Analysis: GOP won first budget round; future victories may be harder for GOP leader Boehner

[ProSense]

Analysis: GOP won first budget round; future victories may be harder for GOP leader Boehner

WASHINGTON — Republican conservatives were the chief winners in the budget deal that forced Democrats to accept historic spending cuts they strongly opposed.

Emboldened by last fall’s election victories, fiscal conservatives have changed the debate in Washington. The question no longer is whether to cut spending, but how deeply. Rarely mentioned is the idea of higher taxes to lower the deficit.

Their success is all the more notable because Democrats control the Senate and White House.

<...>

Boehner, a skilled legislator, spent weeks talking with House conservatives who insisted on $61 billion in current-year spending cuts. That was the pro-rated remainder of conservatives’ campaign pledge to cut $100 billion in the 2011 budget year, now half over.

Democrats complained bitterly about the first $10 billion in cuts, but eventually said they could not go above $33 billion. The final deal calls for $38.5 billion in cuts.

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[OHdem10]

1. As I said earlier, we cannot put lipstick on this pig.

As predicted, the Dems and Obama caved.

Until they realize we are in a political war, and
they are playing the losing game, nothing changes.

They consistently let the Republicans set the table
(make all the proposals) and then try to push back.
Losing strategy and since this has been their strategy
for years, we can thank them for the Right Wing America
they have enabled.

Can they ever go on offense instead of defense???

[tridim]

3. Do you understand that the Repukes are in charge in the House?

[OHdem10]

7. Yes, this does not mean the Democrats hide under their desks.

[tridim]

10. What will happen if they don't "hide under their desks"?

Whatever that means..

Will the teafuckers and teafucker-lites pass progressive legislation then?

[Arkana]

13. I'm curious--with fewer than 200 members, and not even all of them a sure thing

on any bill, what exactly could they have done? Held their breath until they turned blue?

Republicans control the House and they're slaves to the Tea Party.

No budget that passed this Congress was going to be good and we would be naive at best to think otherwise. The best we could hope for is "less bad than anticipated".

[high density]

14. This is what I've seen...

In the first two years of the Obama administration, the Republicans effectively controlled the Senate and watered down every piece of legislation while still offering nearly zero votes in the end.

Now the control is in the Republican House where the Democrats and Obama appear to be sitting back and blindly accepting the Republican agenda. The government did not run like this when the Democrats controlled the House under Bush. Bush continued to set the agenda.

[mkultra]

23. what exactly does this gibberish mean

Its not a war, its democracy.

[nosmokes]

9. Then how did the GOPosse manage to win when the Dems controlled the House?

If the Democratic Party is so wholly inept it can't stop abominations like this even when public opinion is on their side then what good are they? Shouldn't we just dissolve the Democratic Party and start over with something else? When something is so ineffective as to be this useless it becomes detrimental to the very cause it is supposed to represent.

[tridim]

11. Because the asshole party requires 61 votes to pass anything in the senate

It wasn't that long ago. Have you forgotten already?

[ProudDad]

17. No they didn't NEED 60 votes (plus Biden)...

They could have changed the rules in January of 2009...

But didn't...

'Cause the "rules" serve the corporate masters to whom they are nearly all beholden for their jobs...Dem or Puke...

No way the "rules" are going to serve Democracy or the People.

[subterranean]

2. They'll keep using the same playbook until it stops working for them.

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

4. that was a bullshit analysis. sorry.

[BklnDem75]

5. Charles Babington is no fan of Obama

The AP is at it again. The largest North American news service is continuing in their anti-Obama trajectory with an "analysis" that, like Ron Fournier's last week, seems more agenda-driven than actual analysis. This time, it's Charles Babington, a little known writer from the Washington Post (and I've been assured it's not a nom de plume of Fournier) whose shots at Obama had MSNBC host Keith Olbermann wondering what speech Babington had been watching.

snip

"Of course," he went on to write, "no candidate can outline every initiative in a 35-minute speech - especially one that also must inspire voters." Mr. Babington got the length of the speech wrong by at least seven minutes. And this is analysis that will be printed in many, many newspapers, hundreds of them around the country. It is analysis that strikes me as having done...as having borne no resemblance to the speech you and I just watched. None whatsoever. And for it to be distributed by the lone national news organization in terms of wire copy to newspapers around the country and websites, is a remarkable failure of that news organization.

Charles Babington, find new work.


http://crooksandliars.com/taxonomy/term/1381,296

[Logical]

6. +1

[southernyankeebelle]

8. I have a feeling the Obama and the dem's are going to sell us out. OK but they will lose us.

[Arkana]

12. Don't tell Republicans--they think they lost.

[vroomvroom]

15. And Most on DU actually think we Won

[Dokkie]

18. Oh yea

the rethugs won alright. They mobilized their troops with issue on the debt and cutting spending, the brown man promised them 100b cut after the votes were tallied, then he reduced the cut to 61b then 36b before getting a 38b cut. If this is a win for the repubs, I hate to see what you consider a loss.

Btw we won big time and it wasnt even close

[craigmatic]

16. Yeah we clearly lost this fight. The democratic PR prople are spinning. Pretty much the only thing

we got out of this was planned parenthood. We could've got them to take a lower number of cuts but Obama gave too much away before negotiations even started.

[LiberalFighter]

19. Can we push the meme that fewer cuts were made in states like Ohio?

That Florida has major cuts aimed and demanded by Paul Ryan?

[democracy1st]

20. This article is pure BS written by Charles Babington a AP shill for the Repubs

http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/charles-babington-coverup-artist/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_spending_fights_analysis

[rasputin1952]

21. Actually, it was loss/loss...

Boehener did not give the Teabaggers what they demanded, D's caved on some things, stood up for others.

Boehener has the bigger problem...he cannot herd his rabble, he's a pathetic "leader", and it appears to me that he was desperately avoiding trying not to crap his pants when he gave his little "speech".

it will be interesting to to see just where this goes....and who knows if any of it will come through the Senate unscathed.

Boehener is in some serious trouble; his voice trembles, he's unsure of himself and he has pissed off Teabaggers to deal with. PO on the other hand, just has to look him in the eye and say, "no, that's not going to happen". Boehener then becomes Gingrich, facing a government shutdown.If I were in PO's shows, I'd let Boehener take the rap for the whole thing...then step on him on the way to to the bathroom.

[fugop]

22. Credit to the Dems for averting?

At least one CNN poll says people are crediting the Democrats and Obama for averting the shutdown. As the spouse of a government worker who would have been furloughed, I'm pleased to see that Boehner isn't getting credit for stopping the runaway train that he and his fellow GOPers set free:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/poll-americans-strongly-support-budget-deal-and-credit-dems-for-averting-shutdown.php?ref=fpi