Obama: Republicans 'Have Had Trouble Saying Yes'

President chastises GOP for fiscal cliff standoff

With hours to go before America hits the fiscal cliff, President Barack Obama used a Sunday talk show appearance to pin the blame on Republicans who "have had trouble saying yes."

On NBC's "Meet the Press," the president said he's negotiated in good faith, moved more than halfway to reach a grand bargain and angered Democrats with his concessions. But he said Republicans still refuse to strike a deal with him and hike rates on the richest taxpayers.

"They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected," Obama said. "That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme."

Unless Congress acts by midnight Monday, a broad set of tax increases and federal spending cuts will be automatically imposed on Jan. 1, affecting virtually every taxpayer and government program. The spending cuts were put in place earlier this year as draconian incentives that would force the president and lawmakers to confront the nation's growing debt.

Now, lawmakers are trying to keep them from happening, though it seemed likely, that the cuts, known as sequestration, would be left for the next Congress, to be sworn in this week.

Via The New York Times

Are House Republicans to blame if the US goes over the fiscal cliff?

[bethbarley]

Come On people'!

[PNWest]

It is amazing to me that the self victimiizing righties on Politix are always claiming that Politix is a leftist board when results of survey after survey show a clear right wing bias. Nationally at least 60% of Americans will rightly blame the republicans is fiscal cliff talks fail but here on Politix the numbers are reversed. That happens on every survey. There is about a 20% bias towards conservative posters on Politix.

[malpaso]

anybody else notice that obama is continually making the nazi salute? Wonder what he is really thinking? somehow can't believe it is anything good for the American people...for Islam probably...for America probably not

[mtkopf]

@PNWest I thought I was the only one who noticed that

[PNWest]

@malpaso Yes. I'll bet that Obama is a secret Nazi too. Let's see if I have all this right. Obama is a secret Nazi, Fascist, Socialist, Communist born in Kenya and fathered by a known radical, a devout Muslim who listened to a radical black Christian preacher for 20 years who killed Osama bin Laden to take over the Islamic Brotherhood. Here's some pictures of his fellow secret Nazi:

http://www.rumormillnews.com/pix/pic73132.jpg
http://poznanie.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/b...
http://www.exohuman.com/wordpress/wp-content/...

[malpaso]

@PNWest no, my point was the similarity. We already know what he is...liar

[Thunderchicken]

IT'S THE SPENDING!!! Until the bozos in DC address that, everything else is just partisan BS.

[Realthinker]

But we are dealing with people who really believe that the rich have more than enough money to fund everything from free health care, free college, free everything if only those evil Republicans would get out of the way. That is what Obama is implying here. I have encountered people here on Politix who insist there is plenty of money. Couple that with the people who believe creating a permanent dependency class is compassionate and I don't have hope for America's future anymore.

[Rocker]

Both have a little trouble with reality and common sense. The previous 4 years of inactivity is coming due and payable until they have to make some kind of move.

[stepped_in_it]

Does anyone have a copy of "Budget for Dummies" we can send to Mr. President AND the CONgress? Just one copy, as they can all huddle around the campfire and read it together (why singing Cumbyah and roasting their weenies)!

[seedtick]

For the past four years Barack Husssein Obama has been focused upon Obamacare and his re-election. We hired him to lead...and what does he do? Nothing, Nada, Nichts....that addresses the debt and spending and jobs.
Oh, I forgot to mention the scandals within his administration that he spent a lot of time hiding from.

[Phreakwars]

Yes, it's the spending.. The Bush tax breaks weren't paid for, the war wasn't paid for, the Medicare part D wasn't paid for. All the money for these things were borrowed from China. The constitution says we have an obligation to pay these debts. Quit whining about the small pittance Obama has actually spent and look at that bigger debt, specifically, the first one I mentioned... the tax breaks weren't paid for. Now what do you do if you buy a new car with financing, but can't make the payments? You bring it back.

[Jeff_Woehrle]

Republicans DO have trouble saying yes. Yes to higher taxes, more spending, more borrowing and limitless debt. Obumble is spot on this time.

[Sonny]

And "yes" to the first black President of the United States.....And don't try to deny that fact & reality..

[Jeff_Woehrle]

@Sonny Are you saying that black people overspend? Otherwise, I cannot see the relevance.

Meanwhile, let's spend more! Let's borrow more! No need to make cuts! Let the next generations pay!

Happy days are here again!

[Sonny]

@Jeff_Woehrle Well the fact is that there were several times where the President & the Speaker had come to a deal...Only to have the house tea party...blow everything up. And in many cases there have been proposed laws that the repubs. them selves have supported, but when Obama has signaled his agreement to them---Take a wild guess of what the republicans (lead by their tea party) then did. The fact is--that the republican party is now run by the tea party...And the only purpose of the tea party is to oppose Obama (the first black president of the US)...No matter what...And those tea party amateurs in congress came from those ranks---

I mean---did they do any of what they are doing to Bush, when he was spending like a drunken sailor on leave?!?! Hell no, they didn/t...So I think their motives speak loudly and clearly for them selves.

[Jeff_Woehrle]

@Sonny There is a faction among elected Republicans who are against deficit spending, raising taxes and borrowing more money. Those folks are called "Conservatives,"

We are in the minority, but still have integrity to fight for what is right.

Sadly, a good portion of the voting public sees no need to limit spending or borrowing.

They believe (as do liberals in general) that it is morally correct to saddle future generations with the largess that we vote ourselves today.

Lost cause? Perhaps. But integrity demands nothing less. Which is why I oppose spending beyond our means and expecting our children and children's children to pay for it.

[Sonny]

@Jeff_Woehrle Well once again...Where were all of you folks when Bush Exploded our national debt?!? So are you saying its ok, if a republican runs up our debt...but not a democrat? I mean how can you have it both ways? You either believe all of the hype you just typed, or ---you don't? So if you believe it---then why now? Why this president, as opposed to 12 years ago? when YOUR guy was doing this? What else could the reason possibly be???

[CATTLEPROD]

And Obama has trouble being told no. Just like a little brat kid who wants his hershey bar at the checkout.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

If it were just a Hershey bar then I'd say yes. No big deal. However, obama has a whole basket full of goodies, not just for him but for all his friends as well. Imagine you're at the checkout line in your grocery store and one of your children asked for one candy bar. You probably wouldn't think it was that big of a deal. However, what if child asked for 50 candy bars, one for every kid he knows in the neighborhood? That's obama. You'd probably tell your child that the other kids have parents and that their parents should buy them candy, if they wish. Uh uh, obama wants YOU to buy everyone candy, every day. Ridiculous, is it not?

[CATTLEPROD]

@Neo_NtheMatrix Very much so. Another thing I have noticed is how rich liberals like obama and clinton always talk about how much they have and would be in the bracket having thier taxes raised to help the impoverished. With a slogan "I got mine, now I want yours, too."

[hwyangel]

@Neo_NtheMatrix

You just made me think about this video on YouTube, it's hilarious.
According to these kids the Republicans are the good guys in stars wars, and the Democrats take care of your teeth. lol
If your a Democrat then you can solve unemployment by pulling peoples teeth and waiting for to tooth fairy. lol

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch...

[jessejaymes]

The problem is the Republicans. If they had agreed to raise taxes on those making over 500,000.00 a year and left social security and medicare alone and demanded cuts in virtually everything else then it would be the Democrats fault. But the reality in America is that the seniors control every national election. You go after them, as the GOP wants to do and they're cutting their own throats. Frankly as a member of the middle class with a yearly retirement income of about 100K give or take 5K each way depending on the year, I am sick to death of people like GE paying little to no tax, Rupert Murdoch not only paying little to no tax, but getting nearly a million back on top of that. I'm sick to death of the parasites on this country who won't even work at all, and there is a ton of them. I personally knew a CPA who rode unemployment for nearly two years, laughing and bragging about it and when it ran out, went and got a job. I know a stripper (yeah and it's what you think) who claimed she hurt her back stripping and got workers compensation while working private parties right along. For all I know she's still drawing. At the top we have the ultra rich raping and looting America. At the bottom we have cradle to grave welfare cheats spawning gang members by the millions. What we don't have is enough people in the middle to support all these cheats. Obama isn't even being asked to deal with all these things. The GOP wants to protect the rich and steal more from the Seniors. That's not how to strike a deal.

[ithink2]

How much revenue would be collected by the federal government if we taxed everyone making $500,000 per year 39%? Do you realize that the top 1% of taxpayers starts at about $330,000 of annual income? If we taxed the top 1% the 39% vs 35% we would collect an additional $80 billion dollars a year.

Our one year deficit, the amount we added to the debt last year, 2012, was $1.1 trillion dollars. Taxing the top 1% an additional $80 billion will not do much for our spending problem. In fact, if you taxed everyone in the top 1%, 100% of their income it would not pay 2012's one year budget deficit.

We do not have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. Taxing the rich will not solve our problem. We cannot spend $1.1 trillion dollars more each year than we take in.

Perspective: 2007 statistics. Budget deficit $163 billion. Bush tax cuts in full force, largest amount of revenue ever collected by the government in one year. Fighting two wars. Unemployment at less than 5% for 11 of 12 months, December had a 5% rate.

If Obama wants to spend one more dollar, then over the cliff we go.$16.3 trillion dollars of debt, equal to 102% of the United States GDP Let's hope the Republicans will hold the line.

[Justin_Case]

Those that wield the most power cheat the most. That because they hold the power to do so.

[Ashstop]

If the president won't cut spending then we have to pay for it, simple as that, raising the debt ceiling over and over is " unpatriotic " ( Obama's own words when he was campaigning )
Obama wants us to go over, higher taxes, huge cuts in military.. It's a perfect event for him.

[Denizen_Kate]

The prez and congress all agree that spending cuts are needed, they're just light years apart on what to cut and how much.

[Ashstop]

@Denizen_Kate
Yes they are light years apart I agree, Obama's promice to talk about them in the future but raise the debt ceiling now is just pushing it away, everytime future cuts have been approved in the past they NEVER happen! He wants a band aid to stop the bleeding now and nothing more, Obama Care has already been called a tax so he's already set the biggest increase in taxes on all us in history, now he wants more.. Sadly that's what half the country want, more taxes now... Cut back later on.
I admire the wisdom of the minority Republicans trying to address the real problem now to stop this!!

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

@Denizen_Kate - Since you're more intelligent than anyone else on these boards, how would you balance the budget and begin attacking the deficit? I'm curious as to how you'd pull that off.

[Denizen_Kate]

@Neo_NtheMatrix - why, thank you, Neo. What a nice compliment. Or were you being sarcastic? Since you ask ...

Start by closing the loopholes that allow corporations like GE to get tax rebates rather than tax due bills. Work out a way to reduce big farm subsidies while actually helping smaller family-run farms. Cut the defense budget by several billion per year, which can be done surgically program-by-program without weakening our military or putting too many aerospace workers out of a job. Decriminalize cannabis and cut a few billion a year from the complete waste that is the war on drugs.

Good start?

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

@Denizen_Kate - Sorry I asked. I'm just not much of a fan of gutting our military or legalizing dope fiends.

[ctc]

Nothing has changed and this President continues to underestimate his opposition.
First they did nothing in an effort to make sure he was not reelected....now they will continue to do nothing to ensure he has no legacy.
Most of this is partisan politics with underlying racism and we will all continue to suffer for it. Some people need to grow up.....its not the 1860's or the 1960's.....its a different world out there.

[Jack-Black]

Harry Reid is the biggest problem. He has several bills passed by the House that he wont bring to the floor for a vote.

[ConserveUSA]

I guess it time for him to retire.

[Furface]

Sadly we have a very very Bad Man as our President. A Bad man with Bad friends, and Bad people in his support group. People like Iranian Valarie Jarrett, Lebanese Susan Rice, "Can't waste a Crisis" Emmanual, etc, etc.

[ithink2]

As long as Obama wants to add additional spending, I hope the Repubilcans will continue to have "trouble saying yes". We have a spending problem. If all the tax cuts expire it would increase fed revenues by $500 billion annually. The 2012 budget deficit was $1.1 trillion dollars. All the tax cuts expiring would not pay half of this one year's deficit. Tax the top 1%, get $80 billion annually, tax the top 2% get $160 billion annually. Neither does anything for the annual deficit of $1.1 trillion dollars but it's red meat to the democrats who sell it to the masses who don't 'do the math'.

[blue_yahoo]

Let's face it, it's time for an overhaul. We need to go off that fiscal cliff just to get spending under control. Yes, it may hurt the economy for a bit, but the alternative is hurting the economy later and for a much longer time. I, myself, am tired of all the spending. It's time for a do over.

[Tralee]

Yeah, Obama has no problem blaming someone else for his mess. He's had years of practice doing just that. If Obama was a good leader this would all have been handled easily months ago, but Obama had his agenda, well, he gets his piddly little tax raise, whoopie! What's he going to do with it? Oh, yeah, give congress a RAISE. Then spend about 15 times more than he brings in with the extra tax on some stupid entitlement to keep his greedy base happy. Wonderful, socialism is alive an well in what used to be a Capitalist America. Apparently a SLIGHT majority of Americans want a weak president, one who excels in sarcasm and chastisement but lacks leadership qualities.

[1adam2]

we the people are to blame, for what our elected officials do. we have been electing, financial incompetent idiots to represent us. i am glad to see, any politician take a stand against this insane financial ignorance. they have all had, more than sixty years to deal with this financial situation. both republican and democrat representatives, have failed us all miserably. it is time we realize, the government can't do everything for everybody. and they should not be doing, for us what we should be doing for ourselves.

[kathyparsell]

Yea 1adam2...I wish you had bigger audience than our little band of protagonists on topix!

[Denizen_Kate]

@kathyparsell -Please be careful what you wish for!

[1adam2]

@kathyparsell i fear that those who claim to be my audience, is highly exaggerated with wishful overcompensation. with the many only pretending to know, what is going on with delusions of grandeur in their own minds. but is not indicative, of what is really transpiring. making all the same mental mistakes, and endlessly repeating their own errant physical results.

[kathyparsell]

@1adam2
Oh to those who wax philosophical. So far I follow no one (with the exception of Mimi57), I just admired your words and thought them worthy of praise. No need to worry about a sycophant unless I see more good posts.

[1adam2]

@kathyparsell well it is wise, to not follow anyone in this world today. as one must fight against the normal flow, and choose friends ever so wisely.

[Belin]

I have said this in another post. First, cut the salaries of congress and the President. They make plenty for this to happen. Then we need to remove our remaining troops in Iraq on the premise of teaching their army and police forces. They are not listening anyway. They are going to continue to fight. Shiite Muslims vs Sunni Muslims. There is nothing we can do to stop them. Time to leave before another one of our troops are injured or killed. Then we could also quit pouring money into their hands. We need to get out of Afghanistan now, not in 2014! They do not want us there. We have already killed Osama BinLaden. We are losing.There are members of the new congress from the Taliban. Time to go before anymore of our troops are killed there too. We can also stop pouring money into their hands. Pulling out of Afghanistan would also allow us to stop pouring billions of dollars into Pakistan for extremely unreliable routes to carry supplies to our troops in Afganistan. Who knows where all that money is going. I can pretty well guess that it is lining the pockets of elites and then to the Taliban. Taking money from the poor and sick would be the way our government sees as the way to cut spending! I wish they would try my plan first, then see where we sit.

[PNWest]

This makes sense. But also we need to raise taxes on the ultra-rich. Not to a piddling 39% either. Raise the highest marginal tax rate back up to where it was when this country built the strongest middle class in the history of the world. The evidence is clear. We have lowered taxes and lowered taxes since Ronald Reagan was president and all that we've seen from this is the rich getting richer and the middle class getting decimated. Let's reverse this trend now and build back America's greatness.

[ithink2]

@PNWest http://blogs-images.forbes.com/mikepatton/fil...

If we taxed the top 1% 100% of their income we could not pay for the single year 2012's budget deficit of $1.1 trillion dollars.

2007, with the Bush tax cuts in full force, the US collected more tax revenue than at any other time past or present. The budget deficit for 2007; $163 billion dollars.

Compare the 2007 $163 billion dollar deficit to the 2012 $1.1 trillion dollar budget deficit and you can see what went wrong. It's not revenue, it's spending that's the problem.

[PNWest]

@ithink2 That is one of the most deceiving charts I have ever seen. Why not do it properly and see what the real results are? Correct it for inflation and the growth of GDP so that it accurately represents the point your are trying to make. You can't because then it would prove my point. Tax the rich higher and start to bring the deficits down. You righties rant and rave because this won't solve the problem but instead propose to decimate the economy more by trying to put the burden on the poor. You want to cut spending? Fine - cut the damn military back to a skeleton army. Get us out of the 130+ countries we now have people stationed in.

[mtkopf]

@PNWest you have been saying go over the cliff so we could start over on defense spending for awhile now. And you know what, after much thinking about it I now agree with you. Defense spending needs to be reigned in. I don't know if we still pay Halliburton anything but let's start there.
Why not put a moratorium on ALL defense contracts. You can't buy a roll of toilet paper w/o permission not to mention the $300 hammer and $2000 toilet seat.
Next let's stop ALL aid to foreign countries. Half of them hate us anyway but they don't hate our $$$. Well no more. Stop it all.
I think we, as a country need to practice more isolationism.
Instead of the Statue of Liberty holding a torch, let's change it so she's giving the rest of the world the bird.

[PNWest]

@mtkopf When we were pretty much an isolationist country before WWI and WWII we were able to not only raise effective armies but win wars quickly WWI 1917-1919, WWII 1941-1945. Now with the most expensive army in the world we get into these wars that are never ending like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. These wars drain the treasury and return nothing to the country. This is the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned about in 1960. It is good for the defense contractors and career military people (plenty of room for advancement in times of war) but no one else. We need to stop wasting this money. There aren't any real threats out there now since the Soviet Union collapsed that require a large standing army. We all know this.

[Russell797]

The Democrats control the Executive branch and the Senate. The Republicans the House. The 1/3 is blocking the will of the majority. Simple as that.

Also, stop hoping to balance the budget ever again...ain't going to happen without turning the country into a draconian 3rd world nation. Also if the rich can not pay more then no one can.

The real problem is that the system is fundamentally flawed as I have been saying for decades. Nothing can grow indefinitely, and that includes the economy. The harsh reality confronting capitalism is rearing it ugly head, and there is nothing much we can do about it except keep kicking the can down the road, providing the illusion of prosperity which in reality can only be temporary. Entropy always will win.

[ithink2]

No, the House is excercising the will of their constituients. Remember each member of the House was just reelected. If more of the House was reelected to stop the spending and balance the budget then that is what we the electors expected.

Only a third of the Senate was up for reelection. If the senate would vote on any of the bills the house has presented then the bill could go to conference and a final bill produced. But the Senate won't vote. Won't even vote on a budget.

The same voters who reelected Obama, also reelected the House.

The rich do not have enough money to bail you out of this mess. You will have to pay your fair share of this fiscal mess just like all the rest of us. And you will, the only question is how. Over the cliff we will all go, regardless of whatever deal they make, none of what any of them have proposed will fix or even mitigate our problem. It's gonna be the big bellyflop, and it's gonna hurt, everyone.

[mtkopf]

@ithink2 actually you are wrong. The new Congress has not been sworn in. This is still the 112th Congress.

[Russell797]

@ithink2 I agree that the rich can not bail us out of this mess, but if anyone can cut into it's got to be them. Also, spending is way to high given the revenue stream, but we are not going to cut spending sufficiently either. The bottom line is the second part of my previous post which everyone ignores because they have "faith" in the system. It's the system which is fundamentally flawed, and blaming one party or the other will get us nowhere but it's the easiest thing to do. Blame someone. The inconvenient truth is nothing can go on growing forever, yet our economy is dependent on doing just that. It can not and will not work in the long run, and we are experiencing early symptoms. Kicking the can down the road will no longer delay the inevitable. We are screwed.

[ithink2]

@mtkopf True, and these particular House representatives were also elected to stop the massive spending. And the new group coming in are also elected to stop the massive spending.

As you correctly inferred, it's still the old president.

[mtkopf]

@ithink2 POTUS was reelected therefore why would he go with Romney's budget? If Romney were elected would he use Obama's plan?

[1adam2]

i am against, handing over, large portions of our paycheck to let any representatives of this nation determine what what is best for us individually. i take responsibility for my own life, and do not want any one more responsible for my life than me.

[kirbstomp1]

Whomever decided to pick no, the shame on you. Republicans are to blame, along with the senate and the POTUS.

[sittinduck]

Falling off the fiscal cliff and now this "Obama Orders Pay Raise For Congress, Federal Workers, Joe Biden". http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/obam...

[tomincali]

when one side comes in add in the president and there is only one way to agree,he expects them to do as he says or else. didn't he already say if we go off the cliff he is pointing the finger at repubs for all the blame. no matter what for all failures he is going to point to the other side look how long he blamed bush,says it all for me.

[RobertJHarsh]

It will be BOTH parties fault. Remember, this cliff was agreed to LAST YEAR. And my follow-up question what difference is Jan 1st make? So taxes go up and spending gets cut. Any new legislation to fix it can be made retroactively. So this entire "cliff" is nothing more than a false crisis.