[tomder55]

Yeah dictators have such power

[paraclete]

Surely he has the power to sack the congress

[talaniman]

I guess Obama isn't the dictator the right says he is. Why am I not surprised they are wrong again?

[paraclete]

He is only a dictator because they couldn't stop him doing something they didn't want him to do, guess what? It is about to happen again, proving that Congress is only as strong as it's weakest link

[tomder55]

Wouldn't surprise me at all if Emperor Zero pulls an EO out of his hat. Then the hypocrites on the left that abhor such Executive power grabs will applaud his bold action .

[speechlesstx]

surely he has the power to sack the congress

No, Congress has the power to sack him.

[earl237]

CNN said today that congress is getting a big pay raise when regular people could have their taxes go up, lose unemployment benefits and have their tax refunds delayed, this makes me sick. They said Obama has emergency powers to extend benefits and delay tax hikes, so the markets aren't too worried yet, at least for now.

[excon]

Hello again, earl:

He does, and you can see from toms response, how the Republicans are going to hate it if he does. I don't know WHY they hate the unemployed so. Oh, yeah... They're part of the 47%.

excon

[speechlesstx]

The raise was courtesy of yet another executive order from the guy who in 2007 thought we'd "paid a heavy price for having a president whose priority is expanding his own power." I have no comment on unemployment benefits, you've already made up an opinion for me.

[talaniman]

He rescinded his other executive order to freeze pay, and hiring.

[speechlesstx]

He rescinded his other executive order to freeze pay, and hiring.

What part of executive order do you not get?

[talaniman]

What part of congress has options to recind an executive order do you not get?

Executive order - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The loss of the legislative veto has caused Congress to look for alternative measures to override executive orders such as refusing to approve funding necessary to carry out certain policy measures contained with the order or to legitimize policy mechanisms. In the former, the president retains the power to veto such a decision; however, the Congress may override a veto with a two-thirds majority to end an executive order. It has been argued that a Congressional override of an executive order is a nearly impossible event due to the supermajority vote required and the fact that such a vote leaves individual lawmakers very vulnerable to political criticism.[10]

Is it the presidents fault congress has no pratical way of delivering a supermajority vote?

[speechlesstx]

In other words, you're OK with this imperial presidency.

By the way, what do you get for $359,796,008,919.49?

[talaniman]

QUOTE by speechlesstx;
In other words, you're OK with this imperial presidency.

Not really but better than the last, it's the do nothing congress I have a real problem with, but I have no control over who the righties elect.

By the way, what do you get for $359,796,008,919.49?

I may regret this but... WHAT?

[speechlesstx]

Not really but better than the last, its the do nothing congress I have a real problem with, but I have no control over who the righties elect.





I may regret this but................................WHAT?

Nothing. That's what it will take to service the federal debt this coming year.

[paraclete]

Well speech someone gets that money, it might be individual investors, it might be banks, it might even be China, everyone gets a little

[earl237]

Looks like a deal has been reached, but taxes will only go up on people earning more than 450k a year instead of the 250k that democrats wanted. Republicans still managed to protect the super rich. Notice how the markets soared earlier in the day long before the deal was reached, I wonder if there was some insider trading going on.

[tomder55]

$450,000 is super rich ? The Repubics caved . The budget cut issue has had the can kicked down the road for 2 months . Now there is no reason for the Dems to negotiate on that issue since the Repubics already surrendered their only leverage. In 2 months time we will reach a new "fiscal cliff" with the combination of sequestration ;and a debt ceiling happening at the same time .And the Dems will be able to dust off their playbook and blame the Repubics for the imminent plunge.

Good job McConnell ! You got out maneuvered by Joe Biden!! Lolololol!!


Edit ; the CBO says the new deal raises taxes by $620 billion and somehow has some budget cuts to the tune of $15 billion baseline spending . That's a 41:1 ratio .Good job McConnell !

Edit ;the 8 no votes are 3 Dems (Bennett, Cardin, Harkin); 5 Republicans (Grassley, Lee, Paul, Rubio, Shelby). The rest of the Repubics are sell outs.

Edit... still waiting on the Dems to praise the "Bush tax cuts " .Since they fought so hard to preserve them for most of the people ,they should at least acknowledge that they were big fans of the cuts all along.

[paraclete]

It's OK Tom the people who benefit most are paying more tax, very progressive and they will get to the budget cuts, but in the meantime there will be some pain on both sides of the camp, even though they got something done they have still driven off the cliff.

You can't expect these fellows with half a brain you elect over there to think of more than one thing at a time, all this brain exercise is too much for them after all you can train monkeys to say no

[tomder55]

and they will get to the budget cuts,

No they won't ;not even close. They calculate with baseline budgeting which means that even when they claim cuts in spending ;it is actually an increase .

In Fiscal Year 2011, the federal government collected $2.303 trillion in tax revenue.
Interest on the debt that year totaled $454.4 billion

That means that around 19.7 percent of the budget is eaten up by debt interest. The US is not yet bankrupt, But we are getting there. It would be like earning 50k a year before taxes and paying some 15k in credit card interest alone.

Mandatory spending totaled $2,025 billion.Mandatory spending plus debt interest totaled $2.479 trillion… exceeding total revenue by $176.4 billion.

Suppose the government spending was frozen to 2012 levels, we are still spending about 108 percent of the current budget based on mandatory spending alone. That's a deficit of 8 percent.
For Fiscal Year 2012 that shortfall increased 43% to $251.8 billion.
That's a deficit of close to 12 percent. Unsustainable.
That's BEFORE the discretionary spending is considered .

They could cut the entire Federal Government's discretionary budget– no more military, SEC, FBI, EPA, TSA, DHS, IRS, etc.– and they would still be in the hole by a quarter of a trillion dollars.

And that's just the way things are now! SS and other entitlements are predicted to expand at twice the rate of inflation.

The young people are screwed . We are going to get crushed by either entitlements or debt. Or both.