Ugh! Steny Hoyer congratulates Catfood Commission; looks for its work to continue in next Congress.

[demodonkey]

Hoyer Statement on Bipartisan Fiscal Commission Vote

WASHINGTON, DC - Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today after the president's bipartisan fiscal commission voted on the commission’s final recommendations:

“I am encouraged by the fact that a bipartisan majority – nearly two-thirds – of the president’s bipartisan fiscal commission supported the report put forward. Though the commission has ended its work, our national conversation about returning America to fiscal balance has been energized by the commission’s efforts and I expect that conversation to proceed. A bipartisan consensus is forming around a balanced approach to deficit reduction that makes hard choices on both the revenue and spending sides—an approach that includes putting our entitlements on more stable footing; responsible spending cuts that take all parts of our budget into account, both non-defense discretionary and defense; and fair tax simplification that also raises revenue.

“While the report did not receive the 14 out of 18 votes required to send the plan to Congress, it is my hope that the next Congress will continue the work started by the commission and seek common ground on reducing the deficit, while ensuring fairness to the middle class and focusing on the pressing need of job creation. I congratulate the commission’s co-chairs, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, for the work they’ve done and their efforts to reach consensus on this critical challenge facing our nation.”

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http://majorityleader.gov/content/hoyer-statement-bipartisan-fiscal-commission-vote

[Octafish]

1. Hoyer helped derail the momentum for peace in 2006.

Keeping up the dark work of the Monied Class, I see.

[DJ13]

2. They wont quit until they have screwed us all*

*meaning anyone in the bottom 98% of incomes.

[Individualist]

3. Just what one would expect from a DLC member.

:puke:

[DiverDave]

4. I heard some of that on CSPAN radio

and just as I turned it I said 'fucking circle jerk'

God, are they really that tight?

[demodonkey]

5. Hoyer derailed several bills for paper ballots, too.

Thanks to Steny, approximately 25% of the nation's voters are still stuck using software-dependent, paperless Direct Recording Electronic voting machines that can't be meaningfully audited or recounted.

And many of the disabled people that Hoyer claims to support still can't vote privately and independently on these DREs as the Help America Vote Act promised, my own mother included.

[truebrit71]

6. Hoyer makes me want to hurl...What a steaming bunch of bullshit that entire statement is..

..the ONLY fucking question that should be asked regarding the deficit is just how much we get the corporations to pay in...

Bi-partisanship? Fuck that. I am sick to fucking death of hearing about this bi-partisanship bullshit...ENOUGH!!!

[gratuitous]

7. Yep, that 14 vote threshold is being jettisoned

Ah, who cares what the Commission's own by-laws said? So what if they blew their deadline? Who cares if their final report didn't get the necessary votes? Congress is going to pick and choose the most onerous and least effective proposals, and pretend that they have to do it, because the "bipartisan" Deficit Commission appointed by the President must be obeyed. Sure, its by-laws said the Commission was merely advisory and any proposals would be non-binding, but how else is Congress going to get cover to raise the retirement age and reduce social security benefits for future retirees?

The process can be dispensed with; what matters now is that Congress can go ahead with putting poor schmucks like you and me on the hook permanently to pay for the never-ending party the wealthy are throwing for themselves.

[xchrom]

8. +1

[Jackpine Radical]

10. "I'm not the one saying SocSec has to be cut.

See? It's this little guy on my knee who's saying that."

[gratuitous]

11. Oh, and I almost forgot

Anyone who insists on detailing these little deficiencies will be dismissed as a beady-eyed nit-picker, and summarily dismissed as a Very Unserious Person who doesn't "get" that the deficit is The Most Important Issue Evah and these proposals must be enacted and that right soon if we're going to save the United States of America.

If you'll remember, we got a little preview of this dog-and-pony show at the time of the Wall Street bailout just before the 2008 election, right near the end of the Bush administration. There was no time to waste, our economy was about to collapse! Place $1 trillion in small, unmarked, non-sequential bills in a paper bag and leave it at the front door of the stock exchange in New York City. Come alone, and if we see any cops, the economy gets it.

[laughingliberal]

15. Nah. The rules for the commission will stand. Obama will just use it as the blueprint for his budget

No way we're not going to see this happen.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. I have always trusted Steny Hoyer.

Trusted him like I would a rattlesnake. He is what he is, he does what he does, he's predictable, and he does not have my interests at heart (to say the least).

[somone]

12. Looks like Obama's sham commission has got a lot of votes in the next Congress

all bought and paid for

[laughingliberal]

13. Yep. All the surrogates are out shilling for Obama's 2012 budget. nt

[BlueJac]

14. Steny the Dick........

go "F" yourself you political tool!!

[pa28]

16. "Fair tax simplification". Impressive how he squeezed two dog whistles into three words.

I guessing that's the part he loves most too. Steny would really enjoy giving himself and his sponsors a big tax cut using the formula in Simpson's plan while gravely shaking his head and calling on everyone else to "share sacrifice".

Like Simpson himself said; "This thing isn't going to go away". We'll be contending with the fallout from regressive approach taken in this document during the next budget process and the upcoming deficit ceiling debate.