of that caliber would have to say about the times we live in...
Sometimes the taste of salt is bright , and other times dark . It is our time to carry on , regardless ...
Looking for a way to get a hold of someone on TRMS staff. I'm a Soldier serving in Afghanistan, where civilian internet service is excrutiatingly slow, and streaming media is banned on military networks. Need to figure out a way to get copies of the show. If anyone can record and send me disks, I'll gladly pay and appreciate the chance to sustain my appetite for intelligent, comprehensive, and unabashedly liberal analysis of American politics. Please help.
Thanks Steve.
The one question Gregory did ask , had a pretty stunning result tho , after Cantor rattled off how important it was for washington dc to help "joe average out of a job " , repeating what his speech from that GOP policy gathering last week , Gregory ask " what legislation does cantor and his house support that would addrss that issue ? " .... Cantor just sat there with a blank look on his face , then just hit the " romney repeat " never ending loop button
Cantor came off looking like an idiot who was trying to play the smart people in the room , that GOP snake oil like this can garner 47% of the vote is stunning
Well, Obama blew the "fiscal cliff" negotiations. Period. This country is going to rue the day 82% of the irresponsible Bush tax cuts were made permanent by Obama. Massively irresponsible.
And he stupidly set up the politics to work out just like the goobers are playing now. I told ya so.
Disjointed: So this is an Imperial Presidency? One man did all that? There was some other sort of deal, right? Then Obama came riding in and unilaterally blew it up? Wow I was unawares that this man had such nefarious and dangerous plans... and that he was so gosh darn competant in getting em implemented...
Is my little impotent Democratic stalker, Lebowsky Dud, as truly clueless as he puts on display every time he posts a response? My guess is yes. Especially on matters economics and fiscal.
Weird how you play the wingnut game of pining everything on Obama Disgrunt. You must be used to communicating in the lowest common denominators. Try talking to a wall. Your off topic divebomb into this with drivel-level I told ya sooooo will hardly impress the ladies...