Not On The Table — “No Matter What Hostages the Republicans Take”

[RhodaA]

I give people the benefit of the doubt. I try to understand their point of view. If I perceive that they try
to take advantage of that, then I will crush them. — Barack Obama

On June 2nd, President Obama met with House Democrats to talk about the 2012 budget. He made two things clear:

1) Medicare benefit cuts are not on the table;
2) Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will not be extended.

After a meeting with House Democrats that lasted more than an hour, President Obama said that they will have to join him in his efforts to cut the deficit, but he made it clear that Medicare benefits will not be cut in any compromise, including one to raise the debt ceiling. Instead, lawmakers emerged calling for an end to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy — a clear stab at the deficit-reduction plan put forth by Rep. Paul Ryan.

He stressed that his administration would draw a firm line on taxes and revenues both in the deficit- and debt-reduction debates and in the buildup to the 2012 elections … “I’ve been very clear about revenues as a part of a balanced package, and I will continue to be … I’ve said I’m not going to renew the tax cuts for the top two percent. We might agree on tax reform or simplification, but on the upper-income tax cuts we are just going to have to agree to disagree … it was vital to have revenues as part of the mix, stressing that a budget can’t be balanced on non-defense discretionary spending or the ‘backs of the most vulnerable,’ and added, he would “not support extending the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent again no matter what hostages Republicans took.”

What did it for me in Obama’s plan to get the nation’s finances in order was that the President took his stand against the GOP effort to take away the soul of this nation while staring directly into the eyes of Rep. Paul Ryan – the architect of the document that would remake this country in the mold of third world nations where there are rich people and poor people with nobody in the middle. Unlike the taunts, personal insults and barbs that Ryan and his companions lob at the president on a daily basis from the safety of a television studio, Obama took the route that requires character. He did it to Ryan’s face. — Rick Ungar

The Eyes of Ryan

Continue:
http://www.culturaldirection.com/archives/8394

[LongTomH]

1. Proud to be the first to K & R

:kick:

[Lionessa]

2. Yep, just like single payer, just tax cuts for rich renew#1, ..... do you folks actually believe

him still? Really???

Not going after dispensaries in MMJ states,
Treating GLBTs in the military like whole human beings
Transparency

the list is just too long. I've seen them here before, but it suffices to say, Obama can talk a mean streak, but folds before the game has even begun most of the time.

[Ineeda]

5. I do. But he has to have the Dems in Congress behind him.

Otherwise he'll have to get out his veto pen.

[RhodaA]

6. I like your sig line

Here's mine - from an unfinished poem I'm writing

Infinite nothingness we cannot comprehend
Nor life without end

[Lionessa]

12. You do huh? Even after he had Dems in Congress and still rolled on

all the key parts that really mattered on so many bills.

I'm glad I'm not you, that level of naivete is just unattractive.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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

[JoePhilly]

9. Never promised single payer ...

Ending DADT.

Far more transparent than the last administration (which gives you more ammunition) ...

You better get busy on a 3rd party I guess. Although time for 2012 is getting late.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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

[Lionessa]

13. Freeper comments, huh? Suggest you look at a strong review

of all my comments. I am anti-Obama after having given him plenty of chances, but I am not a freeper or a conservative. I'm one of the progressive liberals that's tired of Obama and his admin dissing me and those of similar perspectives.

I find blind faith and adoration of any leader unacceptable. He has to earn my trust and faith, and to date Obama has done neither.

[truedelphi]

14. One day it is the "real" Barack Obama,

The following year, it is his evil twin.

Remember the guy running for the Senate in Illinois who promised that since "Universal Single Payer Health Care was the best and most logical answer to the health care crisis?"
all we voters needed to do was to get a Democratic majority in the House and Senate and a Dem in the White House?

We voters do that, trusting in the Democratic Party, and the guy immediately starts prefabricating that "if we were starting from scratch, then Universal SPHC would be a viable choice. But since we already have a working health care situation, it is important we include that element in any solution."

Since we no longer have a real news media, no one in the News Media parsed this illogical statement.** Which was it? If we needed Health Care reform, how dare Mr Obama or anyone else suggest that we needed to save the parts of the HC system that were already in place.

And while all this was being said, Rahm was meeting with the Big Insurers and Big Pharma reps to stab the American public in the back.

**Although in mid-August of 2009, Jon Stewart parsed the heck out of the statement and made a laughing stock out of Obama for his inability to articulate what he had said so well back in 2004.

[uponit7771]

15. Please link and quote PROMISE of single payer, thank you in advance

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

20. He NEVER said that he would push for a single payer health care system.

He said that while he supported the concept, the political environment was not conducive to such a drastic change. And I agree with him! Yes, single payer was off the table because he knew that we didn't have enough PROGRESSIVES serving in the Congress.

Give the president more progressives and you'll have some assurance that more progressive legislative outcomes will result. But, the president can't do much of anything progressive due in large part to the corporatists and Blue Dogs in his own caucus.

[Diamonique]

3. Yes indeed he did it to Ryan's face...

... and that waste of air has been whining about it ever since. Poor baby.

[RhodaA]

4. "demagoguery"

[Tippy]

8. K&R......

[southernyankeebelle]

10. Talk is cheap. I want to believe him. Let's see if he and the democrats really

mean it. If he sells us out he will be defeated. PERIOD.

[Myrina]

16. Benfits will not be CUT ... but ...

... he didn't say that the delivery method had to stay the same (ie - vouchers or the GOP 'pay to play' program aren't necessarily off the table) ... many times, its not what POTUS says that becomes so maddening, it's what's between the lines. Master manipulator of the language, he is.

[OwnedByFerrets]

18. +1

[Kall]

17. Lucy and the football comes to mind

I recognized the pattern a long time ago. Maybe the House Democrats, or others, still don't.

I give people the benefit of the doubt. I try to understand their point of view. If I perceive that they try
to take advantage of that, then I will crush them. — Barack Obama

That steely resolve was on clear display as he was begging and pleading Chuck Grassley to vote for his sick parody of a health care bill, no matter what he wanted in it. While Chuck Grassley called it a socialist plot to pull the plug on Grandma.

And on the stimulus. And on extending the Bush tax cuts. And...

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

19. Excellent!! The sufferers of Obama Derangement Syndrome must be losing their minds!

K&R!!!

[RhodaA]

21. Ha Ha - what a waste of anger.

[RhodaA]

22. PS: I meant theirs; not yours

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

23. LOL!! I'm not one of the ones suffering from this syndrome. :)