Obama STILL Knows How to Bluff

 Posted by at 12:23 am  Politics
Oct 142013
 

The boo birds are at it again, saying that, since  Barack Obama says he will talk about anything with Republicans, after the Republican shutdown and threatened Republican default are resolved.  He must be about to cede major concessions, selling out Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid recipients.  There is more than one way that Obama has disappointed me, but after he realized what a big mistake he made in 2011, he has been a rock on the big three.  Obama knows how to offer Republicans what they want, and make them slither away from the table at the same time.

Obama-playing-pokerBe skeptical. Be very, very skeptical.

That was the reaction from nearly all corners to the talk of convening yet another round of bipartisan negotiations to reduce the nation’s long-term debt. The idea has resurfaced as a way of resolving the standoff between President Obama and the Republican-controlled House over reopening the government and increasing its legal borrowing limit, perhaps for months or even just weeks.

But even if the current talks soon resolve the immediate impasse, which did not look likely on Saturday, any renewal of negotiations for a long-term fiscal plan will run into the same underlying problem that has doomed efforts for the past three years.

Republicans refuse to raise additional tax revenue, and until they do, Mr. Obama will not support even his own tentative proposals for reducing spending on fast-growing social benefit programs, chiefly Medicare. During a White House meeting with Senate Republicans on Friday, he reiterated that the two go hand in hand, according to people who were there… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Obama knows that everything Republicans do relates to one of their two ultimate goals.  One is the establishment of a permanent, totalitarian Republican Reich in which elections exist for show, only.  Second is the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle classes to the very rich.  Every time Obama links cutting welfare for the rich with cutting benefits, Republicans slither away, reminding America yet again just whom it is that Republicans truly represent.

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  7 Responses to “Obama STILL Knows How to Bluff”

  1. Terrie Williams says:
    October 14, 2013 at 8:01 am

    I hope against hope you are correct, Tom, because if he does offer them chained CPI, higher premiums for Medicare and raising the retirement age….we are well and truly F***ED.

    I prey he is doing his blank-faced bluff tactic…….I really do, because the alternative truly scares the total caca outta me.

  2. Pat A says:
    October 14, 2013 at 8:44 am

    Thanks TC – I do agree with everyone!

  3. Rixar13 says:
    October 14, 2013 at 10:54 am

    Be skeptical. Be very, very skeptical.

    First if I recall correctly, republicans via GWB took a surplus and turned this into a deficit. Now they are Concerned? Bull-$hit…!

    That was the reaction from nearly all corners to the talk of convening yet another round of bipartisan negotiations to reduce the nation’s long-term debt.

  4. Joanne D says:
    October 14, 2013 at 12:22 pm

    I just hope there are enough sane bluff-ees to get past this.  So many of the repubs are so crazy, they are HOPING for the apocalypse.  OK, I also hope we get out enough of the vote in 2014 to take Congress back.  And may I say how glad I am to be finally seeing (on Care2) other voices emphasizing this.

  5. Lynn Squance says:
    October 14, 2013 at 9:17 pm

    "While that prospect has cheered budget watchers in both parties, even they know the discouraging history of such negotiations. In the three years since Republicans won control of the House, there have been five bipartisan efforts to design a long-term debt-reduction plan, two of them between Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner. All collapsed."

    Of course they all collapsed because, as JFK Jr said,

    "You cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable."

    . . . and that is the attitude of the Republicanus/Teabaggers.  They keep coming to the table with long lists of demands and saying that Democrats have not made any concessions, essentially saying that Democrats have not negotiated in good faith.  But Democrats have made concessions, moving their budget down from over a trillion dollars to very close to the Ryan budget.  And the list of Republicanus/Teabagger demands changes and gets longer.  JFK Jr was right in his assessment.

    “On the one hand, the speaker [Boehner] says he wants to have an open negotiation; on the other hand, he is shutting the door to eliminating a single tax break for the purpose of reducing the deficit,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland.

    Boehner once again proves the veracity of JFK's words 

    "You cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable."

    It would appear that finally, Mr Obama has shown his mettle and it is pissing off Republicanus/Teabaggers who have been accustomed to getting their own way over the past few years, by not caving in.  And of course, Boehner has the rabid dogs of the Teabagger caucus biting on one side, and Democrats standing up on the other.  This could drive him to fall off his bar stool.  Let's hope he falls on the Teabaggers!

    "On the Republican side, a senior Congressional aide who declined to be identified while the parties were trying to break the impasse, said flatly: “We’re never going to have a grand bargain with this president, I think that is safe to say. Ever.”"

    Ben Stein, conservative economist:

    "I hate to say this on Fox — and I hope I'll be allowed to leave here alive — but I don't think there is anyway we can cut spending enough to make a meaningful difference.  We're going to have to raise taxes on very rich people, people with incomes of like say, 2, 3 million a year and up, and then slowly move it down."  

    I tried looking on Raw Story and Fox News for this for a short time but didn't find it so I can't give you a reference.  However, it is reported that the 3 Fox co-hosts were  shocked.

  6. Edith Belcher says:
    October 14, 2013 at 9:43 pm

    I hope Lynn is right, and Ben Stein did say that on Fox news.  If the Prez and senate cave this time, we are all lost.  The bought House will tread over any program that helps the poor! 

  7. TomCat says:
    October 15, 2013 at 12:35 am

    Thanks everyone.  I need to take a partial day off.

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