In debt talks’ new phase, blame game overshadows fiscal blueprint

[alp227]

Source: Wash. Post

Negotiations over the national debt entered a troubling new phase Wednesday on Capitol Hill as lawmakers appeared to spend more time trading blame for the impasse than in talks aimed at developing a blueprint to reduce borrowing.

With a Thanksgiving deadline getting closer, Democrats on the bipartisan “supercommittee” revealed details of a plan they offered to Republicans late last week that would have cut spending by nearly $900 billion over the next decade in exchange for just $400 billion in new taxes.

The proposal represents an apparent shift from earlier Democratic debt-reduction proposals, which demanded as much as $1.3 trillion in new taxes through 2021. It also appeared to mark a big step toward the latest Republican position, which called for about $300 billion in new taxes.

But Republicans said the offer was a ruse that included at least $800 billion in new taxes from the expiration of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts in January.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-debt-talks-new-phase-blame-game-overshadows-fiscal-blueprint/2011/11/16/gIQAjB8iSN_singlePage.html

[elleng]

1. Surprised?

No s***, Sherlock.

[TomCADem]

2. Democrats, Republicans far apart on deficit deal

Source: MSNBC

"We need to find out whether our Republican colleagues want to continue to negotiate or whether they've drawn a hard line in the sand," said supercommittee Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. "The question is whether they've kind of said 'take it or leave it.' "

Van Hollen made his comments after co-chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, told CNBC Tuesday evening that the bipartisan debt supercommittee is "somewhat stymied for the moment" because panel Democrats are insisting on tax increases of up to $1 trillion in exchange for cost curbs on rapidly spiraling benefit programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

* * *

Republican officials say the GOP offer envisions an overhaul that would drop the top tax rate on personal income to 28 percent from the current 35 percent and shave or eliminate some itemized deductions that are commonly used. The top corporate rate would fall also.

Despite Boehner's comments, GOP presidential contenders Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry said they were prepared to oppose a plan along the lines of the one under consideration. Another candidate, Mitt Romney, brushed aside a question on the subject.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45327458/ns/politics/t/democrats-republicans-far-apart-deficit-deal/

---

You have to love the corporate media. When the issue is substantive such as where do candidate stand on the proposals being debated by the deficit panel, including whether Republicans will entertain any tax increase, let alone the $1 trillion proposed by Democrats, the corporate media give the chosen one, a free pass on the issue that he claims to be so interested in, the deficit and taxes!

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. This is the next big time bomb & it's destined to be the next big distraction

until the next big distraction.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

4. Yeah, right.

Sadly, this isn't meant for people who have been cataloging the endless abuses of American workers, it's meant for people who need to believe and for those who have no idea what is really going on and only require a delicious doggy treat.

Jersey City here. Taking the PATH across the river shortly to lay myself in the cogs of the wheel. Fight back or get out of the way. I'll send you pictures from Zuccotti Park.


Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

[FreakinDJ]

5. RATpubliCONs offer a TAX CUT while slashing Benifits we PAID for

fuck

[bread_and_roses]

6. deadlock is the best we can hope for ... since Ds are willing to sell us out

on Medicare and SS.