What do you want Obama to do that you think can actually get done

[N7Shepard]

Regarding the debt ceiling?

14th amendment option?

Agree to some cuts and/or other negative reforms to SS and/or medicare and/or other programs if and only if the bush tax cuts are repealed and defense spending is cut?

Those are a couple of options. No poll because it's an open ended question. All I ask is state reasonable things he actually might be able to get done with a republican house.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. He may not be able to get ANYTHING done.

But he can at least try.

However, I no longer believe he wants to.

[uppityperson]

3. Seriously Peggy?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Yes, seriously.

I no longer trust him very much.

I don't know what happened to him, but I don't think he's really on our side.

[Dept of Beer]

13. But you'll vote for him in 2012?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

19. What option are you offering for president? Newt the f******d Gingrich? nt

[Dept of Beer]

23. I offered a question, not candidates.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

31. Ok. I think we will only have 1 option again. nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

21. I don't know yet.

I would never vote for a Republican. I hope you know that.

I might withhold my vote from the top of the ticket, but not anywhere else.

But I haven't fully made up my mind about Obama...

[Dept of Beer]

22. I would never vote for a repiggy either.

I believe that no true Duer would.

[Control-Z]

30. But, withholding

your vote will add one of their votes that would have otherwise been neutralized by yours. That is how they win.

[donheld]

27. right

:thumbsup: sadly

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. Veto bad shit.

Instead he works with congress to solicit only mostly-bad shit so he won't have to veto it.

End the wars. Close secret prisons. Reinstate Habeas Corpus. Stop busting pot dispensaries. The list of shit that is happening by executive fiat is long, and there's no one to blame for it but him (and us, by extension).

[harun]

6. Easy tell Congress to send him a bill or default.

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. Honestly?

He should have tied the debt ceiling to the extension of the Bush tax cuts back in 2010 along with the tie-in to unemployment extensions.

At this point with 2 weeks to go, I don't see an out.

Ideally, What I would like to see is defunding the 6 damn wars we are in in the middle east and north africa as well as defunding the moronic war on pot. Demand the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2011. Raise the contribution % to Medicare. Lift the cap on Social Security payroll deductions. Eliminate the tax credits for oil & gas companies. Penalties for offshoring operations. Raise capital gains taxes so that unearned income is taxed the same as earned income. Surely between those we can scrape a few dimes together. Then again, I am an economist - not a Republican.

[N7Shepard]

14. Don't get me wrong, I think we're on the same page as for what we ideally want

there's just no way it will pass the house.

And I think if he does the end the war on pot as part of the debt ceiling I think people will have a field day with it. That needs to be done separately IMO.

[quinnox]

8. One termer guaranteed if the core social programs get cut

Counting on the excuse "The republicans made me do it!" isn't going to fly come Nov. 2012, he already used that excuse for the extension of the Bush tax cuts.

Obama must be surrounded by sycophants if he thinks he can get away with this nonsense.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Exactly.

[ProSense]

17. Maybe he doesn't want to win

Maybe he's doing this because he's really evil!!!

Maybe he's going to propose cuts and every Democrat is going to vote against them. The proposal will go down in defeat.

The MSM and pundits will pounce: What was he thinking? Is this President clueless?

The NY Post's headline will be: DEFEATED!!!!

Or maybe not!

[somone]

18. Just the fact that he OFFERED to cut Soc Sec & Medicare isn't going to sit well with many

[BlueCaliDem]

26. Well, if that happens, I hope you understand that a Repig will take the WH

and social programs will be completely destroyed and done away with. And once the Repukes are back in power, elections are no longer going to be safe - take a look at the shenanigans of the GOP in the states where the citizenry were stupid enough to give the GOP large majorities and the governorships.

President Obama has already said he would NOT cut benefits. He's offering to cut COSTS, and I'm all for taht. But corporate media have successfully used the no-no buzzwords in exactly the right way to plant a seed of doubt in people's minds, reporting, "President considering cuts in social programs" instead of "President is considering cost cuts in social programs", and everyone is up in a tizzy, ready to crucify him.

I don't know how many times President Obama has to come out to tell us he is NOT cutting benefits before we finally believe him.

I'm not happy with everything he's been able to accomplish, either, but I WILL vote for him in 2012. He's done more than enough good to deserve a second term, and Republicans have proven to me more than just a little dangerous to this country to deserve never to be in power again.

[TheKentuckian]

34. He was just talking about "trimming benefits" yesterday.

I also do not see how we are significantly cutting costs and not cutting benefits, almost impossible on the Social Security side with a 3% overhead and no easy task on Medicare because if you cut reimbursements almost any it will reduce already diminishing access and it seems that instead of lowering the eligibility age that he offered to raise it which I consider a rather substantial cut.

Don't want the TeaPubliKlans to win? Better get someone else to run then and repudiate his nonsense.

[ProSense]

10. Some recent

actions by the administration:

Obama Administration Requires Banks to Extend Foreclosure Forbearance for Unemployed Workers

ACLU: Justice Is Served (Fair Sentencing Act made retroactive)

How Obama is shoring up federal authority over Medicaid

More


The President could continue doing these things and he would still be accused of being a sell out!!!

[Dept of Beer]

16. The question was if I may repeat it...

What do you want Obama to do that you think can actually get done regarding the debt ceiling?

Are you able to answer in your own words?

[ProSense]

24. "Are you able to answer in your own words?"

Can you read: The President could continue doing these things and he would still be accused of being a sell out!!!?

[Dept of Beer]

25. So you are NOT able to answer in your own words?

Read you loud and clear.

:rofl:

[Major Hogwash]

11. Declare marshall law and disband Congress as the irrelevant fuchs that they are!!!

And just run the federal government the way he wants to, for about 20 years.
I'm sick and tired of hearing people say he is a one-termer.
That's just horseshit, he'll be re-elected by a landslide.

It's the wimps, the pimps, and the whores in Congress that shouldn't be re-elected!!!

Sign an executive order outlawing lobbyists, effective August 1st.
Tell the Supreme Court to take a fucking hike.
Then make Joe Biden drive his golf cart to the golf course and play another round of golf.

[canoeist52]

12. When did we decide we can only propose bills that we're sure will pass?

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained" is what I was taught. If we only prosecute cases that we're sure we'll win, there'd be no point to our judicial system.

[N7Shepard]

15. Fine, playing hardball is an option. Just what do you think it will accomplish in the end?

[Solomon]

35. Sorry to wet your noodle, but that's what prosecutors do everywhere

in the country. They only prosecute cases they think they will win.

Surely you don't want them to prosecute people for the sake of prosecuting them do you? Just imagine where the average citizen would be under that scheme.

[LooseWilly]

20. Here's an idea- tell Republicans Raise the debt ceiling or defunding the wars will be first default

... then run a media blitz to tell the public that the debt ceiling needs to be raised to pay for the wars.

Let the Republicans raise the debt limit or end the wars. And let them face the prospect of a continued failure to raise the debt ceiling causing huge financial losses to their corporate overlords... all the while telling those corporate overlords that, if they want the pressure lifted all they have to do is send their bagmen to tell the Republicans to behave themselves.

Stand up like that, and start promising some action on jobs/job training, or funding for unemployment, or new stimulus measures after the '12 elections and they'd win the house back, and maybe the Super Senate... and then actually DO what they've promised and they'll keep winning.

Set up a special prosecutor for war crimes under W. Postpone or cancel an order for some military something-or-other to fund the closing of Gitmo. Cancel Xe and such like merc contracts and instead use US military for those jobs (there's reputed to be a 1-year waiting period to get to bootcamp).

That ought to be enough to keep them busy until the election. Ohh yeah, and tell Panetta to officially ok the repeal of DADT and then Obama should do the same. And call off the DEA raids of medical marijuana operations in states where it's legal. And lighten up on immigration enforcement while simultaneously adding that to the list of things to be "addressed" after the election.

In the meantime, have Pelosi and Congress in general begin drawing up the bills to have them ready. Also have Reid draw up changes for the fillibuster rule... at the very least requiring that fillibusters involve senators standing on the senate floor speaking non-stop.

[napoleon_in_rags]

28. Tax SCIENCE (hypothesis experiment)

Basically, Repubs promised not to raise taxes. So you don't sign tax increases into place, but rather put in a mechanism that places taxes as inversely proportional to some metric of success Republicans claim will follow from these current low taxes. If they are right, taxes don't raise. If they are wrong, they do. That way, repubs can say "Our projections show a 0% tax increase with the new bill", but if that success doesn't follow, taxes raise. Long term it will empower them, it will be repubs little carrot and stick for corporate forces ignoring the "our policies will create more jobs" dog whistle.

[rucky]

32. Bingo.

Have 'em put their money where their pieholes are.

[Kennah]

29. Stop reading about Reagan, start reading about Truman

[dawg]

33. How about this -

He could stop spewing right-wing talking points. Between that, and appearing willing to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, he has soiled the Democratic brand. (As if it wasn't already pretty soiled.)

We have enough problems with poor whites voting Republican against their own self-interest. But Obama has been disastrous at blurring the differences between the parties. He's everything the Naderites said about Gore. It wasn't true then, but sadly it is now.

You may think it's all 3D chess and strategy, but even if it is, that is going to sail right over the heads of John Q. Public.

We are in a war of ideas, and Obama hasn't run up the white flag, he's joined with the enemy.

And yes, if he's our nominee I'll vote for him. But this is turning into a disaster.