Democratic lawmaker to introduce the "Stable Genius Act" which would require presidential candidates to undergo a mental health examination.

Rep. Brendan Boyle

Courtesy of The Hill:

A Democratic lawmaker says that he will introduce legislation that would require presidential candidates to undergo a mental health examination following a tweet from President Trump in which he praised himself as a "stable genius." 

Rep. Brendan Boyle's office said in a press release that the Pennsylvania Democrat would introduce the "Stable Genius Act" in the House on Tuesday. 

The act would require all presidential candidates to file a Federal Election Commission (FEC) report "certifying that he or she has undergone medical examination by the medical office under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy." 

Boyle said in the statement that American voters have the right to know whether a candidate has the mental fortitude to withstand the pressures of the White House.

Man do I love this!

It just seems like a no brainer that every American would want to know that their president is not a psychopath.

Right?

And hopefully they can have the law in place before 2020. 

Donald Trump finally, begrudgingly, signs Russia sanction bill into law.

Fine, I'll sign it. But I am not happy about it.

Courtesy of NPR:  

After being approved by overwhelming majorities in Congress, President Trump begrudgingly signed into law new sanctions against Russia on Wednesday. The move is in contrast with his frequently stated desire to improve relations with the country. The president also issued a signing statement where he declared that the legislation has a number of what he deems to be "unconstitutional provisions." 

The sanctions bill targets Russia's mining and oil industry, and aims to punish the country for interfering in the 2016 presidential election as well for its military aggression in Ukraine. In announcing that he'd signed the bill, Trump made his most definitive statement yet about Russia's interference in last U.S. presidential election. 

"I also support making clear that America will not tolerate interference in our democratic process, and that we will side with our allies and friends against Russian subversion and destabilization," he said. 

He also made clear however, that he has a number of qualms with the "seriously flawed" bill. Most notably, with the fact that it restricts his ability to ease sanctions without Congress' involvement. To waive sanctions, Trump has to send Congress a report explaining and justifying his decision, and lawmakers would then get 30 days to decide whether to allow the waiver. 

"The bill remains seriously flawed — particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch's authority to negotiate," Trump said, adding "The Framers of our Constitution put foreign affairs in the hands of the President. This bill will prove the wisdom of that choice."

Yes, well the framers may not have anticipated that there would someday be a president who was working as a double agent for an American adversary.

Perhaps the most important part of this bill is not the sanctions it places on Russia, but the sanctions that it places on Donald Trump's ability to undermine it.

That's right, the man living in the White House, "a real dump," has to be treated as a potential enemy of the state.

Apparently Trump was so upset about having to sign this bill that he would not even let the media cover it.

.@realDonaldTrump has signed Russia sanctions bill despite reservations given veto-proof majority had no choice no coverage permitted

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) August 2, 2017

Probably did not want them to catch him sobbing.

Trumpcare vote cancelled! Republicans simply do not have the votes.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The House will not vote on the Republican health care bill Thursday, a GOP aide said, further putting efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare in jeopardy. 

The decision came after multiple high-level and tense meetings at the White House and Capitol that failed to broker a compromise. 

House Speaker Paul Ryan abruptly postponed, for a second time, a scheduled press briefing, instead staying behind closed doors to negotiate. 

The conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members appear to hold the key to any agreement on a final bill, met with President Donald Trump earlier Thursday. The session started with a standing ovation for the President, but there was little obvious progress they could point to, a GOP source said. 

One senior administration official described the meeting with one word: "Intense."

Apparently Trump had been on the phones last night and today desperately trying to convince holdouts to vote on the bill, but in the end it was not enough.

You were given many lies with #Obamacare! Go with our plan! Call your Rep & let them know you're behind #AHCA ➡️ https://t.co/xAX4GJiO8z pic.twitter.com/qp90G49e0j

— President Trump (@POTUS) March 23, 2017

Trump has already stripped the bill down to its bare bones in order to get conservatives on board, making it essentially dead on arrival in the Senate.

Get a load of this courtesy of the New York Times:  

President Trump had agreed to many of the demands that the most conservative House Republicans had made, including ending requirements that health insurance plans provide a basic set of benefits like maternity care, emergency services, mental health and wellness visits.

I bet the bill still covers Viagra though. What do you want to bet?

I have no idea if Ryan and Trump will eventually be able to finally whip up the votes needed to pass this thing in the House, but there is no doubt that whatever pernicious piece of legislation passes muster with rabid Right will never make it through the Senate.

This thing is as dead as Trump's hopes of winning a second term.

Here is Nancy Pelosi schooling Donald Trump and Paul Ryan on how to get a bill passed.

Pelosi with 🔥🔥 for GOP decision to insist on vote today.

"Rookie's error, Donald Trump… Clearly you're not ready." pic.twitter.com/zBmTUtruxy

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 23, 2017

That my friends is an epic burn!

This new GOP health care bill screws Alaskans royally.

Courtesy of TPM:

This is the average difference in credits in 2020 for people buying insurance in marketplaces/exchanges under Obamacare and Ryan/GOP/Trumpcare. The big difference illustrated here is that in addition to making it dramatically harder to buy insurance, Trumpcare doesn't factor in how costs vary from state to state. 

So if you're from Alaska, you're screwed bigly - and pretty much everywhere else too, but a bit less.

Look we're Alaskans, we are quite used to paying exorbitant prices for just about EVERYTHING.  But this at least twice as much as everybody else in the country.

And if that were not bad enough, and trust me from an Alaskan standpoint it is, the new bill also depletes Medicaid at an accelerated pace.

Once again courtesy of TPM:

By repealing a payroll tax on high earners that provided a critical additional revenue stream for the Medicare trust fund, the GOP's proposed American Health Care Act would speed up the fund’s exhaustion by as many as three to four years, according to estimates from health care policy experts. 

“It’s clear, simple and undeniable that this bill would aversely affect the solvency of Medicare,” Paul Van De Water, a Medicare expert at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities told TPM. 

So even though Alaskans are already getting screwed, older Alaskans will get screwed even harder.

Not that the Republicans give two shits because they have long been dedicated to undermining every social program available to help those Americans in need.

So has this had any impact on support for this bill from Alaska's representatives?

Well Don Young has been largely silent on the issue, while Dan Sullivan has expressed an interest in keeping parts of Obamacare in place, but has not spoken publicly about his bill in particular.

Lisa Murkowski however HAS spoken about the bill and seems to be trapped between a rock and a hard place: 

Murkowski is not yet giving the house GOP leadership's plan her stamp of approval. 

“It's kind of premature to say I’m there or not there,” she said. 

She's one of four senators who sent a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expressing their concerns about the future of Medicaid. 

“We wanted to just make very clear that we want to be there for our constituents who have received the benefit of Medicaid expansion. Pulling the rug out from under those vulnerable populations is not really the direction we want to go,” explained the senator. 

Murkowski is troubled by parts of the new plan that would give the same tax credits to patients no matter what state they're from. 

“Our costs in alaska are higher than anywhere else in the country,” Murkowski noted.

I don't really see how any of these three can sign onto this bill and then be secure in their chances for reelection.  

There political opponents are sure to use a vote in favor of this bill to paint the three Republicans as heartless, cruel, and disconnected from the needs of their constituents.

But then again being heartless and cruel has certainly never cost Don Young very many votes. 

Alabama lawmakers pass bill treating abortion clinics like sex offenders.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

Alabama lawmakers passed two bills in the waning hours of their legislative session on Wednesday that could close two of the state's five abortion clinics and make it harder for women to receive abortions in their second trimester. 

One of the bills prohibits abortion clinics from operating within 2,000 feet of an elementary or middle school—the same restriction that applies to sex offenders. If Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signs the bill, it may force two of the state's five abortion clinics to close, including a clinic in Huntsville that is the only one providing abortion care in the northern half of Alabama. The clinic just moved to its current location, across the street from a school, in 2014, in order to comply with other abortion restrictions passed in Alabama in 2013. 

The sponsor of the bill, Alabama state Sen. Paul Sanford, likened the restrictions to those imposed on sex offenders. "We can put a restriction on whether a liquor store opens up across the street and make sure pedophiles stay away from schools," he told the Times Daily in February. "I just think having an abortion clinic that close to elementary-age school children that actually have to walk on the sidewalk past it is not the best thing." 

The second bill would ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure.

First off family clinics do not typically have "Abortion" on the sign in front of their buildings. So how would school children know unless somebody told them in order to start the indoctrination into their anti-abortion hate cult?

Secondly this is yet another example of one of the deeply red states essentially undermining the law of the land until it is all but non-existent.

And thirdly if somebody was serious about protecting young children by imposing a 2,000 foot perimeter it would be one that kept Republican lawmakers from crossing it, because let's face it when a young child is sexually assaulted that is the direction one should look first. 

Utah declares pornography a "public health hazard."

Courtesy of the BBC: 

The US state of Utah has become the first to declare pornography a public health risk in a move its governor says is to "protect our families and our young people". 

The bill does not ban pornography in the mainly Mormon state. 

However, it calls for greater "efforts to prevent pornography exposure and addiction". 

Pornography, the bill says, "perpetuates a sexually toxic environment" and "is contributing to the hypersexualisation of teens, and even prepubescent children, in our society". 

Further steps must be taken to change "education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal level" against what it calls an epidemic, but it does not suggest how changes should be implemented. 

The bill was signed by Republican Governor Gary Herbert, who said the volume of pornography in society was "staggering".

Yeah especially in Utah where researchers found in a 2009 that it was the number one consumer of online pornography.

So you can only imagine how this new law will be received by the oh so Mormon residents.

When will these people learn that suppressing sexual expression is never the answer?

Here's a little Bernie Sanders to start your day off right.

Courtesy of Facebook

Here is a little more about Sanders "College for All Act:" 

Titled the “College for All Act,” the bill would eliminate the $70 billion dollar tuition costs at all 4-year public colleges and universities. 

Under the plan, the Federal Government would cover 67% — $47 billion dollars each year — of the costs. 

States would be required to produce the remaining 33% of the costs, or 23 billion dollars.

Damn that sounds good.

You know the only reason I did not finish my college education was that I simply could not afford it, and was terrified of accumulating debt that I would never be able to pay off. 

I would given anything to have a program like this available back then.

Arizona state senator introduces idea of making church attendance mandatory.

Courtesy of KPHO:  

Each year a few ideas get proposed at the state Capitol that have people shaking their heads. 

This year: Mandatory church attendance. 

An Arizona state senator thinks it is a good idea for the American people. 

State Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, brought it up during a committee meeting Tuesday while lawmakers were debating a gun bill concerning concealed weapons permits, not religion. 

Allen explained that without a "moral rebirth" in the country, more people may feel the need to carry a weapon. 

"I believe what's happening to our country is that there's a moral erosion of the soul of America," she said. 

"It's the soul that is corrupt. How we get back to a moral rebirth I don't know. Since we are slowly eroding religion at every opportunity that we have. Probably we should be debating a bill requiring every American to attend a church of their choice on Sunday to see if we can get back to having a moral rebirth," she told the committee. 

Let me get this straight. The reason that people feel the need to carry guns in this country is because church attendance is down?

WTF?

Ultimately Allen decided to support the conceal carry bill with this simple to understand explanation:

"I'm going to vote yes that people who are responsible who have a CCW permit don't have to worry about their guns as they're out and about and doing business in whatever building they're in except ones that where they aren't allowed."

Oh I get it, she's a crazy person. 

Wisconsin lawmaker wants to do away with the 48 hour waiting period after purchasing a gun, used as cooling off period for those making emotional purchases. Cites inconvenience.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) is circulating a bill to eliminate the requirement enacted to allow for time to run background checks as well as for a “cooling off” period designed to help guard against acts of impulsive violence by purchasers. 

According Wanggaard, background checks are now almost instantaneous and the waiting period is a relic of the past. 

“Generally within the hour, they know whether or not someone can purchase the firearm, and by that time, you’re about finished up with your purchases in the store,” Wanggaard said. “This just doesn’t make any sense to keep this restriction on the books.” 

Wanggaard calls the 48-hours waiting period a “time tax.” 

“I can’t walk in a door and purchase one without having to come back again,” Wanggaard said. “There’s all the driving involved because that’s 45 minutes to where I purchase my firearms from where I live. So now it’s causing me more time and money to be able to do that.”

Yeah first there is all that waiting, and THEN the 45 minute drive back to the store. I mean who has that kind of time when there are people who need to be shot?

Domestic violence groups point out that the waiting period is not determined by the length of time a background check takes, but rather as a cooling off period to protect potential victims.  

“You have to ask yourself if someone wants a gun instantaneously or within an hour or two, why do they really need it that quickly?” said Tony Gibart, with End Domestic Violence Wisconsin. “It seems if someone needs it very quickly, chances are they are up to no good.”

Excellent point.

New bill in Texas would allow teachers to use deadly force against students in order to protect school property. Seriously?

Courtesy of The Houston Chronicle: 

Teachers would be able to use deadly force against students, and would be safe from prosecution, under legislation filed last week in the state House. 

The Teacher’s Protection Act by Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, would allow educators to use force or deadly force if they feel they need to protect themselves against a student or anyone else on school grounds. It also allows teachers to use deadly force to protect school property, and to avoid prosecution “for injury or death that results from the educator’s use of deadly force.”

To be clear here when they say "deadly force" they are talking guns. After all this IS Texas.

Apparently there is already a law in place that allows any adult to carry a gun on school grounds as long as they have permission from the principal. 

Look I am all in favor of allowing teachers to defend themselves against violence from students, and to protect others as well, but shooting an unarmed child, regardless of HOW big and violent they are, is simply insane.

And the idea that you could end their life simply because they got angry and broke a window or a computer is even more insane.

Things can be replaced, children cannot.

Which begs the question, "WTF is going on in Texas?"

Bill to ban marijuana sales in Anchorage fails. As well it should.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

An ordinance that would have banned commercial marijuana in Anchorage failed after four hours of public testimony and debate in Assembly chambers Tuesday night. 

The Assembly voted 9-2 just after 10 p.m. to kill the measure. Only members Amy Demboski and Paul Honeman supported the measure. 

Demboski introduced the proposal last month, hoping the city would take a “wait and see approach" as state lawmakers craft marijuana regulations. 

Yeah this lady just made the shit list of a whole lot of pot smokers in this town.

Fortunately for her they are all way too mellowed out to do anything aggressive, but they are totally thinking mean thoughts at her.

Keeping legal marijuana sales out of Anchorage, while they were taking place in other parts of the state, would have left us out of the potential windfall that the legalization will likely bring.

And THAT will definitely get people more than a little riled up. 

Instead of wasting time trying to put on the brakes the Assembly and other legislative bodies should be focused on implementing policies that will see this new opportunity implemented as seamlessly as possible.

Besides I want to try one of these new cannabis suckers.

I haven't ingested marijuana since the 70's and I hear these are the way to go.

Missouri lawmaker proposes legislation that would allow parents of public school students to opt out of classes teaching Evolution. Because you know, who needs science?

Courtesy TPM:  

A Missouri lawmaker has proposed what ranks among the most anti-evolution legislation in recent years, which would require schools to notify parents if "the theory of evolution by natural selection" was being taught at their child's school and give them the opportunity to opt out of the class. 

The bill had its first public hearing Thursday after being introduced in late January. 

State Rep. Rick Brattin (R), who sponsored the bill, told a local TV station last week that teaching only evolution in school was "indoctrination." 

"Our schools basically mandate that we teach one side," he told KCTV. "It is an indoctrination because it is not objective approach."

And as troubling as this is for Missouri schoolchildren, it is even more troubling that similar laws are being introduced all along the Bible Belt.

The bill is one of several anti-evolution proposals that have already appeared in statehouses across the country; the Daily Beast counted four states (Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Virginia) where legislation had been introduced. The proposals would allow for a range of approaches to evolution, from presenting a "debate" over evolution versus creationism to requiring that local school boards allow intelligent design to be included in biology courses.

However Missouri is still in the forefront of sabotaging their children's education.

But Brattin's bill appears to be the only one, and perhaps the first, that would mandate parental notification that their children were being taught evolution in school, the curriculum that most mainstream science teacher groups endorse. 

“It’s an absolute infringement on people’s beliefs,” Brattin told the Kansas City Star of requiring schools to teach evolution. “What’s being taught is just as much faith and, you know, just as much pulled out of the air as, say, any religion."

As scientific investigation provides more and more answers about our origins, and the origins of out planet and universe, we are seeing what can only be defined as a panicked response to somehow preserve the teachings of religion by protecting children from the influence of critical thinking.

In year passed, as many of you here have pointed out, there was NOT this great movement to attack science and it was felt that religion and science could live together in harmony.

However today with the climate change debate, the rise in non-theism, and new discoveries being made, seemingly on a daily basis, that disprove much of what is written in the Bible, there has arisen an orchestrated attack on Evolution specifically, and science in general, that threatens to undermine the very future of our country.

You know what sometimes is not made clear in discussions about Evolution is that human being benefited greatly from its discovery in way that many simply do not understand.

It provided a framework and model that has been used in zoology, botany, biology, medicine, and many other scientific disciplines with great success.

Without Darwin that flu shot we all rush to get every year may not be nearly as effective, we may never have mapped the human genome (Which by the way shows evidence of the continued evolution of humans.), or today it is even giving us new insights into dealing with Alzheimer's.

It is NOT important that every public school pupil have a degree in Evolutionary Biology, but it IS important that they recognize its importance and do not disregard it out of hand simply because it does not comport with their religious beliefs, whatever form those might take.

It may be important to note that there are scientists working in the field of Evolution who come from a background in Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholism, Islamism, Protestantism, and virtually every other religious discipline.

But when they put on their lab coats, they are scientists. And scientists deal with facts.

And so should American school children.

Arizona introduces new bill that would allow businesses to discriminate against gay folks, non-Christians, and even unmarried women.

Arizona State Senator Steve Yarbrough.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Experts are warning that a bill making its way through the Arizona legislature would allow businesses to discriminate against LGBT people, unmarried women or even non-Christians. 

Republican state Sen. Steve Yarbrough has said that he introduced Senate Bill 1062 because a “modest clarification” was needed in the state’s religious-freedom law, according to The Arizona Republic. 

Among other things, the bill would expand those protected by the religious-freedom law for religious assemblies and institutions to “any individual, association, partnership, corporation, church, religious assembly or institution, estate, trust, foundation or other legal entity.” 

The conservative advocacy group Center for Arizona Policy has been pushing the measure as a way to protect photographers and bakers from having to provide services for same-sex weddings, which are not even legal in Arizona. 

And Yarbrough told The Seirra Vista Herald that the bill would allow hotel owners to refuse to rent rooms to LGBT people and would protect businesses that had a religious objection to hiring unmarried women. 

But the lawmaker also insisted to The Arizona Republic that “[p]rohibited discrimination remains prohibited.” 

“In no way does this bill allow discrimination of any kind,” he said.

Yeah it allows Christian business owners to refuse to provided service just about any non-Christian, how would that be discriminatory? Right?

Is it just me or does it seem that Arizona is really pulling out the stops to establish themselves as a racist utopia? I swear from here it looks like Texas, Florida, and Arizona are having some kind of redneck race to see who can become the least hospitable state in the Union.

Boy, School House Rock sure has changed. And NOT for the better.

I think I prefer the original.

North Carolina Teabaggers introduce bill to disqualify candidates who "deny the being of Almighty God."

Courtesy of Little Green Footballs:

North Carolina state Tea Party Republican lawmakers have filed a bill to allow the state to establish an official state religion. The move is a direct assault on the U.S. Constitution and wholly ignores the Fourteenth Amendment. The two sponsors of the bill, freshmen House Representatives Harry Warren and Carl Ford, have already managed to get nine co-sponsors who conveniently have ignored the fact that Rep. Ford’s full-time job: the owner of two North Carolina Gospel music radio stations. 

The bill claims “each state in the union is sovereign and may independently determine how that state may make laws respecting an establishment of religion,” and mentions the Tenth Amendment three times. It also argues First Amendment “prohibition does not apply to states, municipalities, or schools.” 

Article 6 Section 8 of the North Carolina state constitution reads: 

The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.

Why is it that those who proclaim the loudest their desire to protect the Constitution are those who seem never to have even seen a copy of it?

If they had they might have stumbled across this: 

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

Who elects these idiots?

The Founding Fathers went WELL out of their way to make sure that this nation would not be a theocracy, and yet these religious nutbags have been attempting to undermine that or hundreds of years now.

Everything you need to know about the Fiscal Cliff deal. But were too confused to ask. Update!

Smokin' Joe Biden rides to the rescue and finally gets through a fiscal cliff package.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

 — Tax rates will permanently rise to Clinton-era levels for families with income above $450,000 and individuals above $400,000. All income below the threshold will permanently be taxed at Bush-era rates. 

— The tax on capital gains and dividends will be permanently set at 20 percent for those with income above the $450,000/$400,000 threshold. It will remain at 15 percent for everyone else. (Clinton-era rates were 20 percent for capital gains and taxed dividends as ordinary income, with a top rate of 39.6 percent.)

 — The estate tax will be set at 40 percent for those at the $450,000/$400,000 threshold, with a $5 million exemption. That threshold will be indexed to inflation, as a concession to Republicans and some Democrats in rural areas like Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.). 

— The sequester will be delayed for two months. Half of the delay will be offset by discretionary cuts, split between defense and non-defense. The other half will be offset by revenue raised by the voluntary transfer of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs, which would tax retirement savings when they’re moved over.

 — The pay freeze on members of Congress and all other federal civilian employees, which Obama had lifted this week, will be re-imposed, . 

— The 2009 expansion of tax breaks for low-income Americans: the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit will be extended for five years.

 — The Alternative Minimum Tax will be permanently patched to avoid raising taxes on the middle-class. 

— The deal will not address the debt-ceiling, and the payroll tax holiday will be allowed to expire. 

— Two limits on tax exemptions and deductions for higher-income Americans will be reimposed: Personal Exemption Phaseout (PEP) will be set at $250,000 and the itemized deduction limitation (Pease) kicks in at $300,000. 

—The full package of temporary business tax breaks — benefiting everything from R&D and wind energy to race-car track owners — will be extended for another year.

 — Scheduled cuts to doctors under Medicare would be avoided for a year through spending cuts that haven’t been specified. 

— Federal unemployment insurance will be extended for another year, benefiting those unemployed for longer than 26 weeks. This $30 billion provision won’t be offset. 

 — A nine-month farm bill fix will be attached to the deal, Sen. Debbie Stabenow told reporters, averting the newly dubbed milk cliff. 

I understand that the House is supposed to vote on this by 1:00 EST today. However there are still rumors that many House members are not planning to vote for it and John Boehner has also made some remarks about possible modifications, which would kill the bill outright.

Still there is hope that it will pass.

Of course this bill only postpones those deep spending cuts for two months so it really is nothing more than a Band-Aid applied to a potential internal hemorrhage, but it is still a lot better than many thought the Senate could ever hope to agree on.

I wonder if this new Congress will really be any more rational or if THIS is the kind of thing we will see for the next two years?  God, let's hope not.

Update: There are some who think the President completely punked the Republicans with this deal:

Higher taxes on the richest Americans (the level is yet to be determined, and the president pointedly stayed away from confirming the $400K/$450K numbers floating around, but taxes are going up). He just forced Grover Norquist's Republican party to allow a tax increase. Big. F*cken. Deal. 

The middle class tax credits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, child tax credit education tax credit and other Obama stimulus tax credits are staying in place for 5 years, as are the breaks for small businesses, especially for the clean energy industry (I don't think most people running around with their hair on fire realize how big a deal this is for the environmental community). The Alternative Minimum tax is fixed permanently not to affect the middle class. 

Unemployment benefits extension. 

An increase in the estate tax rate to 40%. 

What do the Republicans get in return? Bupkiss. Nada. Nothing. A big fat zero. So basically, the president permanently protects working people and the poor and the middle class, permanently raises taxes on the rich, and the additional tax revenue from that. Republicans get no entitlement changes, not even a permanent aversion of the cuts hitting defense and other Republican sweetheart industries.

I know there are those on the Left who think the President gave away too much, but in the end it looks like the President did that whole Jedi mind trick thing again.

Update 2: Politicususa agrees that the President (And Joe Biden) cleaned the Republican's clock..