Oh boy, another Obama speech! What will he say? Will he explain why he wants to cut every federal program that helps the poor, the elderly, children, and the middle class? Will he tell us why he wants to hand over our Social Security funds to Wall Street? Or will he do what everyone now knows he can do unilaterally–invoke the 14th Amendment or tell Congress he’ll veto everything except a clean vote on the debt ceiling?
I’m expected some passive aggressive whining, and of course multiple lies. But you never know. I could be wrong. Maybe tonight will be the night that President Obama at long last decides to do the right thing. I can dream, can’t I?
Bloomberg has a pretty good summary of the Boehner and Reid plans as of tonight.
Boehner’s plan would require $1.2 trillion in spending cuts in the first phase and up to $1.8 trillion in the second step. A committee would be created to identify cuts, and Congress would be required to vote by the end of this year on a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.
{sigh…}
Under Boehner’s proposal, Congress could face a replay of the debt-ceiling drama early next year if it didn’t reduce the debt by at least $1.6 trillion this year.
Won’t that be fun? Another round of kabuki in just a few months!
The $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade would be achieved through statutory caps on discretionary spending. If the caps were exceeded, there would be across-the- board cuts.
The measure would tie the second installment of borrowing authority to enactment of a deficit-cutting package that slashed up to $1.8 trillion from the debt. If the debt-reduction plan stalled in Congress, Obama would face another debt deadline in February or March.
Now that’s a really bad plan!
Reid’s plan cuts $2.7 trillion and raises the debt limit by 2.4 trillion, giving Congress and the President until after the 2012 election to get ready for the next battle royale. Cuts will come from defense and other discretionary spending and leave Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid alone–for now. The plan also includes the “committee” to identify further cuts (i.e., Catfood Commission II on steroids).
Supposedly President Obama has endorsed the Reid plan, but if he is true to form, he’ll cave and give the Republicans everything they want except for the ridiculous balanced budget amendment and (one would hope) the idiotic spending caps.
We shall see. Please use the comments to document the atrocities if you can bear to watch and/or listen. I plan to listen to the speech on the radio for as long as I can bear.
Comments
93 responses to “Live Blog: Our Fearful Leader Speaks”
OK, he’s starting out with heavy duty scare tactics. We won’t have enough money for job creation or for Medicare.
We have to live within our means, he says. Who knows why he believe that? Does he know that the Fed can print money at will?
he’d have had more if he let the dubya tax cuts expire and focused on jobs and ended the wars like he said he was going to
Then Jamie Dimon might not have wanted to hang around with him anymore.
His plan was balanced, he says and wouldn’t be a drag on the economy.
Now he’s praising Boehner for working with him for that past few weeks. But some Republicans want a cuts only approach that doesn’t ask anything of the rich and corporations.
probably because he hasn’t read any of them
lol
Democrats and Republicans agree on how much austerity we have to require of the American people. But the Republicans want to punish ordinary people while letting the rich get away with murder.
Now he brags about how he’s one of the rich top 1% {gag}
Under his “balanced” approach, he would extend the payroll tax for working families and 98% wouldn’t have to pay any more taxes. Just the super rich. He doesn’t say how that would be accomplished.
Why do we have a Democratic President that keeps doing this?
nationaljournal National Journal
Obama invokes Reagan. njour.nl/videonj
Here’s President Obama’s whole speech: http://njour.nl/pH2hZ2
ezraklein Ezra Klein
Reagan quote. DRINK!
emptywheel emptywheel
Ronald Reagan. Drink! (A lot)
Now he’s whining because Reagan and Bush were able to increase the debt ceiling tons of times, but the mean ol’ Repubs are keeping Obama from doing it (LIE).
Quotes I’m sick of: “kicking the can further down the road.”
Here comes the history lesson.
Pour me coffee: There is a guy from China behind Obama measuring drapes. That’s just rude.
Aha! I needed that laugh, thanks.
I am going to tweet that one… 😆
I beat you to it Woman voter!
Hi RedDragon! Great to see some of the Ole friends about during live blogs. 🙂 Greeting the the wife!
People are fed up with a town where compromise is a dirty word, he says.
No we’re fed up with not having a leader in the White House.
I don’t want a “balanced approach,” Mr. Obama. I want the rich to pay what they did under Eisenhower and corporations to be forced to bring jobs back home.
Commie!!!
Why don’t YOU put self-interest aside in favor of what’s best for our country, Mr. POTUS?
Why does he always have to say “God bless?’
Once again no specifics, no real leadership.
At least if was short.
I could not listen to him, thanks for the rundown BB.
You didn’t miss anything. But I was happy to do it.
He isn’t big on details and he was not about to take questions…
Now Boehner is speaking from his ceremonial office.
does it have nice bar stools?
Or a real upscale tanning bed?
He’s talking so fast I can’t keep up!
“I want you to know I made a sincere effort to work with the President…the President would not take yes for an answer.”
IMF warns US to raise debt limit or lose confidence of markets.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14282351
Boehner says we have to cut entitlements so they will be there for his grandchildren.
Huh?
I’m watching a replay of the Boner speech. He’s slurring his words a bit. I think he’s drunk.
Probably.
Boehner says tax cuts kill jobs. We have to take in more than we spend.
How can you do that without taxes?
Barack Obama’s Stimulus Bill Contained the Largest Tax Cuts in American History http://on.wsj.com/wZte and yet! They say the stimulus didn’t work … so , more of the same!!!
Why the Wealthiest Americans Are the Real ‘Job-Killers’ http://bit.ly/pmQbYZ
I missed it. Just tell me…
Did the sky open? Did the light come down? Are the birds singing? Have they all decided to do the right thing??
He wants us to all call our congressman. He can’t do anything so we have to call them. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I did to complain about him and the GOP!
From a fellow NOLA blogger:
YatPundit Edward Branley
Dear POTUS: I’m not contacting Steve Scalise-the man’s a NRA nutjob and I don’t want him having my phone number #p2
Why doesn’t Obama call *his* congressman, if he’s so weak and ineffectual that he can’t deal with this himself?
Shoot. Guess Hillary was right. Danged stubborn Republicans. Guess they just don’t appreciate Obama’s “eloquence.” 8-|
Boehner said absolutely nada.
Blah, blah, I have two daughter, I and the GOP and Obama have to Kill Social Security, Medicare to save it for my two daughters…blah,blah, blah…OH, someone has to look after the Ultra Rich, blah, blah, blah…
ROFLOL
I skipped the Boner speech. Did he cry when he mentioned his grandchildren’s future?
No one listened … the green polka dot tie and the orange face had every one singing the omphaloompa song
Oh yes, a midget reference, hurray…
We have been sent a bill, it’s due to be paid. It”s not like we are going out to buy something new, no we need to pay the damn bill.
Melissa Harris, the lady that wrote that big piece about Hillary is worried about her mom and her Social Security and Medicare!?! Yup, I all the support she gave to Obama is paying off…
Obama looked in the camera, spoke to the American people and of all the damn things he kept referring to the collective us as “they” instead of “you”. Who the hell did he think he was talking to?
How pathetic. He absolutely has no connection to us. He is above us. He is better than us. What a sorry excuse for a public servant.
Don’t you love the way he always brags about being one of the top 1%? Not only that, he stole that from Bill Clinton.
I also love the way he talks as if we all have jobs to come home from dead tired.
Um…we have 18 million unemployed Americans, you dipsh%t!
BorowitzReport Andy Borowitz
BREAKING: Canada Reports Huge Jump in Immigration #ObamaSpeech #BoehnerSpeech
Every time he says it I think about Clinton.
BTW – did you watch Tweety tonight? He made a strong pitch for Bill Clinton to be appointed Sec. of the Treasury. He said Clinton could explain these difficult matters to the American public and help Obama with the messaging and implied that Bill could bring in Republicans and Independents to get Obama re-elected.
The problem I see with the suggestion is that Bill would not agree with (and can not sell) Obama’s “kill the middle class” plan.
The only legitimate reason Obama could have used the air tonight was to announce he was going to use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling.
What a total wuss.
Yeah, imagine if Obama actually SAID something in one of these appearances? He’s a master of the vague generality.
I guess I should be grateful. For the first time in years I now have a job to come home from dead tired. I slept two hours after I got home today and I’m ready for bed again.
Hugs Branjor, and if Obama and GOP have their way, we will be working until we are 80 years old. Rest up…
That’s wonderful, Branjor. The job, not the exhaustion. That usually happens to me when I first start a job.
I’m so happy for you Branjor!
Oh, I am very happy for you Branjor…good luck with the new job.
Branjor, hooray for the job! I hope your sleep evens out soon.
Hey, wow, THANKS ! 🙂
Unfortunately, it’s only part time, only for the summer and I’m on my feet the whole time.
Dee:
He was this way here in Chicago.
The man honestly believes he walks on water and is genuinely confused and upset as to why the Rethugs refuse to see just how “awesome” he really is!!!!!
Someone with this amount of ego is extremely “Dangerous.” IMHO
He is a typical narcissist.
Wow. Obama says we are supposed to contact our congresspeople and senators to support… what??? Very vague. How about a concrete plan laid out clearly? Is that too much to ask from the Leader Of The Free World? Apparently it is. Pathetic. No leadership whatsoever.
If he spelled it out, there would be riots in the streets finally.
I tried emailing both of my Senators but it was impossible. MSNBC says Congressional computer and phone lines are crashing.
Good!!
I did notice that Obama was sporting the red republican tie…he usually has that snazzy blue tie for evening lectures.
It’s probably a secret signal to his golfing buddy, Mr. Orange face.
Nancy Pelosi has sold us out as well:
It is clear we must enter an era of austerity; to reduce the deficit through shared sacrifice.
Yep. I think she might have set a world speed record with this recent cave.
We need a new minority leader, WE NEED A NEW MINORITY LEADER…not a specialist on CAVE INS to the GOP!
Wow!
Damn Nancy…..Whiplash hurt much?
Imagine if he’d come and said this charade had gone on long enough, and acting in his capacity as president and in order to protect the nation, he was raising the debt limit to whatever amount would take us through he next elections.
Now, that would have been a game changer.
Except he WANTS this crisis or another crisis in order to go after SocSec/MM. In the worst way he wants that….
it’s so f’ing simple. All he had to do was let the Bush tax cuts expire, and to do that he had to do: nothing. Nothing at all!
Doing nothing should have been the easiest thing for Obama, it’s what he excels at.
Then he could have gone all Reaganesque and stared down Boehner and said, “Mr. Boehner, tear down this wall — I mean, give me a clean bill.”
Wall Street would have forced the Republicans to back down, and everyone knows it.
And Chris Matthews could have had a lovely tingle up his leg at Obama’s Reaganesque manliness.
Instead — clusterf*ck and confusion and corruption.
What a fool.
Many ppl thought #Obama was talking about the #GOP plan, then figured out it was the #DEMS “shared sacrifice” …even Harris was SHOCKED! Her mom depends on her Social Security and her Medicare.
Oh, those servers are crashing all right!
Oh, those servers are crashing all right!
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Reach out and let them know how you really feel!
Boo, sorry your comment got held up…it is free now! Thanks for the numbers!
Thanks for those numbers, Boo. Good to see you.
I normally do not watch Obama, but tonight I thought I would see what is new – I saw a guy who asked for national TV and annunciated not one thing new. He did not relate the consequences as he saw them, to the common person. He needed to explain to Joe and Pricilla Schmuckenheimer how this nonsense will affect them. Let me say that Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton would. His accomplishment was to allow the Republicans another chance to spew their nonsense
I saw a man who has never fought for budget like a governor does. He has had everything handed to him and has never had to duke it out with opposition entities. Obama is called the great communicator. I would suggest he fell flat tonighe which allows not to intelligent ideologues to spew their talking points.
The Reid and Boehner proposals are all cuts and nothing about revenue. So – the Republicans have already won by having revenue increases taken off the table.
The obots are whining and trying to defend that mediocre performance.
It should be interesting to see how the polls treat this event. I heard that CNN reported that a rating agency said the Boehner plan will not avert a down grade. We are about to get a education on what the bond markets do.
I forgot Truman who would have been the best of them all.
I think the people are getting the idea, finally, that Reagan is his idol, not Martin Luther King… Gut and Cut is his fast and loose fix…never mind the suffering or that it is the Workers and their Employers that paid for those benefits he and the GOP want to cut. Oh, and apparently Pelosi too.
Very good summary, fiscalliberal!
We are losing the Free Press, the press that is willing to say the TRUTH!
Cenk Uygur “I Gotta Tell People The Truth! Which Is Democrats & Republicans Are Here To SCREW YOU!”
Well, I emailed Pelosi, Feinstein, and Boxer. To let them know what I really thought of the lot of them and this utterly crooked charade. $16 trillion to banksta gangstas – and Granny can cut her catfood dinner in half. When Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. They make me sick. I am so angry I cannot see straight.
Harry Reid is hiding. Voice mail full – no email address for non-Nevadans. I’ll be calling him tomorrow. Some boxer he turned out to be. Super Commission, my ass.
Obama is in so far over his head it is unbelievable (except to those of us who didn’t fall for the hopey-changey post-racial BS). He stands for nothing. He is the personification of weakness. It would be laughable if it weren’t so deadly serious. He’s never done an honest day’s work in his life. He has zero experience. He’s still looking for daddy to love him. He wants to be the Messiah, solving all our problems for all time – MLK and Jesus rolled into one. One sick puppy. Seriously deranged. Blackmailing all Dems to go along with this destruction not only of the Democratic Party but of the country – and millions and millions of decent people, not crooks.
Excellent rant — and right on target.
Great solo for the choir. Everyone I know has been ignoring da Prez.
I second that! An excellent rant. Bravo!