Obama Caves on Vetoing Short-Term Debt Limit Increase
Posted: July 20, 2011 Filed under: A My Pet Goat Moment, Barack Obama, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, voodoo economics, We are so F'd | Tags: Barack Obama, caving, Eric Cantor, Federal debt ceiling, Gang of Six, wimp 24 Comments
So what else is new? After all his tough talk and veto threats, President Obama is now willing to do what Eric Cantor proposed last week–sign a short-term increase in the debt limit. From Politico:
President Barack Obama would support a short-term extension of the debt limit if Democrats and Republicans reach agreement on a broader deficit-cutting deal but need more time to move it through Congress, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday.
The White House later clarified that the extension would only be for a few days. Like the Libya effort was only going to last a couple of weeks?
Obama is now pushing the “gang of six” plan which, as David Dayen points out, consists of a bunch of vague recommendations that would need to be fleshed out after the plan passes. Can you say “pig in a poke?”
Back to Politico:
The president has repeatedly told congressional leaders that he would veto any short-term debt extensions, saying once that the country is not a “banana republic” that can live in constant fear of default.
Carney said the president’s position on that point has not changed.
“We are not wavering on the president’s absolute assertion that he won’t sign a … series of provisions that temporarily or in a limited fashion raise the debt limit,” Carney said, because it is bad for the economy and sends the wrong signal to the world.
Obama would not sign an extension “without an agreement on something big, a firm commitment on something big,” Carney said.
Yeah, right. Let’s face it. The President is a wimp, and the Republicans know it.
peej
Carissa
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peggysue22
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Obama is going to meet with best buds Eric Cantor and John Boehner this afternoon at 5PM.
http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20110720/APW/1107200910
At least he finally found some friends from his real party who won’t tell him to go take a valium.
Yes, We CAVE,
Yes, We CAVE,
Yes, We CAVE,
Cuz O is a Gipper…wanna BE!
He doesn’t draw lines in the sand. He draws lines on etcha sketches then goes shake shake shake!!!
lol
snorts tea through nose — just missing computer key board. cough cough.
Good one.
That is a good one…
Obama needs to “buck up” and “get off the sidelines.”
It’s not even August yet, and he’s all “wee weed up.”
He’s pathetic.
😆 too funny 😆
It’s not even August yet, and he’s all “wee weed up.”
lol!
I thought we didn’t have enough money to pay our debts past August 2.
I’m know that I’m just repeating myself but I can’t believe what an incompetent boob he is. I knew that he would be mediocre at best but who could’ve imagined that he would be this bad?
This “debate” was lost the moment it became a debate. From that point forward the only question was to what extent the president would move to the right, and the answer is obviously “as far as he can get away with.” He wants a deal, he’ll do whatever he thinks he has to do to get one and by any sane lights it’ll be a very bad one.
so true …
Very well said. Unfortunately our President is not now and never was a Democrat.
Exactly.
Would that it were so. He’s getting support from a fairly substantial number of Congressional Democrats. Dick Durbin, fercrissakes, is among of the Gang of Six whose proposals Obama deems acceptable. Steny Hoyer is right there in the thick of things. It isn’t that they aren’t Democrats; it’s that as a party, Democrats took a pretty big jump to the right in the mid-1980s and they’ve been moving right ever since. Obama is just being noticeably more dramatic about it. There are a few dozen New Deal Democrats in the House and one in the Senate, and he’s not even a Democrat (Bernie Sanders).
It always goes back to this… Paul Douglas, 1932:
All this sound and fury signifies not a goddam thing (except that our president is loser extraordinaire). His visions of a grand solution to the debt, including cutting Social Security that, of course, has nothing whatsoever to do with the debt, are delusional. He can’t bind future administrations, try as he might. The jerk thinks he’s a Messiah when he’s really a bootlicking wannabe of the super-rich, super-self-indulgent all-white (not half-white) boys’ club. God, I hope they exile him from their company when he’s out of office (which, I think, is a very real possibility). I would love it if everyone wound up hating him – even those he tried so hard to please at the expense of the sick and elderly and the young and poor.
The republicans learned all they have to do is dig in their heels and say no and he’ll move even farther to the right than where he starts out. We saw this with Health Care and then those foolish bush tax cut extensions. He could have said no deal on both of those and not created a problem. Now he’s at the point where if he says no deal, it’ll crash the economy. If he was’t a ballless wonder to start out with, it would’ve never come down to this. At this point, he shouldn’t cave at all or he’ll spend the rest of his presidency enacting John Birch Society Legislature. I swear the man would probably reverse every law passed in the last 200 years if they told him to do it including rescinding women’s right to vote and the emancipation proclamation.
It’s not that he’ll do anything Repubs will tell him to do–it’s that he’s not fundamentally opposed to doing the things Repubs ask him to do in the first place. IMHO.
Exactly…
Predictable…………..it’s over.