The House just passed the tax cut bill.

[Roselma]

I know we need unemployment benefits, but I can't help but think that these cut for the wealthy will come back to be an issue when it is time to discuss the budget. The Republicans will have an excuse to shut down the federal government in February.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. That is what they threatened to do today

so yes, they WILL, no, not threat, they will do it.

We are mow officially at crisis point. I am sure most people here don't get why YET. They will, I hope, soon.

[kentuck]

5. I think the Democrats should change the filibuster rule to 55 votes.

They will still be in charge of the Senate after the new year. 60 is an impossible obstacle to overcome during these difficult times. They will still need Republican help to stop a filibuster but it will be nowhere near to impossible as it is now.

They are playing games with people's lives and they will continue to play games until they are stopped. There is no one or no institution capable of holding them responsible for their actions. Once upon a time, we had a press...

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. That would be one way to do it

will see if they do this on the first day of the new Congress.

[OrwellwasRight]

2. not only that

but they've made the first ever de-linking of social security from pay as you go; they WILL extend these again, with Obama's signature, in an election year, and now they will have an excuse to cut away at soc Sec, Medicare, education, transportation, take your pick

sometimes people deserve what they get; if they don;t want real leaders who tell the truth, well, then they get

[Roselma]

12. that is a serious concern. I think we should recognize

that SS and Medicare are going to be under assault.

[Petrushka]

25. There's NO excuse to cut away at Social Security . . . because it hasn't contributed to the deficit.

There are dozens of articles on the web making it clear that Social Security is doing just fine.
Here's a link to one of many: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/31-9

[glinda]

29. Yes but they want your money. All of it as fast as they can capitalize on it.

[Jefferson23]

3. Two years ago I would never have believed this could possibly happen. n/t

[Lasher]

20. Me either, I'm stunned.

A Democratic President, Senate and House of Representatives just extended the Bush tax cuts. I never believed they would do that for any reason whatever. I don't recognize my party anymore.

There is something good in this. I am becoming less of a political junkie every day.

[kath]

27. It really is absofuckinlutely incredible that "Democrats" would do this.

It's not that many of us are leaving the party, it's that the party has left us.
I'm also feeling that I need to tune out, before I go batshit crazy with frustration and disgust.

[Jefferson23]

34. It is hard to swallow, and what we have is an up hill battle we have not

had the likes of before. I don't know what to say any longer.

[glinda]

30. Did anyone notice the piss poor coverage on SS risks and also that that was

hardly ever brought up as a reason for disagreement on passage. The Dems are guilty of this now also. Why did they do this to us?

[Lasher]

32. The catfood commission has been laying low.

That won't last for long.

[AlabamaLibrul]

4. The Bush-Obama tax cuts are official now

We're fucked.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

6. You had to know they would

I believe the fuss was just a lot of grandstanding - with exception of perhaps Sanders.

[pleah]

7. And, the rich will keep getting richer.

The poor and middle class take another bullet.

[elleng]

8. Passed with any amendments, or 'clean?'

[Roselma]

13. I don't believe any amendments were passed. They were

voted on though.

[kath]

28. No amendments whatsoever?! So much for "fighting", eh?

[Lasher]

33. Some House Democrat was talking big earlier about the estate tax cut.

Guess it sailed through so they won't make Paris Hilton cry.

[kath]

36. They do a lot of talking about "oh, we're really going to fight this",

but then it never, ever, ever happens.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

:puke: :puke:

[AlabamaLibrul]

14. No amendments. Came from the Senate, was passed as such, and is headed to the WH

end of transmission

[unblock]

9. any chance unemployment benefits will be made permanent?

or general funds subsidation of payroll tax holiday?

not in our wildest dreams.

unemployment benefits will expire as soon as the economy shows marginal improvement.
the payroll tax holiday might be made permanent but the key component of general funds subsidization of social security will expire, and will lead to a (further) reduction of benefits, and ultimately reduce the program to a joke or lead to a complete repeal.

but the tax cuts for the rich?
oh, THOSE are the ones we'll talk about making permanent.

what a screwed up government we have.

[defendandprotect]

19. 99'ers got nothing -- they're simply to be disappeared, evidently -- !!

They should start taxing the hell out of corporations to pay for benefits

for ALL the unemployed until they ALl have jobs!!

[sad sally]

22. don't be surprised if the unemployment benefits turn into loans

that WILL have to be repayed.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

[LSK]

10. 277 - 148???

That what I heard?

[AlabamaLibrul]

11. Yup - and the 148 are being pretty loud right now about it

end of transmission

[Roselma]

16. Hensarling (apparently voted Nay) has just blamed the

Democrats for putting Social Security at risk. What a jerk! It is only at risk if all of the Congresscritters let it be. Also, he made a comment that this furthers nothing - that people want paychecks not unemployment checks. Well duh...what a jerk! Of course people want to work. So why in the heck have the Republicans done everything in their power to assure that the economy stays in the crapper?

[Lasher]

24. Roll Call 647 results

Here's a link to the roll call results: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll647.xml

My stupid Democratic rep voted yes. I asked him to vote no. That's OK, he doesn't have to vote the way I want. And I don't have to vote the way he wants.

[Jefferson23]

35. My congressman Jim Himes voted yes too :( n/t

[TheKentuckian]

31. You want to bet Social Security on Congresscritters? For a lousy ass 2% temporary break?

There is no valid excuse for not only accepting an absurd Republican notion, pushed every damn year, but actually counting it as OUR win????

Are you fucking kidding me? With a TeaPubliKlan House commanded by Sir John of fucking Orange?


This is a huge bet, with shitty odds, and minimal returns. Especially since somehow the Republicans used the Jedi mind trick on Obama and apparently got a concession for their evil idea to defund Social Security and make it a deficit issue.

I wonder what we had to exchange for that 100 billion dollar "boon" for our side?

Sorry, it just isn't really our job to have faith or whatever because the way the tracks get laid is a pretty good clue where the train will go.

And

If it wasn't temporary then Social Security is in deep shit.

[neverforget]

15. Next up for the Republicans: Starve Social Security and slash the non-Defense

budget items because of the tax cut fueled deficit. Nice trap.

[defendandprotect]

18. Obama's deals with GOP are destroying the party ....

When was this deal actually made with the GOP, before or after the election?

And these are the deals we know about --- !!

There are also the back room deals with Big Pharma to ensure no Medicare "negotiation"

on drug prices --

and the back room deals with private Health Care Industry to assure them there would be

no "public option."

Anyone think there might be deals we don't know about -- ?

[DeSwiss]

21. There is only one issue.

- Will we stand or lie down?

"So if we are talking change through revolt, we're necessarily talking about deconditioning because the thing we fear already has a life deep in our own consciousness. Deconditioning from cultural ignorance is at the heart of any insurrectionary politics. Deconditioning also involves risk and suffering. But it is transformative, freeing the self from helplessness and fear. It unleashes the fifth freedom, the right to an autonomous consciousness. That makes deconditioning about as individual and personal act as is possible. Maybe the only genuine individual act.

Once unencumbered by self-induced and manufactured cultural ignorance, it becomes clear that politics worldwide is entirely about money, power and national mythology, with or without some degree of human rights. America still has all of the above to one degree or another. Yet for all practical purposes, such as advancing the freedom and the well being of its own people, the American republic has collapsed. Of course, there is still money to be made by the already rich. So the million or so people who own the country and the government use their control to convince us that there is no collapse, just economic and political problems that need to be solved. Naturally, they are willing to do that for us. Consequently, the economy is discussed in political terms, because the government is the only body with the power to legislate, and therefore render the will of the owning class into law.

But politics and money are never going to fill what is essentially a public vacuum that is moral, philosophical and spiritual. (The latter was instantly recognized by fundamentalist Christians, disfigured by cultural ignorance, as they may be.) Not many ordinary Americans talk about this vacuum. The required spiritual and philosophical language has been successfully purged by newspeak, popular culture, a human regimentation process masquerading as a national educational system, and the ruthlessness of everyday competition, which leaves no time to contemplate anything.

Still, the void, the meaninglessness of ordinary work and the emptiness of daily life scares thinking citizens shitless, with its many unspeakables, spy cams, security state pronouncements, citizens being economically disappeared, and general back-of-the-mind unease. Capitalism's faceless machinery has colonized our very souls. If the political was not personal to begin with, it's personal now. Some Americans believe we can collectively triumph over the monolith we presently fear and worship. Others believe the best we can do is to find the personal strength to endure and go forward on lonely inner plains of the self. Doing either will take inner moral, spiritual and intellectual liberation. It all depends on where you choose to fight your battle. Or if you even choose to fight it. But one thing is certain. The only way out is in."

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/12/america-y-ur-peeps-b-so-dum.html">~Joe Bageant, "America Y UR Peeps B So Dum?"

K&R

[Hardrada]

23. As Richard Boone remarked to Paul Newman in "Hombre"

"What do you think Hell is going to look like?"

[RagAss]

26. The rotting of the American corpse has begun !

[Lucky 13]

37. Can someone please describe: "Shut down the federal government"

What does that mean, exactly? I mean, TSA is the government. FBI and CIA are the government. FEMA is the government.