TomCADem
TomCADem's JournalEzra Klein - "Why Senate Democrats rejected the Collins deal"
The key problem with the Collins deal is that it sets as the starting point for negotiations the current sequestration levels of spending, which means that Republicans end up ahead.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/12/why-senate-democrats-rejected-the-collins-deal/
Second, the deal's delay of the medical device tax meant it was, in fact, a concession in order to reopen the government -- and Democrats think it's important to convince the GOP that they can't win anything through this kind of hostage taking.
Third, in a few months, we'd be back at another shutdown/debt ceiling debate, and there'd be no reason for the Republican Party to approach it any differently.
Behind these arguments is the fact that Senate Democrats believe the GOP is losing this fight, and badly. What they hope happens next is this: The GOP eventually caves on the debt ceiling and reopening the government for some period of time. Budget negotiations can, at that point, begin.
Senate Republicans Look to Jam Boehner
Source: National Review
Returning from their White House meeting with President Obama, some Republican senators said they are fed up with how Speaker John Boehner and the House GOP have handled the shutdown showdown and are ready to take charge of the debate.
“The House Republicans so far don’t want to get rid of the shutdown. I don’t know in what world we’re faring well under the shutdown, in terms of policy or politics. So, in that sense, yeah, I’d rather have the Senate” take charge, says Arizona senator Jeff Flake.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine is leading negotiations with Democrats over a bill to combine a government funding bill with the debt-ceiling increase along with repeal of the medical-device tax in Obamacare. House Republican leaders have shown a new sense of urgency to deal with Obama in part because of fear that Collins’s plan will gain steam, rolling the more conservative House position.
One scenario that would mirror how several standoffs between Boehner and Obama have ended since Republicans took control of the House in 2010 is for Senate Republicans to help pass a bill deeply disliked by House Republicans, after which political pressure would force Boehner to pass the bill largely with Democratic votes.
Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/361030/senate-republicans-look-jam-boehner-jonathan-strong
When I heard about the original House Plan, which entailed keeping the government shut down AND delaying the debt ceiling drama until just before the Holiday season AND barring the Treasury from taking any steps to avoid default, I thought OMG are Republicans seriously trying to kill their party by trying to drive the Nation into a Great Depression just before the Holidays?
I guess even Senate Republicans could no longer take this self-inflicted misery any longer, and are going to try to jam Boehner and House Republicans with a plan to end the shutdown and extend the debt ceiling. HOWEVER, this is the same tactic Senate Republicans took with immigration reform, but the Tea Party killed it, so no guarantee that this will work.
Edit to add: This is in a Republican publication, the National Review (William Buckley's magazine), which just goes to show just how deep the GOP civil war has spread.
Republicans Said to Insist on Conditions to End Shutdown
Source: Bloomberg
House Republicans offered a plan to raise the U.S. debt limit and end a partial government shutdown that would require the president to accept policy conditions attached to a spending measure, said two congressional aides.
Republicans sent a list of policy options to the White House following a meeting yesterday, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity. President Barack Obama has insisted that he won’t accept conditions for ending the shutdown, which is in its 11th day.
“There will be some matters that we’re discussing now that would be added to that, hopefully,” Representative Hal Rogers of Kentucky, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said in an interview today. “I hope there’s specific matters but that’s under discussion.”
House Republicans also want Obama to agree to a framework for future negotiations on long-term fiscal and health care policy. If that happens, the House could vote as soon as today on pushing the lapse of U.S. borrowing authority to Nov. 22 from Oct. 17, according to the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private offer.
Read more: http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-11/republicans-said-to-insist-on-conditions-to-end-shutdown.html
No surprise. Republicans are still holding hostages and refusing to end the shutdown.
No Quick Deal, but Offer by G.O.P. on Debt Shifts the Tone
Source: NY Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama and House Republicans failed to reach agreement on a six-week extension of the nation’s borrowing authority during a meeting Thursday at the White House, but the two sides kept talking, and the offer from politically besieged Republicans was seen as an initial step toward ending the budget standoff.
In statements afterward that struck the most positive tone in weeks of acrimony, House Republicans described their hour-and-a-half-long meeting with Mr. Obama as “a useful and productive conversation,” while the White House described “a good meeting,” though “no specific determination was made” about the Republicans’ offer. Both agreed to continue talks through the night.
People familiar with the meeting said that Mr. Obama pressed Republicans to reopen the government, and that Republicans raised the possibility that financing could be restored by early next week if terms for broad budget negotiations could be reached.
* * *
The president “didn’t say yes, didn’t say no,” said Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the House Budget Committee. He added, “We agreed to continue talking and continue negotiating.”
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/us/politics/debt-limit-debate.html?hp&_r=0
I think the fear is that a quick debt deal could actually operate to extend the government shutdown, since Boehner would then have to the well multiple times to get his crazy caucus to (1) support a short debt limit increase; (2) support a short CR; and (3) support a longer term debt limit increase and actually pass a budget for FY 2013-14. Boehner does not have nearly enough juice to pull this off without having several more economy busting fiscal cliff hangers. That being said, if Republicans can pass a clean short debt limit increase on their own, I don't see the President vetoing it, since at least Boehner can show that he can garner the support of the majority of his caucus.
End The Shutdown - Boehner Got Phone Call, Conversation and Meeting He Asked For
The MSM repeatedly allows Boehner to recite his Frank Lutz talking points about all he wanted to do was get a phone call, conversation or meeting with the President. Well, as of today, he will get all that. Indeed, in face saving move, Boehner has been calling the Thursday meeting a "negotiation." However, if Boehner reneges on his statements that he would allow a vote to reopen the government or raise the debt ceiling, will the media continue to allow Boehner to lie about how the President is not even speaking to him. I can almost imagine the press conference after the meeting where Boehner says that the President is refusing to meet with him with President standing in the same room saying, "I'm right here, John."
Also, will the media call this for what it is: extortion. Republicans don't want a negotiation. They are issuing demands that they must receive or they will shoot the hostage, which is the American economy.
John McCain Blames Tea Party For Government Shutdown
Source: Huffington Post
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blamed tea party Republicans for the government shutdown during a CNN interview on Wednesday, saying Congress never had a shot at defunding Obamacare.
“We started this on a fool’s errand, convincing so many millions of Americans and our supporters that we could defund Obamacare," McCain said.
While McCain didn't name names, he faulted members of Congress -- "tea partiers specifically" -- for wrongly telling "millions of Americans" that Obamacare can be defunded.
That "obviously wouldn’t happen until we had 67 Republican senators to override a presidential veto," McCain said.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/10/john-mccain-tea-party_n_4075052.html
This is what happens when the GOP constituency starts believing the Lutz talking points about the ACA being an existential threat as reality.
National Journal - "Ted Cruz Unskews the Polls"
This would be funny except for the fact that so many people are falling for this willful distortion of reality.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/ted-cruz-unskews-the-polls-20131009?mrefid=HomepageRiver
Those are all wrong, the Texas senator is telling his GOP colleagues, because he has his own poll, and it shows the GOP is winning.
As David Drucker reports at The Washington Examiner, Cruz argued to Republicans at a closed-door lunch on Wednesday that the campaign he led to shutdown the government over Obamacare has bolstered the GOP's political position, rather than hurt it. Cruz says he knows this because he paid for his own poll, conducted by his own partisan pollster, who was on hand to explain the results to his skeptical colleagues.
Despite all that, the poll was not much rosier than all public polls, showing that the public blames Republicans for the shutdown by a 7 point margin.
The Atlantic - "False Equivalence That Leans on Public Opinion Is Still False Equivalence"
Here is a nice article the destroys a National Journal writer's argument that relies on polls to justify false equivalency. If we relied on polls, then you could have a have a spirited debate as to whether the President was born in Kenya, but that does not mean that this fact is seriously in dispute.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/false-equivalence-that-leans-on-public-opinion-is-still-false-equivalence/280448/
Smash-cut to the government showdown: The last few weeks have seen a sort of media-insider debate (which I hope is interesting to people who aren't just media insiders) about whether journalists are wrong to blame both parties for a shutdown that seems rather obviously to be a Republican creation. Jim Fallows has obsessively tracked these instances of "false equivalence" or "pox on both houses" journalism that makes Democrats seem similarly blameworthy for a shutdown they're playing very little part in.
In a piece today for National Journal, Ron Fournier leans on public opinion to show that, no, in fact, both Republicans and Democrats deserve a big serving of blame for the shut-down government, because Americans think they're both to blame.
* * *
In other words, we can all agree that Republicans are responsible for the shutdown, but public opinion also blames the Democrats, and so in Fournier's own words "it is a pox on both houses."[/div]
Maddowblog - "Hostage takers disagree over ransom note"
The eleven o'clock news, of course, portrays this crisis as a dispute between the President and House Republicans. How about a dispute between the positions spouted by some House members within a 24 hour period?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/09/20884769-hostage-takers-disagree-over-ransom-note?lite
Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) said on Monday that he's prepared to block a debt-ceiling increase, consequences be damned, unless Democrats give him "a full delay or defund of Obamacare." Even if Democrats offered him changes to Social Security in exchange for nothing, the New Jersey Republican said, it wouldn't be enough to satisfy him.
Just 24 hours later, Garrett appeared on CNN and said he's prepared to block a debt-ceiling increase unless we "begin to address our entitlement problems."
* * *
More important, though, in the bigger picture, Republicans aren't just flailing, they're lost. They shut the government down last week, and they're prepared to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States next week. They freely admit they're prepared to impose self-inflicted wounds on Americans, on purpose, unless their demands are met.
And what are those demands? Even now, after months of planning and fiascos of their own making, the party's own leaders and members haven't the foggiest idea.
Kagan, now in a robe, argues again for campaign finance limits
Source: Reuters
Kagan, who argued the groundbreaking Citizens United case in September 2009 and then joined the nine-member court in August 2010, departed from her usual practice of waiting to jump into the give-and-take. Within the first five minutes of the hour-long session she began firing off worst-case scenarios at lawyers representing the latest challengers to federal campaign finance law.
The newest and youngest justice, Kagan, one of the court's four liberals, has been heard largely in her strategic questioning on the bench, notable in the 2012 healthcare dispute, and in her fiery dissents. With the five conservatives often controlling key cases, she is not writing for the majority. But there are likely to be many chapters ahead. She is only 53, and when her predecessor John Paul Stevens stepped down in 2010, he was 90.
The challengers in Tuesday's case, Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon and the Republican National Committee, contend that federal limits on the total contributions a person can make in a two-year election cycle violate political speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
In her questioning, Kagan raised the specter of an individual donor who stays within the base $5,000 limit for a Political Action Committee (PAC) but then - presuming the aggregate limits are lifted - contributes to 100 PACs. She theorized that money could be transferred to U.S. Senate candidates who would know of the original contributions and feel beholden to the contributors.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/09/us-usa-court-kagan-idUSBRE99804R20131009
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