Frontline presents: Inside Obama's Presidency.

Watch Inside Obama's Presidency on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

You know I typically do not post videos that are five minutes or more, because I realize that most people do not have time to watch them.

However THIS report is absolutely excellent, and well worth the fifty three minutes and thirty nine seconds it takes to watch it.

Personally I came away with a deep appreciation of what this President has accomplished and an even more negative perception of the Republicans and some real anger at how hard they worked to destroy Obama at every turn.

I do have to admit that I cringed more than a little during the report on drone strikes, but overall this is a very informative and fascinating look at the last four years of our country's history.

P.S. If for some reason this video does not play please click here and watch it over at PBS.

From the "Last Word" on Thursday, Lawrence O'Donnell once again explains just how impressive it was that President Obama got the Republicans to sign the Fiscal Cliff bill.

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Now you have to pay close attention to the detail that Lawrence provides describing the intricacies of negotiations at the Senate level and to help with that here is a great transcript written up by the folks over at the Daily Kos.

If you don't have time for that I completely understand but I do want to draw your attention to this portion here:  

If you've ever actually tried to get a Republican in the House or Senate to vote on an income tax rate increase, proposed by a Democratic president--if you've done that--and perhaps only if you've done that, then you understand how hard it was for President Obama to get a tax increase out of a Republican House of Representatives and out of a Senate where the Republicans can block anything. 

Most pundits and members of Congress for that matter have never negotiated anything more complicated than a car loan or a mortgage and some of them will surely continue to criticize the President's negotiating skills but the President was playing a very long game here. 

Literally years of strategizing including allowing a two-year extension of the Bush rates in order to get strategically positioned, so that he could force Republicans to cast a vote they vowed never to cast.

Now are you impressed? Because I KNOW I am!

Lawrence O'Donnell explains why the Fiscal Cliff deal was the best deal possible.

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I did not have time to post this yesterday, but I think it is too important to simply ignore.

I agree with Lawrence 100% on this and suggest that you listen to him carefully.

Andrew Sullivan believes he now recognizes President Obama's long game.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

The left often talked of the fiscal cliff as if it were only win-win for Obama. It wasn't, in my view. He faced two dangers: of seeming unable to come up with a compromise (which is integral to his appeal) and of seeing the US economy sink under the weight of an imprudent and drastic reduction in demand. As Josh Marshall has noted, Obama always wanted a deal. No president wants to kick off his second term with a double-dip recession. He got half of a deal that will not have as drastic an effect as the full cliff-divers wanted. 

Does the promised debt-ceiling hostage-taking by the GOP render all this strategy moot? Maybe. But it seems to me that the GOP has hurt itself so far since the election on fiscal matters - appearing, especially last week, as a herd of feral, foam-flecked cats. I don't see their threatening to ruin America's credit unless they get to cut Medicare by $500 billion over a decade as a particularly strong political hand. Any party triggering a self-imposed credit crisis as the economy recovers will not be rewarded politically. On that, especially after 2011, the president has the upper hand. Americans do not like monkeying around with the national credit rating as a way to cut medical care for grandma. 

More to the point, the GOP has yet to even lay out the details of its proposed entitlement cuts (and campaigned in part against them). One way out would be for both parties to focus on cutting the Pentagon bloat - but that's not going to happen any time soon. And so I can see revenue-raising tax reform returning as a way to alleviate some of the political pain on both sides. 

In other words, I can see Obama's logic here. What he's getting - which is a gradual shift toward more fiscal responsibility, with key protections for the working poor and the unemployed in place - is all he really wants right now. Like many of Obama's incremental achievements, you can sometimes miss the forest for the trees. We have the biggest tax hike in decades - without a sudden recession. And we have huge, painful spending cuts looming unless new revenue is found through tax reform. The end result - for all its unseemly messiness right now - may still be a sane, graduated fiscal readjustment as the economy recovers. The sequester can be back-loaded a little to find that elusive sweet spot between structural fiscal rebalancing and economic growth. And we could even clean up the tax code a little. 

It's not great, but it will do. Sometimes, the little advances are preferable under certain circumstances to big breakthroughs. And Obama has to face a rabid Republican House probably for his next four years. They self-destructed on Plan B. They will almost certainly have to swallow hard and vote for big tax increases in the next day or so [and, in fact, now have].

Like most of you I have also been inundated with e-mails and text messages from those on the Left tearing at their hair and rending their clothing in frustration over what they see as Obama's acquiescence in the fiscal cliff deal, but  if I have learned ANYTHING about this President it is that he rarely focuses on short term victories and is usually thinking several moves ahead of his opponents.

That is essentially what Sullivan is pointing out with his article, and I have to say that I agree with his point of view. I firmly believe that in the end Barack Obama will go down in history as one of the greatest President's this country has ever produces, and I also bet that there will be a lot of "aha" moments for most of us looking back at this from the future that we are just too close to the political sausage making to see right now.

Stress of Fiscal Cliff negotiations reached climax days before deal as John Boehner tells Harry Reid to "Go f**k yourself."

Courtesy of Politico:

House Speaker John Boehner couldn’t hold back when he spotted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the White House lobby last Friday. 

It was only a few days before the nation would go over the fiscal cliff, no bipartisan agreement was in sight, and Reid had just publicly accused Boehner of running a “dictatorship” in the House and caring more about holding onto his gavel than striking a deal. 

“Go f— yourself,” Boehner sniped as he pointed his finger at Reid, according to multiple sources present. 

Reid, a bit startled, replied: “What are you talking about?” 

Boehner repeated: “Go f— yourself.” 

The harsh exchange just a few steps from the Oval Office — which Boehner later bragged about to fellow Republicans — was only one episode in nearly two months of high-stakes negotiations laced with distrust, miscommunication, false starts and yelling matches as Washington struggled to ward off $500 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts.

I LOVER this kind of stuff because it demonstrates the kind of raw emotion that often drives these negotiations. By the way I would just like to point out that House Speaker Boehner said this to the Majority Leader only days before completely capitulating and handing the Senate everything they wanted.

But hey I guess it make Boehner feel all manly to curse at Reid right before he fell to his knees and gave in like a prison bitch.

By the way I found this great gif that to me eloquently sums up the Teabaggers attempts to derail or modify this bill.

Yep, that about sums it up all right. (Oh it can also be used to illustrate Sarah Palin's career path as well.)

The Fiscal Cliff bill, who voted how, and who comes out ahead?

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

Most House Republicans voted against the final fiscal cliff deal late Tuesday night, while just 16 Democrats joined them. 

A few notes from the votes: 

* The bill easily passed 257-167, with 217 votes needed for passage. Democrats voted 172-16 in favor while Republicans votes 151-85 against. 

* GOP leadership was split. While House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and 2012 vice presidential nominee and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (Wis.) voted yes, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) voted no. 

* Ryan’s vote is noteworthy because another major 2016 presidential contender, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), was one of just eight senators to vote no early Tuesday morning, as did another potential presidential candidate, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). 

* Other no votes included GOP firebrands Reps. Allen West (Fla.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Joe Walsh (Ill.). West and Walsh lost reelection in November, while Bachmann narrowly won. 

So both West and Walsh voted against the bill huh? Well that is part of the reason why they are now EX-House members. 

Now as interesting as that was I was kind of fascinated with just WHICH Democrats broke ranks and voted against the bill.
 

* The 16 Democrats voting no split between the liberal and the moderate. More liberal Reps. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Jim McDermott (Wash.), Brad Miller (N.C.), Jim Moran (Va.), Bobby Scott (Va.), Pete Visclosky (Ind.) voted no. But they were joined by moderate-to-conservative Reps. John Barrow (Ga.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Kurt Schrader (Ore.) and Adam Smith (Wash.).

These sixteen bear watching in the future, and I hope their constituents are paying close attenion to how carelessly they treat the fiscal security of this nation.

So that is how the vote played out in the House, but when the dust settles WHO got their ass handed to them the worst?

This again according to the Washington Post:  

The bill was 153 pages long. It was written only the day before, by Washington insiders working in the dark of night. It was crammed with giveaways and legislative spare parts: tax breaks for wind farms and racetracks. A change to nuclear-weapons policy. Government payments for cheese. 

And, most significantly, the bill will raise taxes but do relatively little to cut government spending or the massive federal deficit. 

To a tea-party-influenced crop of House Republicans, the bill to resolve the “fiscal cliff” crisis was everything they had wanted to change about the way Washington worked. Too rushed. Too bloated. Too secretive. Too expensive. 

“There’s lots and lots of pork in this bill,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), one of its most outspoken opponents. 

On Tuesday, however, it passed on their watch. After the Senate approved the compromise, it briefly appeared that the GOP-led House would rebel against the bill. But the threat faded: For many Republicans, it appeared, the risk of rejecting the bill — and courting economic calamity — outweighed their unhappiness with the bill’s contents.

Here is how jaded I have become over the political process in Washington these days.  I fully expect my side to be screwed over anything that gets through both houses. I am just happier when the Right Wing gets fucked harder than we do. (Especially that prick Darrell Issa!)

You know it's the little things in life.

By the way purely to get a sense of who would or would NOT vote for this bill and why, I checked how my two Senators and lone Congressman voted. Believe it or not, they ALL THREE voted for the bill.

Oh and speaking of winners and losers, I just saw on MSNBC that President Obama boarded a plane to rejoin his family to finish out their vacation.

CNN's Ali Velshi calls out Republican Congressman ON THE AIR for misleading the American people.

Courtesy of Mediaite:

CNN’s Ali Velshi tore into GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KN) Monday night about his claim that a tax hike on small business would hurt job creation. Telling Huelskamp he didn’t “believe” his numbers to be true, Velshi mockingly asked, “The vast majority of those businesses are in fact not job creators. You understand that to be the case?” 

Huelskamp disputed Velshi’s claim and said that he had “seen research” that raising taxes would impact “41% of business income.” Velshi called him out on his language, saying “41% of business income is not 41% of business, that’s a very, very different and somewhat misleading statistic.” Again Velshi asked, “You understand the distinction, right?” 

Velshi then proceeded to silence Huelskamp from speaking any further, saying, “Sir, you put out information to our viewers, you’re on CNN right now. I would like the information to be accurate.” Huelskamp fought to answer, and when he was asked by Velshi whether he wanted to stand by his information, he said, “That’s our best guess. We’re still working on that.” 

“I think that’s a guess,” Velshi retorted. 

According to Huelskamp, part of the difficulty in obtaining accurate information is that the Obama administration won’t tell his team anything. Velshi slammed him for this misstatement, saying, “We actually don’t have any difficulty getting that information, sir. We don’t need it from the administration, that information is public.”

Yes! This is the kind of thing that we need to see MUCH more of from our journalists, ESPECIALLY after we saw jut how allergic to actual facts they were, and how determined they were to lie to the American people.

Having said that I think Velshi did an excellent job here and even followed it up later in the hour and reported this: 

VELSHI: Wolf, I just want to... I've been doing some research as I promised I would do in the conversation that we had with Congressman Tim Huelskamp, quoting what he said was a study by Montana State University. We're working our way through that study, but I'll tell you the facts that we have right now. 

If businesses... if everybody who earned more than $250 thousand saw an increase in the top tax rate from 36 percent to 39.6 percent, that would be 3.5 percent of all small businesses. That would be 940,000 businesses. That's I think a number that the Congressman was quoting. So at $450,000, it is nowhere near the number that the Congressman was quoting. 

But let's just be generous and say that it was that. Of that number, only a very small proportion are not hedge funds, partnerships, law firms, companies that don't employ a whole lot of other people. So the Congressman's facts are just incorrect on this. There is nowhere near a million businesses that will be affected by this increase of taxing people above $450,000.

And THAT my friends is how you do it!

You know now that Velshi has joined Soledad O'Brien with this whole "holding Republicans accountable for their bullshit thing," I am thinking of possibly tuning in to CNN once in awhile. You know, when MSNBC is once again broadcasting that stupid Lockup series perhaps.

Maybe since they have seen how quickly Fox is losing viewers they might be reconsidering this whole idea of becoming Fox-lite.

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..

Over the cliff we go! There will be NO vote on deal tonight. Update: Not so fast.

Courtesy of Politico:

Washington inched closer to a deal that would avert massive tax increases, but Congress will still fall short of passing legislation before a new year deadline, sending the country over the fiscal cliff at least temporarily as the two sides struggled to iron out the final details of a high-stakes package. 

The main holdup right now: Automatic spending cuts poised to kick in during the year, which the two parties have vowed to reverse but have failed to broker an agreement over how to do just that. 

Last-ditch negotiations between Senate Majority Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Joe Biden — friends from two decades-plus of Senate service — produced an agreement to increase marginal income tax rates to 39.6 percent on individual income more than $400,000 and households that earn more than $450,000.

You know the conservative talking heads over at Fox and the Right Wing radio shock jocks are going to do their damnedest to blame this on the President, but there is NO way that he deserves any of the blame for the failings of Congress. THAT blame rests solely on the Republicans and the teabagging obstructionists that are now apparently in the driver's seat.

The President has worked night and day to make a deal, and reached out twice to the American people to help him.  He even caved in on the amount to be taxed, moving from the promised $250,000 and above to $450,000 and above.

That resulted in getting him into a LOT of hot water with the liberals, and I am not very damn happy about it either, but I will say this, the man has done EVERYTHING he could to keep this potential crisis from occurring, and I hope that the American people are aware of that and make sure to blame the appropriate individuals.

Here's a hint, there is an "R" next to their name, and they care MORE about getting reelected than about any of YOU people.

Update: Well believe it or not, it looks like some patched together deal has been reached and there is talk of a possible vote tonight.  Here is more from Ezra Klein:

President Obama and Senate Republicans reached a sweeping deal late Monday that would let income taxes rise significantly for the first time in more than two decades, fulfilling Obama’s promise to raise taxes on the rich and averting the worst effects of the “fiscal cliff.” 

Vice President Biden arrived at the Capitol just after 9 p.m. to explain the details of the pact he negotiated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). A Senate vote on the package could be held by 10:30 p.m., beating a midnight deadline, Democratic aides said. The Republican-controlled House will begin considering the bill on Tuesday, with a final vote expected in the next day or two. 

The agreement emerged after White House officials gave in on the last contested issue, yielding to GOP wishes on how to handle estate taxes, aides said. 

The revelations about the pending deal came after Obama had said a pact was “within sight,” and House Republican leaders announced they would hold no votes Monday night, making it appear that that the nation would go over the fiscal cliff for at least a day. 

I can't say I am happy about the White House giving anymore ground, but again it definitely speaks to who is the most serious about getting a deal done before tomorrow.

I am also hearing from various reporters that this is only a temporary fix and does NOT indicate how the final deal may look. I guess we have to hold out final judgement until then.

For those concerned about cuts to Social Security being part of the budget negotiations, don't worry it looks like the Democrats held firm.

As of late today the Senate was still no closer to coming up with a plan to deal with the looming fiscal cliff. 

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

Republican senators leaving a GOP conference meeting Sunday afternoon told reporters that they are dropping chained CPI (a measure of inflation that grows more slowly than the way Social Security measures inflation now.)from their fiscal cliff proposal. 

"CPI has to be off the table because it's not a winning argument to say benefits for seniors versus tax breaks for rich people," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "We need to take CPI off the table -- that's not part of the negotiations -- because we can't win an argument that has Social Security for seniors versus taxes for the rich." 

"There's a realization that in spite of the president's apparent endorsement of a chained CPI, that that proposal deserves more study," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). "My guess, based on what Democrats are saying, is that that reform would not happen during this stage of the negotiations." 

"I don't think anybody ever expected Social Security to be part of this," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). "It's all going to be about taxes of some kind or another."

I ma still not sure that we are going to see a deal before the end of the year, but at least we know that the Republicans are not going to get to starve Granny in exchange for raising taxes on the top 1% of the country.

President Obama to appear on Meet the Press this Sunday. (And no it has nothing to do with Gregory's "legal trouble.")

Excited to announce that President @barackobama will be my exclusive guest this Sunday on @meetthepress nbcnews.to/W9Ykim #MTP
— David Gregory (@davidgregory) December 28, 2012

Courtesy of Press Pass:  

This Sunday, David Gregory sits down exclusively with President Barack Obama. This will be Mr. Obama's 11th appearance on the program, his second time as the commander in chief. In the midst of fierce fiscal cliff negotiations, we’ll hear directly from the president about where things stand and whether a compromise is even possible. Plus, David will talk with him about other key issues facing the country as he prepares to begin his second term in office.

Now oddly enough I first heard this news yesterday from a tweet sent out by Breitbart.com. THEY attempted to explain the rare appearance as coming in response to the fact that Gregory is in some minor legal trouble due to the fact that he waived a 30 round magazine for an assault rifle in Wayne LaPierre's face while interviewing him last Sunday, the possession of which is against Washington D.C. law.

(You know, because the "liberal media" is working for the Obama administration, so of course the President drops everything to ride to the rescue when one of his media minions has any trouble while doing his nefarious bidding. Makes sense if your are a Right Wing retard.)

Anyhow of course the REAL reason that the President is making the appearance is to discuss the fiscal cliff non-negotiations and to take his case to the American people in order to hopefully compel them to contact their Representatives to help move things along. Which of course is exactly what he has been doing for the last several weeks.

From my point of view it appears that the ONLY person who seems to really be taking this budget situation seriously is the President. Which you can see for yourself in this video clip of his speech yesterday. (If you doubt his frustration watch how sternly he shushes the people talking off camera at the 4:30 mark.)

You know we had a little fun yesterday with the idea that the President is purposefully causing a civil war among the Republicans, as that idiot Krauthammer reported on the Hannity show, and you know part of me thinks that he might very well be fanning the flames of discontent simply to keep them inconsequential moving forward.

However in the case of the fiscal cliff I don't think the President is using IT to cause more disarray among the conservatives, in fact I think he is the only one who is not using it for a political cover.

I really don't think the President ever thought it would get this far, and simply does NOT want to allow the intransigence among the Republicans result in yet another black mark against the American economy, like it did during the 2011 which of course famously resulted in the downgrading of our credit rating.

No I don't think that the President is going into this thinking politics, despite what Fox News might want you to believe. I think he is only considering the needs of the country right now, and the needs of the American people.

A Republican Fiscal Cliff New Year's Message

(A very grateful hat tip to Lipstick Liberal.)

Conservative columnist claims that President Obama is responsible for "internal civil war" among Republicans.

Courtesy of Mediaite:

Sean Hannity brought Charles Krauthammer on his show tonight to discuss President Obama‘s role in the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations. Both Hannity and Krauthammer agreed that Obama has been to hardline in trying to negotiate with Republicans, but Krauthammer gave the president some credit for managing to effectively tear the GOP in half over whether or not they can compromise with Obama on raising tax rates. 

Hannity sardonically celebrated Obama’s return from his Hawaiian vacation to deal with the impending cliff. Krauthammer admitted he doesn’t “begrudge [Obama] his holiday,” but he does have an issue with how the president has been dealing with the fiscal cliff negotiations. He did, however, give Obama his due credit for a stunning accomplishment amidst the ongoing talks. 

“He’s been using this, and I must say with great skill–-and ruthless skill and success–to fracture and basically shatter the Republican opposition… His objective from the very beginning was to break the will of the Republicans in the House, and to create an internal civil war. And he’s done that.” 

Krauthammer said Obama has been pushing the GOP since winning reelection to focus on raising tax rates because he knew it would be a sore subject between differing factions of his Republican opposition, and his interest in scoring a partisan political victory outweighs his desire to seriously deal with the national debt.

Okay look as you know I have already been VERY impressed with this President. But if he is actually manipulating the Republicans as Krauthammer claims, while at the same time THEY were doing everything in their power to discredit him and block his policies, then I am ready to bestow Godhood status on the man.

It would essentially make him one of the greatest Presidents, not to mention Democrats, in American history!

"I told you, I got this."

President Obama to cut his vacation short in order to deal with "fiscal cliff." Right Wing unimpressed, accuse First Lady of wasting taxpayer money by staying.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

President Obama is planning to cut his Christmas vacation short and return to Washington to make a last-ditch push for a compromise on a tax and spending dispute that remains stubbornly unresolved. 

The White House said Tuesday that the president would leave Wednesday night. His family, however, will stay behind in Hawaii.

Now you may naively believe that this is a good thing as reflects the President's seriousness about getting this  budget situation under control before January 1st, but that only because you don't watch, read, or listen to Right Wing media outlets.

According to them having Michelle and the girls stay behind in Hawaii luxuriating in the Socialist sunshine is costing taxpayers a whole bunch of money, according to some figures that these idiots pulled out of their ass:

The White House does not reveal the price tag for the Obamas’ vacations. But an estimate can be made given several known and likely expenses. 

Assuming Mrs. Obama uses the type of plane she has flown before to Hawaii, the Air Force C-40B Special Mission Aircraft, the cost of a flight from Honolulu to Washington would be about $63,000. If the C-40B must be flown out to Hawaii to retrieve Mrs. Obama, as would seem likely, the first lady’s travel costs could amount to about $126,000, assuming the jet is dispatched from Washington.

Okay so assuming a whole bunch of things it appears that staying behind will cost a lot. We assume. (Of course we could also assume that ALL Presidential vacations have cost a lot of money, but that it didn't really bother the conservatives until THIS President was in the White House. Hmm, I wonder why that is?)

Of course if we continue with those assumptions we could also ascertain that much of the travel expenses connected to the First Lady's time in Hawaii is used for security, something which is perhaps more of a concern with THIS Presidential family than those in the past simply because, with the help of these same Right Wing media outlets, there have been more threats made against this President than any other President in history.  And several of THEM were shot!

And speaking of vacations, the Right Wing talking points will ALWAYS fall flat when faced with the reality that George Bush spent 1,020 days of his two terms in office on vacation. Which is far, far more than any OTHER president in history.

And by the way, that is NOT an assumption, that is a fact!

The President to John Boehner, "You get nothing."

Apparently when the President and House Speaker John Boehner were attempting to negotiate a deal to avoid the upcoming fiscal cliff Boehner learned the meaning of the phrase "elections have consequences."

This courtesy of Salon:

When Boehner asked Obama if they agree on a deal along the same lines as the one he walked away from during the 2011 talks, according to the paper, Obama retorted: “You missed your opportunity on that.” 

Obama’s frustrations grew, and he told Boehner he would rail publicly against the Republicans in the absence of a reasonable compromise. 

As the Journal reports: 

Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn’t reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were at fault. 

At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, “I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?” 

“You get nothing,” the president said. “I get that for free.” 

Also during the talks, as Obama bristled over Boehner’s unwillingness to budge on rates, the paper reports that he snapped: “You’re asking me to accept Mitt Romney’s tax plan. Why would I do that?”

You know all I wanted for Christmas was a President that kicks ass and stands up to the Republican party.

Thanks Santa.

And now John Boehner has not only shown he does not have any ability to negotiate with the President, he also does not have the ability to negotiate with his own party. 2013 is going to be a great year!

Over half of the American people believe that the Republican party is too extreme. Gee, ya think?

Courtesy of CNN Politics:  

According to the survey, 53% say the GOP should compromise more, with 41% saying the Democratic Party should give up more of the proposals it supports to develop bipartisan solutions. 

"That's due in part to the fact that the Republican brand is not doing all that well," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. 

Fifty-three percent of those surveyed say they view the policies of the GOP as too extreme, up 17 points from two years ago. Only 37% say they view the polices of the Democratic Party as too extreme. 

It probably doesn't help that House Speaker John Boehner, who's leading GOP fiscal cliff negotiations with the president, is held in fairly low regard, particularly in comparison to Obama. According to the poll, 34% of the public approves of how the top Republican in the House handling his job. By contrast, the president's approval rating stands at 52%. 

"Small wonder that nearly half say they have more confidence in President Obama than in the congressional Republicans and that nearly half (48%) would blame the GOP if the fiscal cliff occurs," adds Holland.

Okay will SOMEBODY please show this to the President and tell him to stop trying to compromise with these people?

Nobody likes them, they no longer have credibility, and they are rapidly headed to extinction.

Essentially all Obama has to do is to step over their politically paralyzed bodies and push through the policies that the majority of the American people elected him to do on their behalf.

This is clearly no longer a "center right country" (Not that I ever thought it was) and it is time to run this nation like the progressive paradise that it so desperately wants to become.

Do you hear me Mr. President?

John Boehner forced to pull "Plan B" vote due to lack of support from Teabaggers. Hah!

"Come on guys, you're making me look bad here."

Courtesy of First Read:

After a cancelled vote on a contingency bill and a dramatic defeat for Republican leadership, United States House members will head home for the Christmas holiday without legislative action to halt a mix of automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect in just 11 days. 

Lacking enough support to pass a backup proposal to avert the "fiscal cliff," House Republican leaders on Thursday night were forced to pull from the floor a vote on 'Plan B' legislation that would have preserved Bush-era tax rates for all earners making less than $1 million but raised rates on the country's top earners. 

House Speaker John Boehner intended that the last-ditch tax effort, coupled with revised spending reductions, would give the GOP-dominated House continued leverage in its negotiations with the White House and the Senate, both controlled by Democrats. But it was ultimately brought down by conservative Republicans reluctant to raise tax rates on any Americans, even the nation's top earners. 

The House will now recess for the Christmas holiday, leaders said. Members have been advised that the House will return "when needed" before the end of the year. 

"The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "Now it is up to the president to work with Senator Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff. The House has already passed legislation to stop all of the January 1 tax rate increases and replace the sequester with responsible spending cuts that will begin to address our nation's crippling debt. The Senate must now act."

Oh my God this is awesome!

Here's Boehner trying to strong arm the President by telling him he was going to walk away from the deal THEY were working on and pass his own damn bill, and he finds himself stood up by his own party.


Karma baby!

President Obama on the Republican's stubborn refusal to compromise on fiscal cliff negotiations, "After this week we should have perspective."

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Now the President has REALLY gone out of his way to negotiate in good faith with the Republicans, and is already getting blowback from his Democratic base over his decision to offer cuts to Social Security. However it is important to note that the changes to Social Security are far less dire than many have been implying:

The White House proposal would raise $1.2 trillion in new revenue, in part by changing the treatment of itemized deductions, which will hit the rich hardest. It would extend unemployment benefits and boost infrastructure spending—both key pieces of economic stimulus. And it would prevent Republicans from holding the economy hostage over the debt ceiling for two years. But it would end the Bush tax cuts only for those making $400,000 or more—a climb-down from the $250,000 mark Obama had previously insisted on—while failing to extend the payroll tax cut, meaning middle-class taxes will rise. It would cut $1.22 trillion in spending. And, perhaps most controversially, it would cut Social Security by changing the way inflation is calculated, meaning payments grow more slowly, by about 0.3% each year.

So there are NO actual cuts to Social Security, however the growth of payments to match inflation is now reduced. Clearly not optimal but hardly catastrophic.

Compare that with the dangers of actual going over the fiscal cliff, or curve if you prefer, and you may have some idea as to why the President is working so hard to reach a deal:

If the current laws slated for 2013 go into effect, the impact on the economy would be dramatic. While the combination of higher taxes and spending cuts would reduce the deficit by an estimated $560 billion, the CBO estimates that the policies set to go into effect would cut gross domestic product (GDP) by four percentage points in 2013, sending the economy into a recession (i.e., negative growth). At the same time, it predicts unemployment would rise by almost a full percentage point, with a loss of about two million jobs. A Wall St. Journal article from May 16, 2012 estimates the following impact in dollar terms: “In all, according to an analysis by J.P. Morgan economist Michael Feroli, $280 billion would be pulled out of the economy by the sunsetting of the Bush tax cuts; $125 billion from the expiration of the Obama payroll-tax holiday; $40 billion from the expiration of emergency unemployment benefits; and $98 billion from Budget Control Act spending cuts. In all, the tax increases and spending cuts make up about 3.5% of GDP, with the Bush tax cuts making up about half of that, according to the J.P. Morgan report.” Amid an already-fragile recovery and elevated unemployment, the economy is not in a position to avoid this type of shock.

So although the President just won reelection, and is currently enjoying the highest poll numbers since he killed Osama Bin Laden, the fact remains that he realizes it is HIS job to protect the American people from a possible recession and dramatic job loss.

I don't think it makes a difference to the President WHO gets blamed, his job  is to make sure it never happens. You see unlike a certain party of douchebags I could name, Obama does not play politics with the lives of the American people.

And how did this party of douchebags respond to these remarks by the President? Much like you would imagine: 

Boehner, R-Ohio, responded to Obama with a defiant tone. In an appearance before reporters that lasted under a minute, Boehner called on Obama to offer a deficit-cutting plan balanced between spending cuts and tax increases and predicted that the House would pass his backup plan. 

"Then the president will have a decision to make," Boehner said. "He can call on the Senate Democrats to pass that bill or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in American history."

Essentially Boehner said "Fuck it, let it burn!"

I think the next time I see one of those Teabagger assholes holding an "America First" sign I am going to punch him right in the face.