and now cue the "failure of leadership from Obama and the Democrats." Boehner will jump on this as a demonstration that the Senate hasn't done anything and Obama cannot lead. It really is a great racket. Boehner condemn D's for not doing anything while quietly going to McConnel and saying "hey make sure you filibuster anything so we can keep criticizing."

All goes right back to 09 their goal now of course is to keep Obama to a "two term president." but seriously they just want to grind government to a halt so in 2014 they can point to a failure to get anything done.

By 2014 republicans will have stolen election processes anyway.

we should have stopped them in...(future messages when we have one party rule from republican manipulations) Thus the round table collapses from within.

Fillibuster rules.

Again.

Tell me again why we don't demand radical reform of senate rules needed to transform it back to the majority rule body the founders intended?

We should have stopped the Confederacy in 1865. Permanently.

I think the reason that the filibuster was not reformed in 2013 is simply, why? What would filibuster reform have accomplished other than providing republicans with ammo for the 2014 election (i.e. Dem's trampled on a historic sacred Senate rule.) Think about it, the recalcitrant house would never have passed something that the democratic senate passed anyway. Ergo, it would have played out like this, Dem's cannot pass anything due to the GOP house. Dem's changed the rules to try and make it so they could pass laws. During the campaign the GOP would have been able to say "Democrats executed a power grab and had complete utter control of government for 2 years and were unable to accomplish anything."

While I agree, don't pat yourself on the back too hard. After all, this was a 99.999999999% sure thing.

We rush once more to brink of fiscal doom,
A chronic cause designed to plague our nation.
No longer do adults seem in the room,
But spoiled children bent on sequestration.
Boehner blames Obama for leading friction,
But touted it in PowerPoint presentation.
Boehner worries more of keeping his position
Than leaving the nation mired in frustration.
His gerrymandered district seems secure,
So losing power as Speaker's his only threat.
He only gains when others feel unsure,
Maintaining fear's his safest policy yet.
Boehner wants the fear and loathing to fester,
In self-inflicted wound known as 'sequester'...

It's Boehner's Sequester, NOT Obama's!

We simply cannot continue to run our country this way. We can't continue lurching from one self inflicted crisis to another! We need to focus on jobs and helping the middle class get back on its feet. That's the engine that drives the economy!

We need revenue, too, and the GOP refuses to back this new proposed Wall Street tax which is great and is being used successfully in Europe. It hurts no one and brings in much needed revenue. But, Oh, no they can't do it. It is a TAX!

We are in a war. This is madness. They won't stop until all we have in our government is a military! Nothing else, just defence. That is a crazy idea and yet they persist in it. Starve the beast. That's it. No taxes.

This T-Party takeover needs to end before we are a third rate, third world country. Europe and Asia are watching us and their expression is one of shock.

Some countries, who hate us, are seeing how vulnerable we are becoming and are licking their chops. That is a real concern.

The lunatics cannot continue to run the country. They are doing a great deal of harm.

David,#1.8

True, but their propaganda machine will have President Obama owning it when this is over.

Never underestimate their machinations. Their philosophy is, "If you tell a lie often enough, people will believe it." I am afraid there is a lot of truth in that.

I am still waiting for the media to do its job to call them out on these lies.

I don't like the sloppy terminology in this blog post, nor the article it quotes from. This Democratic proposal would have "passed" the Senate with a vote of 51 to 49. It didn't "need" 60 votes to pass. It was filibustered by the GOP to prevent a vote on the substance, because they suspected and feared it might pass, because they don't want it to pass, because they don't want any such bill to pass, at all. They appear to think that they might cause a recession, and they seem just fine with that, suspecting that bad economic news will be good for them in the 2014 midterms.

Let's get more precise, and lay the blame more squarely, shall we?

Mitch McConnell: What an absolute horror of a human being.

read it again, genius

I too , em a geenious .

mee to.

Snaps! This too shall pass.. (not in the House of course, nor the Senate, I meant the House and the Senate shall pass)

And I thought I was the only one smoking dope.

deb - might want to add 3 0's to your number. the pop of the US alone is about 339,000,000

And here I thought you were making an intemperate comment about Boehner and McConnell screwing over the prevailing desire for representation of the American peoples .

Deb what the hell are you talking about? Men having babies? What rock did you pull that out from under?

I think Deb may well be referring to the Republican obsession of controlling womens' wombs, thereby causing women to have more children... Though I could be wrong lol

Your right Frooble thought it would be a good idea for the Republicans, they always want to seem to demand unrealistic things for people. I thought I could help them out with a real potential one. Wouldn't you love to just see some pregnant men? It would help create jobs too. Wardrobe designers, a whole new healthcare addition, and so many more career opportunities.

Why dangerous?

McConnell can't sang .

OMG......how can anyone or anything be more dangerous to this country,

than Mcconnell?????

If Judd were to defeat him, she wouldn't be taking his leadership position as her own. She would just be keeping him out of it. And that, alone, mitigates the danger.

I've never heard Ashley sing, but she probably can carry a tune having had her mom, Naomi, and sister Wynonna in the house. She's an actress. She was raised in Kentucky, graduated from the University of Kentucky, and is even a Kentucky Colonel, but the right-wing line is that she's a Tennessean carpetbagger because Wynonna gave her a farm there in the '90s.

I'd bet she's a fair singer, she hardly ever uses a stunt double in movies.

I like Wynonna's singing and the duo "the Judds" is a little twangier than I like, but the voices are wonderful and I did enjoy Wynonna's concert. My spouse is a big country fan, though.

I know Ashley Judd would probably not try to undermine the entire economy and make us all suffer because she wanted to make the President a one term President as priority one.

But IF she runs and wins, I doubt she would be Majority or Minority Leader.

Sandy,

I don't care if she can or cannot sing. I don't care if she has an IQ of 50 or 160. I don't care if she can or can't act. I don't even care if she does not speak a word of English. I don't care if she knows nothing about politics! I don't care if she is an alien from another planet. I don't care about anything but her replacing McConnell.

I'd replace him with my cat if I could. He is really dangerous. He is a bad person.

Exactly what I was thinking Alva. Another filabuster Mr. Reid. How long has that "handshake" been in effect? Two filabusters already Mr Reid,you wuss!

Perhaps you should look to this article for a clue. Notice the names of the "Democrat" Senators that refused to raise one more dime of revenue? If these "Democrats" won't even vote to allow debate on this balanced compromise, what makes you think they would hitch on to fillibuster reform? Yet you folks drone on about Harry Reid being somehow this evil entity that unilaterally guaranteed all of us misery. Harry Reid simply did not have the votes for fillibuster reform. If it makes you feel better, go ahead and keep saying the same thing over and over. But to assume Landrieu, Pryor, and Hagen would be on board with something even Barbara Boxer voiced reservations about is not being honest with yourself.

As long as the Republicans have a filibuster, they retain control. We all know it's not supposed to work that way yet, it's come to this.

The Republicans have made up their mind to shoot the hostage now.

Reid is partially responsible for this and he flipping knows it. He'll go home and sleep tonight while most of America worries about the future.

Must be nice to have a good paying job that allows you to do absolutley NOTHING everyday.

it shows what a spineless leader on the senate we got so sorry that i vote dem too

Yeah, how is that gentlemen's agreement working? Do ya think Harry has got the message...there ae no gentlemen in the Republican Party.

Seriously, who here is butt hurt about the sequestration? I hear tangents like Deb blathering about men harboring fetuses in their bellies and people crying about filibuster reform. Someone prove me wrong on the conservative arguments.

1. Obama originally signed off for the sequestration on the last time he was politicizing why he can't figure out a budget.

2. The military budget this year is still more then last year even with the cut.

3. Tell me exactly, exactly, how many days Harry Reid has not produced a budget *i'll allow one sided excuses for this one.

I love reading comments on here, it's just gold. If only it was enough to pay off our deficit.

I'm waiting the day some of you come out of the woodwork supporting NAMBLA, and Agenda 21 policies, based on irrational emotional arguments marinated in fallacy. You morally dead sheep huggers.

How's that for a tangent?

Kenneth, it sounds like a tangent that reveals more about you and your assumptions than anything about what is actually happening. On your third point, nothing can pass the Senate because of permanent filibusters. This accounts for the Senate's not passing budgets other than - you know - the Budget Control Act of 2011. As for your second point, are you sure that's a republican point? Republicans have been mixed on that issue both calling the cuts crippling and draconian and welcoming them.
On your first point, Obama signed off on the sequestration proposal to solve the debt ceiling crisis. You know the same one that never occurred under the Bush administration because back then, Republicans had no problem raising debt limits. It was a republican politicization of an issue (the Full Faith and Credit of the US) that had never been at issue before and caused the downgrade of American debt.

So there are the points of your tangent spoken to more eloquently than random proclamations of being "butthurt".

It would please me greatly if you would now take the time to acknowledge that the Republicans can obstruct and do via filibuster, and in this case, the presence of a vote for cloture with a majority PROVES that Democrats had a compromising plan with enough votes to pass and the Republicans in the Senate hold responsibility for the failure of a majority supported bill to pass.

Additionally, even in the gerrymandered house, there are enough votes for majority approval of laws to correct this problem with compromise, but they don't have the majority of Republicans. If Boehner were to bring compromise resolutions to the floor, we could pass legislation and be out of this mess if they simply didn't bother adhering to the Hastert Rule.

Have a great day!

Edit: Frankly I blame Harry Reid. He is a feckless spineless idiot for thinking that any handshake would be respected by Republicans. Because of his weakness and fear, the Senate remains broken.

Thanks again, Reid. You could have fixed this and the "F" word wouldn't have been so powerful anymore. :(

1. When the choice is destroy the economy or "sign off on the sequester" then you chose the sequester. Note that Boehner and most of the repubs in the House also signed off on the sequester because it was 98% of what they wanted. You do remember that Obama wanted half cuts, half revenue, but it ended up all cuts. Doesn't that make it Boehner's sequester?

2. I haven't heard anyone on this board complaining about the military cuts other than that they weren't deep enough.

3. The Senate doesn't do budgets. That comes from the House. So far the House hasn't produced anything resembling a realistic budget. All they've done is total farces that range from Ryan's Randian wet dream to even worse.

There is a reason that republicans are well known for a lack of connection to reality. How they do it without massive chemical assistance I'll never understand.

How do you "pay off" a deficit? NAMBLA is quite the diversion. Agenda 21, like the other conspiracy nut bugaboo, the New World Order, came up in Poppy Bush's term of office. It suggests to plant trees and keep the water clean so you have something to drink and irrigate your crops with. What it isn't is a treaty that has any force of law. It exists nowadays mainly to flush out the wackadoodles in the audience.

Reid botched this when he didn't enact real filibuster reform. I bet he is regretting any deal that he had with Republicans.

We all should know by now to never deal with TPubs, they will turn it against us in the blink of an eye.

Thank you. I was thinking the same thing, but it's not just spell check, either. Missing words and a whole confusing misstatement about the votes in favor/against the first option. Maybe someone else needs to proofread before the Post button is hit?

Sorry, I know you all are under time pressure to get the articles out. Just saying someone might be willing to give it a once-over first.

The cost of Christmas past ...

What I would appreciate is someone, anyone, explain to me how the president, any President, is responsible for spending, any spending. If you have just the basic unbderstanding about our three(3) branches of government, you have to know that the Administrative branch does not spend money, nor does the Judicial branch. Only the Legislative branch, both houses of Congress, that being the House and Senate, spends money and all money bills originate in the house. The House is controlled by the Republicans and the Senate by the Democrats but, all bills that end up ion the Senate need this new Super majority of sixty (60) votes to pass and there are only 51 Democrat Senators! So, yuou could say that both Houses are controlled by the republicans as long as the Republicans in the Senate fillabuster any bill. Therefore "SPENDING" is controlled by the Republicans. There is only a few exceptions and that is when a President starts an unfunded war that last over a decade! So Why is President Obama being called on as the "spender" Just what has the Republicans let him spend? God-get educated America!

I hope you're right about the memory part, LC. But I can't think of one time in our history when something bad has been blamed on Congress. There was the Congress Harry Truman called the Do-Nothing Congress, but it's not as if people now think they caused unemployment or started a war. It was just Harry's funny little name for them.

No, what I think Republicans are counting on is that the anemic recovery, numerous trips to the brink and an exploding national debt will all be hung around President Obama's neck in voters' minds. And as long as we have this ridiculous tick-tock reporting from even the middle-of-the-road media, low-information voters aren't likely going to dig for the truth themselves. It's a despicably low political trick, is what it is.

LC - I too hope that you're right about the American people's memory, but some how, I won't hold my breath in anticipation. No as much as I am angry with the obstructionists in Congress - the American people put them there and so maybe a bit more pain inflicted by those same representatives onto WE the PEOPLE might awaken the sheeple.

I wish people would stop calling people "low information" voters. They are and always will be lazy ignorant people!

Yeah Zora, unfortunately we put the idiots in office....but know this: We damn sure will get them kicked out ;) The GOP days are numbered and yet, they just keep shooting themselves in the foot. I don't know how many more nails they can fit on their coffin...2014 is not going to come soon enough....

Could not agree more!

The GOP doesn't worry about most of their seats because they are gerrymandered to insure re-election. There are not enough Dems in those districts to overcome the predominately GOP voters. So, they just continue on their quest to bring the government to it's knees. They just don't want government. And, soon they will get just that! However, when the government does grind to a halt, we won't be able to defend ourselves anymore or keep essential programs in place either. Most of these yahoos have no cognizance of what a government does, they just don't like some regulations and are willing to destroy the the very nation to pretend that they will get their pet regulations repealed! How utterly stupid, ignorant, and dangerously uninformed! The people keep electing GOP govenors that gerrymander districts that that end up causing all these problems. Until you can change the fillibuster and gerrymandering, we are surely going to see more of what we have seen in the last 4+ years and will then see an increase in voting suppression, destruction of the social network and everything that is America. Those stupid people who support this type of government in the name of business can't seem to figure out that if people don't have jobs and money to spend, that they can't support those businesses. The top 2% of rich people cannot support the myriad of businesses to the degree they need to be successful. Eventually, businesses will begin to fail and snowball into the greatest depression this world has ever seen. The rest of the world will go with us! Without social networks the Nation will succumb to chaos! Well done GOP and their supporters!

LC cares, it is obvious that the American public have short term memories, ala 2010 mid-term elections that switched the majority in the House and enough to cause fillibusters in the Senate, from listening to the repeated fabrications by the GOP/TPers saying it was Obama who wasn't doing enough for America fast enough.

When the Republicans see how many votes are lost for their next election, then they will come to their senses. Their donors are the big aerospace and government contracting firms, so I think they will do something after the sequester goes into effect...

Bruce Garwood, #10.6

Spot on with your comment. This is a very dangerous situation. Our country is being held hostage by a handful of lunatics in the GOP House.

When you look at the list of speakers at this years C-Pac, it is chilling. Even Alan West and Sarah Palin are speakers. They have lost their moral compass, assuming they had one to start with, which is debatable.

Their moral compass... points straight downward!...

You could not be any more correct! That is it in a nutshell! Well said!

No.
Still, after the split, you can have the Repubs all to yourself.

I guess these fools have forgotten who they are suppose to be working for!! Not the few extremely rich (like themselves perhaps), but for the people that are living check to check if they are lucky and are the workers, the backbone of this country. How can they let this go right over the edge and into automatic sequestration cuts set to begin tomorrow. They (Rep) didn't like a compromise, yet they didn't come up with anything of their own. What a group of dumb asses! Issue is they are not going to have to $$PAY$$ for not avoiding this automatic sequestration!

"But that argument will be misleading, to put it mildly. Senate Democrats came up with a credible compromise, brought it to the floor, held a vote, and found that a majority of the chamber supports the Democratic alternative. House Republicans, meanwhile, refused to craft a compromise, chose not to bring a bill to the floor, didn't hold a vote, and were afraid to find out whether a GOP alternative could get majority support.

The bottom line hasn't changed all month: one side is open to negotiation and compromise; one side isn't. When blame-both-sides-for-everything pundits consider who bears responsibility for failure, it seems no other detail has any relevance at all."

Typical politics as usual. 'Screw the American Citizens, because we are here in Washington for our own goals and personal agendas.'
As Mark Anthony said speaking at Caesars funeral, "Brutus said Caesar (Democrats) was ambitious, and Brutus (Republicans) is an Honorable Man!!" *sarcasm* Well, we all know that Brutus was the one that stabbed Caesar to death & always smiling and acted as though he cared and was his friend!

As a resident of Staten Island, NY you are probably right on the federal aid showdown. Our Rep, Grimm (R) is already splitting off. Combine that with Peter King and Christie you could have an explosive situation.

Since when has the public had any control via their 'opinions' with the Republicans? It would be nice if we did, but they don't care about us!

So McConnel has changed his single most important goal, and that of all national Republicans, to be keeping Obama from a third term?

There's nothing wrong with revising your goal when you realize the intial goal is unattainable.

i think a more proper punishment would be to restructure the congressional salaries to minimum wage since they failed us horribly. and every 90 days put them through evalutions just like every one of the little guys. if they don't meet our requirements - they don't get a 25 cent raise, instead - they get 1 strike against them. 3 strikes, they're fired and banned from running for office no matter what level for 5 years. after the 5 years, they may run again - if they get elected and fail the evaluation after their ban, it's a permanent ban - we need politicians that would work for the people and the planet, not the corporations, campaign donors, and destruction.

The jobs cut, then the lack of Head Start requires finding child care or quit job. Either way, double and triple whammy. Income lost. Revenue lost. Child loses. The lower end of the ladder pays again in order to keep the upper tiers fat.

If the president has the power to knife the salaries and benefits of the congress, he should do it, but I doubt he has the power to do that.

No one can change the pay of Congress until the next election. I don't know if that also applies to office expenses like paying staff and aides.