You may have heard that the consensus among Congress-watchers is that they plan to cut the deal for the Grand Bargain during the lame-duck session that takes place after the election. (Although not everyone believes they can do it – and not everyone agrees they’ll try.) And of course, the Catfood Commission plan that wasn’t even passed by their own panel will be the blueprint:
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said on Tuesday that he would introduce the blueprint of President Obama’s bipartisan deficit reduction panel to his committee as the starting point for negotiations over a long-term debt plan.
But the committee chairman, Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, made it clear that he would not push the committee to vote on amendments to the plan from the Bowles-Simpson commission or on a final version until a bipartisan consensus was reached.
“It’s unlikely we will reach agreement until after the election,” he said. “That’s just reality.”
Mr. Conrad’s announcement surprised Republicans and Democrats, who were expecting him to produce a Democratic budget that, if passed by the committee, would have been the first detailed deficit reduction plan in three years. Mr. Conrad said that committee Democrats had tried to produce a marker for the budget debate, but that he had decided to fall back on his original plan, the Bowles-Simpson blueprint, named after the chairmen of the 2010 commission, the Democrat Erskine B. Bowles and the Republican Alan K. Simpson.
A well-known progressive donor recently said, “There is going to be some kind of deal and progressives need to be talking about what that deal should be.” I suppose this is like one of those horror movies where they leave you alone with no food and a chainsaw?
How about we will all promise to vote third parties from the theoretical moment they sign their precious deal?
The “deal” should be GO POUND SAND REPUBLICANS! We The People have paid our hard-earned money into the system for ALL OF OUR WORKING YEARS and deserve to receive our PAID FOR safety-net retirement (Social SECURITY) checks and health care insurance (MediCARE) when they grow too old to work!
Vote third party now. The Democrats only make this deal if they have the White House. Remember Clinton and Welfare Reform? In opposition they fillibuster this “grand bargain”.
Damn right we are entitled to receive benefits from these “Entitlement Programs” as they are SO lamely referred to – WE PAID FOR THEM!
This was Mr Obama’s baby from day 1. He thought up the commission, established its purpose and appointed its members. He was and remains devoted to the idea that this will be his great legacy, which is why the damn thing will not die, no matter how many times it is killed.
They are determined that it will happen, and, by God, it is going to happen.
I’m already out. Dems are treacherous, venal, lying bastards. As a group, of course.
What is the point, political or otherwise, of voting for a third party? Isn’t it like cutting off your nose and then declaring to your face, “See, I told you I’d do it.”