Chambliss: Government shutdown is up to Obama
If you think the 112th Congress was a weak, unproductive bunch, you’re not alone. Saxby Chambliss agrees with you.
“Unfortunately that’s the way it feels inside, not just outside,” Georgia’s senior senator told me over coffee at his Cobb County office Tuesday. “Harry Reid’s leadership [in the Senate] leaves a lot to be desired, and the in-your-face stuff that the president’s thrown at us has gotten a lot of backs up on our side, in both the House and the Senate. You throw the presidential election in there and it just kind of all came together, and nothing got done.”
Readers who are not GOP partisans would probably add House Republicans to Chambliss’ list of Washington’s bad actors. But after spending the past few years working with a handful of his fellow senators to fashion a big, bipartisan deal to reform the federal tax code and reduce spending, to no avail, Chambliss conveyed disdain for the way the Jan. 1 agreement to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff came about. And he blamed President Barack Obama.
“He was pretty open about the fact that, ‘Look, if we go off the cliff, if you guys don’t give me what I want, if we go off the cliff, I’m going to get what I want. And then I will spend the first three weeks of January beating the heck out of Republicans, and then I’ll present my plan of [tax cuts for those earning] $250,000 or less and dare you guys to vote against it.’ That’s just not the way that you get major things accomplished.”
What Obama did accomplish — higher taxes on some high earners — bought little time before the next showdown. By March, Congress and the president will face a trio of expirations: the debt ceiling, the delay in automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, and the temporary funding Congress has enacted in lieu of a budget for almost three years now.
“Some people might argue that the debt ceiling is the least pressure point [of the three] because you’ve got to pay your bills,” Chambliss said, “and that’s what [Obama] keeps saying, that ‘I … dare you to not allow us to pay the bills that you’ve incurred.’
“Well the fact is, the Democratic Congress incurred the bills. This administration incurred the bills. The Republicans have been in charge of the House for two years; this money was basically spent in the two years before that when you look at the stimulus package and the other spending that he put in place to create the massive deficits. So for him to come out and say, ‘You guys are obligated to pay your bills’ — I didn’t vote for any of that stuff.”
Because the debt ceiling isn’t really about whether to default on the national debt — the Treasury takes in far more revenue than it needs to make debt payments — the more likely short-term alternative to raising the debt ceiling is a federal government shutdown. (Which is not to suggest there would be no consequences, or only mild ones, for taking that route.)
Chambliss said he hopes it doesn’t come to that, but once again he put the onus on the president. In the past, he noted, Obama has embraced both the need to reform entitlements and a ratio of $3 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax increases.
“If [Obama's] serious about that, then … the likelihood of a shutdown would certainly be minimized. If he gets his back up and says, ‘We’ll only do this if we get more revenue,’ then I’d say the chances of a shutdown are pretty good. … If he wants to get serious, show the world marketplace that we are going to lead in this area, he’ll have that opportunity. If he doesn’t, then something dramatic has got to happen, and a shutdown could be it.”
Chambliss is up for re-election next year, and it’s no secret tea partyers and Democrats alike are eyeing his seat for a possible challenge. “I’ve never backed off from a fight,” he said. Fine, but does the bitterness in Washington ever make him think twice about running again?
“This is an eight-year decision for me. It’s two years [campaigning] plus six years” in office, he said. “And if I thought the next eight years were going to be filled with contentious debates and the wrong way to govern that we have just gone through in the last two months, it would have a significant impact on my decision. But yeah, right now my plans are to run.”
– By Kyle Wingfield
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236 comments Add your comment
Kyle Wingfield
January 10th, 2013
1:15 pm
JDW @ 1:08: I noted the point about inflation in my 12:54. I have no idea what you mean by “After inflation without adjusting budget growth…”
Your final point either ignores or fails to understand the point I was making. Keeping spending at a level that was supposed to be only temporary is not being disciplined. You are using typical D.C. math — hey, we increased spending by less than we could have!
Ronnie Raygun
January 10th, 2013
1:19 pm
What a tall tale teller Chambliss is.
So the whole deficit is all the fault of the FOUR MONTHS that the Democrats controlled the House and Presidency and had a supermajority (60 votes) in the Senate?
Have you no shame, Sir?
Kyle Wingfield
January 10th, 2013
1:26 pm
JDW @ 1:13: Were you not talking about revenues since FY09? I thought you were, since you were talking about deficits since then. Therefore, I was talking about revenues since FY09.
In any case, you’ve once again reported numbers without any context. How much of the decline in 2001 was due to the bursting of the tech bubble and resulting recession — prolonged by 9/11 — rather than the change in tax rates? Given that most of the tax-rate changes didn’t hit until 2003, probably quite a bit — and that goes for 2002, too. You also may have noticed that revenues increased every year from 2004 to 2007.
Kyle Wingfield
January 10th, 2013
1:29 pm
Ronnie Raygun @ 1:19: Budget bills are not subject to cloture and thus do not require 60 votes at any point in the process. See here if you don’t believe me.
Therefore, for the purposes of this discussion, whether the Dems had 59 or 60 votes in the Senate at any given point between 2007 and 2010 doesn’t matter.
Politico
January 10th, 2013
1:30 pm
“You also may have noticed that revenues increased every year from 2004 to 2007.”
Speaking of bubbles, wasn’t 2004 to 2007 during the peak times of something we know as the housing and construction bubble?
Interesting that you would mention the tech bubble but not the housing bubble.
Centrist
January 10th, 2013
1:32 pm
Kyle,
While your responses to JDW are spot on and expand the discussion, I wonder why you bother responding to such a partisan who selectively uses mostly bogus figures.
Georgia, The " New Mississippi "
January 10th, 2013
1:34 pm
The biggest problems Georgia has to overcome are Saxby Chambliss, Johnny Isakon and Nathan Deal. Until these men are flushed out of the political system, we will continue to be the laughingstock of educated humanity.
Get Real
January 10th, 2013
1:36 pm
Liberals are idiots….All hail the Food Stamp President. We are moving towards the vaunted European model of government dependency…..another 4 years of spend and tax and there may be no recovery. Congratulations libbies, your children and grandchildren are screwed….
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 10th, 2013
1:37 pm
“Speaking of bubbles, wasn’t 2004 to 2007 during the peak times of something we know as the housing and construction bubble? ”
You mean the government policy created housing and construction bubble, don’t you Politico?
That which an ignorant government creates cannot be sustained.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
January 10th, 2013
1:39 pm
Looks like revenue went up after Our President Bush’s tax cuts were implemented in 2003. Thanks for the info, JDW!
Politico
January 10th, 2013
1:41 pm
Tiberius
Who and how is irrelevant to the point I was making to Kyle, but you are welcome to yap as always do.
The point is that he made sure he spoke of the tech bubble and it ensuing recession, but seemed to conveniently forgot to mention that the housing bubble and the direct and indirect impact on the economy and the tax revenues during the very years he sited.
But by all means, do blather on
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 10th, 2013
1:43 pm
My, my, Politico.
There doesn’t appear to be much difference between yours and JDW’s responses to me.
Could it be you also have nothing original to post when your back is against the wall?
JamVet
January 10th, 2013
1:46 pm
Get Real is a liberal plant.
No real Republican would constantly help the liberal cause out like he does here…
Politico
January 10th, 2013
1:47 pm
Tiberius
“color me shocked”………… your typical “poutrage” is your usual sign of “surrender”, which I will not accept because it would be too easy
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 10th, 2013
1:49 pm
AHhhh, more repetitive posts from Politico.
It’s all she’s got when she can’t back up her nonsense.
JamVet
January 10th, 2013
1:54 pm
politico, you know you’ve arrived at Kyle’s when a certain somebody childishly uses the wrong gender to address you!
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 10th, 2013
1:58 pm
You know you’ve become irrelevant when all you do is repeat the same posts over and over again when complaining about other posters, rather than the topic at hand.
TRUTH
January 10th, 2013
2:00 pm
WOW, good work, Kyle. A neo-con writes a blog and the comments are about 98% anti-R. What does that tell you? Chambliss and the rest of the R-party clearly don’t get it. Allow me to be clear…
1. Who doesn’t know that Dubya and the R-party racked up an unknown number in spending the nation’s surplus. Then when President O won the ‘08 election, R’s ran away from Dubya, ran away from just admitting they were complicit in the out of control spending and were NOT defending or protecting our nations coffers.
2. Instead of the admission, the nation got the Tea Party. Eh, ever wonder how THAT looniness got started? See Koch Brothers, Dick Armey, Karl Rove and the Faux News crowd. (Translated: You got played by the R power brokers.) They, in concert, led the R party into irrelevance and took a lot of your money with it. President O’s election in ‘08 opened and exposed the R party and its “henchmen” and its primary players.
3. It also showed that the R’s playbook was fraught with redistricting to favor R’s, to keep power, and to disregard the American public who did not fit into their demographic. Jokes on you, the American people give a dayum about this nation. The R’s also have NOT engaged in what the American people want, regardless of the flogging they recently took. It was understandable after the first win by the President, now its just stupid and harming our movement forward and to the return of prosperity.
I can go on and on, but most of the responses I’ve read touch on those subjects I have not, and unfortunately dare I say, there are bucketloads MORE to lay at the feet of R’s. Sum result is the obvious grab for power when you have nothing else to stand on. Compromise from a R is a ridiculous thought. Yet, the R’s have the kahones to EXPECT D’s to cave in, even when they are in the minority and shrinking daily. KAHONES!
Last thing, I appreciate a 2 party (or more) system of government as most Americans, but what exactly does a elected R politician do? Get elected by his constituents and party affiliates, to then be handled by Norquist, Limbaugh, Adleson, Koch and others? If I were an R member, I would be livid. (Guess why you R’s are fading into the black – oh, that’s right, you don’t like Black (Presidents, Deputy Secretary of States, AG’s, people, or Brown – Supreme Court Justices, Mayors, immigrants, or Women (everything women), or LBGTs, or ____________). The rich, you likey the rich.
Nice try, Kyle. Come again.
JamVet
January 10th, 2013
2:01 pm
Isn’t the topic at hand, tibby’s childishness?
But of Ms. Tibby insists…
If you think the 112th Congress was a weak, unproductive bunch, you’re not alone. Saxby Chambliss agrees with you.
Would someone ask Mr. Chambliss why the GOP drags that abysmal rating even lower?
To the same level as used car salesmen and CEOs?
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
January 10th, 2013
2:03 pm
You mean the government policy created housing and construction bubble, don’t you Politico?
Not in any way accurate
Kyle Wingfield
January 10th, 2013
2:06 pm
Politico @ 1:30: Do you pay taxes on the increase in the paper value of your house? Do you pay taxes on the capital gain from selling your house if it’s your primary residence?
OTOH, do you pay taxes on the capital gain from selling tech stocks or other equity investments?
Which raises an important point. In the mid- to late-1990s, about one-third of the increase in federal revenues as a percentage of GDP came from the capital gains tax. What did we do then? Cut that tax rate. What are we doing now? Raising it (for those upper-income taxpayers most likely to pay it).
Brilliant.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 10th, 2013
2:07 pm
1. Who doesn’t know that Dubya and the R-party racked up an unknown number in spending the nation’s surplus.
Me.
W didn’t start the tech recession, didn’t fly the airplanes into the World Trade Center and was only one of many on both sides calling for a war in Afghanistan.
Kyle Wingfield
January 10th, 2013
2:07 pm
Centrist @ 1:32: Mostly for sport.
john hayes
January 10th, 2013
2:09 pm
I would vote for ANYBODY other than Saxby. He is a man of no courage, no substance, and no integrity.
Politico
January 10th, 2013
2:12 pm
Kyle
You know you mentioned the tech bubble bursting to speak of the negative impact it had at that time, but purposely failed to mention the “positive impact” the housing bubble was having on tax revenue from 04 to 07 because it didn’t fit your narrative.
That’s fine and dandy. This is your blog, but one was mentioned and the other left out by coincidence.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
January 10th, 2013
2:12 pm
Ill tell you what W did
He blew through a surplus he was handed by Clinton in about 17 days.
He totally ignored the Islamic threat and bin laden, preferring instead to push for national missile defense system with rummy, until it bit him in the backside.
He then ginned up intelligence about Iraq and 9/11 so he could get Saddam back for his father.
Then while not paying for that war he cut taxes on his rich buddies and deregulated wall st which was a total disaster.
Add to that he was almost a daily embarrassment worldwide
Other than that he was great.
Worst President Ever
Politico
January 10th, 2013
2:16 pm
Mrs Tiberius
Again, the housing bubble, who and why, was and is irrelevant to the point I was making to Kyle.
If you wish to have a conversation with yourself about the ins and outs of the housing bubble over and above the positive impact it was having on the economy and tax revenues from 04 to 07, knock yourself out madam.
So you have proven exactly nothing I said to be incorrect, but keep flailing and yapping. Just don’t fall off your step stool
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 10th, 2013
2:17 pm
“Not in any way accurate”
Back your assertion up, Cheesy.
Be sure to NOT leave out all the policies and bills passed during past GOP and Dem administrations which made it easier for people to buy houses they couldn’t afford.
td
January 10th, 2013
2:17 pm
3 million people in this nation was receiving Food Stamps in 1969.
44 million people in this nation receiving Food Stamps in 2012. (1 in 4 children)
Politico
January 10th, 2013
2:17 pm
*was not left out by coincidence
Kyle Wingfield
January 10th, 2013
2:17 pm
Politico @ 2:12: I’m not sure how you divined my purpose for writing anything. What I did was write about the negative effect each bubble’s bursting had on revenues. You were the one who brought up the positive effects of one bubble — but, I notice, not the other one. I won’t speculate as to your own motivation, but I will direct you to my 2:06 comment about the different tax treatment of the elements of the respective bubbles.
Oh, and before you complain: Taxes on capital gains represented 15% of the growth in all federal revenues from the trough year (2004) to peak (2007).
JamVet
January 10th, 2013
2:20 pm
He is a man of no courage, no substance, and no integrity.
Obviously.
But the coward who spits on combat veterans could get reelected in Georgia for the next fifty years if he lived that long and chose to run.
And I pity the people who vote for him even more than him…
Politico
January 10th, 2013
2:21 pm
Kyle
And no I can’t read your mind, but awhile back when this same issue was brought up, you at that time also failed to mention the housing bubble before it burst and it’s impact on the economy during the years you so fondly mention regarding the Bush tax cuts
Heck, even when you use the years you like to cut out and not all the years the cuts were in place, the revenue to GDP ratio still doesn’t match the historical average…………… even with the “let’s don’t mention” the housing bubble impact………. Even if we all know that was a huge direct and indirect factor during those years
Politico
January 10th, 2013
2:23 pm
Kyle
I wasn’t the one who forgot a bubble. I didn’t refute the tech bubble bursting and the ensuing recession, did I?
Centrist
January 10th, 2013
2:24 pm
@ TRUTH – The high percentage of liberal posts here is due to the mostly liberal readership of the liberal AJC. Few conservatives read it anymore.
@ Politico – The housing bubble did not contribute to federal tax revenue since most of those capital gains are exempt from taxation. It did help local coffers via higher taxable assessments without corresponding millage rate reductions – but that ended when the bubble burst.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 10th, 2013
2:24 pm
“He blew through a surplus he was handed by Clinton in about 17 days.”
There was no surplus.
“He totally ignored the Islamic threat and bin laden,”
Partially correct, however, since you were never in the Oval Office during the PDB, I suspect that’s just uninformed opinion by you.
“He then ginned up intelligence about Iraq and 9/11 so he could get Saddam back for his father.”
Partially correct, however, see my above comment on your opinion.
“Then while not paying for that war”
Funny, I don’t recall anything not being paid for. Maybe you need to revise and extend your explanation here.
“he cut taxes on his rich buddies”
Or in other word, everybody.
“and deregulated wall st which was a total disaster.”
Name the bill(s) signed into law that deregulated Wall St.
“Worst President Ever”
Jimmy Carter still retains that title, and President Incompetent will eclipse that beginning in 2017.
Politico
January 10th, 2013
2:25 pm
Kyle
As always thanks for the exchange.
JDW
January 10th, 2013
2:27 pm
@Kyle…”You are using typical D.C. math — hey, we increased spending by less than we could have!”
You on the other hand are demonstrating typical Republican slight of hand.
For example….there is no outrage when Reagan and Duhbya increase spending, in constant dollars by an average of 6.5% a year over 8 years each…however when a Democrat increases spending by less than half that amount over a 3 year period why OMG WE HAVE A SPENDING PROBLEM or you are using “D.C. math”…welcome to the real world our population grows every year and when Duhbya is not around so does our GDP…newsflash government spending grows right along with it.
More misdirection…why it couldn’t have been the fact that we CUT TAX RATES that caused the revenues to decline…must be the downturn…BULL HOCKEY…during the years 2000-2007 GDP increased an average of 2.2% per year not robust but not a complete disaster…one would have reasonably expected government revenues to grow by a similar number instead they grew at LESS than 1%. Spending on the other hand GREW at 6.2%..guess what we got deficits. Growing economy, tax cuts, Republican control = Deficits how could that be?
Must have been those damn Dems…
TRUTH
January 10th, 2013
2:27 pm
@ Aesop 2:07
Soooooo, the tech bubble caused the economic recession in our country??!! Guess I missed my edition of “Wired.” And then you have the stones to mention the two UNFUNDED wars. Sheer genius. I look forward to your next rant…. might we expect you next to say that the President will allow the government to shut down?
Basic civics class, the President cannot shut down the government, the House can (Remember Newt?)
Reading and comprehension are quite essential….
JamVet
January 10th, 2013
2:30 pm
Jimmy Carter still retains that title…
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Bushbots do crack me up.
Outside of the GOP’s lunatic fringe, NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY is stupid or intellectually dishonest enough to write insanity like that!
W was so friggin’ awful he is in the bottom five/ten all time in virtually every ranking ever made.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Politico
January 10th, 2013
2:30 pm
Centrists
There as plenty of direct and indirect impact on revenue from the housing bubble. What planet were you on?
So lawyers, banks, mortgage companies do not pay taxes on the additional earnings that were made via sells, refies, closings, etc?
Contractors and subs do not pay taxes on the earning they make from building homes?
Agents and brokers didn’t realize higher tax bills from the higher earnings during the boom?
Really?
If that were not so, why the “NEGATIVE IMPACT” to revenues when they bubble burst?
Thanks for playing.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
January 10th, 2013
2:31 pm
Soooooo, the tech bubble caused the economic recession in our country?
——–
No, it’s collapse did.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 10th, 2013
2:31 pm
“For example….there is no outrage when Reagan and Duhbya increase spending”
Of course, there were few blogs then, but don’t let that little fact stop you from your poutrage.
btw, probably the most useless statement of the day there, JDW.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
January 10th, 2013
2:33 pm
By most any measure (deficits, debt, spending, unemployment, credit rating, poverty) Our President Bush was superior to Obozo.
Don’t fear facts.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 10th, 2013
2:35 pm
“Basic civics class, the President cannot shut down the government, the House can”
Nice try there, UNTRUTH, but it takes two to tango in a Constitutional government. If President Incompetent refuses to negotiate in good faith (now there’s an understatement, by God), the House might just have no other choice but to shutdown the government.
Either way, your attempt to absolve the Executive Branch from any responsibility for a government shutdown shows YOUR ignorance of Civics.
Kyle Wingfield
January 10th, 2013
2:35 pm
Politico @ 2:21: If you think there are better years to use in any of these examples, by all means, point them out. But make sure to explain your reason for choosing them, as I have when I’ve chosen my time frames.
JamVet
January 10th, 2013
2:36 pm
By most any measure (dead civilians, dead members of the US military, the greatest economic collapse since the 1920s) Our President Bush was superior to Obozo.
JDW
January 10th, 2013
2:36 pm
@Centrist…”While your responses to JDW are spot on and expand the discussion, I wonder why you bother responding to such a partisan who selectively uses mostly bogus figures.”
Every number I have used comes straight from the official budget numbers for the United States of American…you can find them all here.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals
Funny what happens when you strip the Right wing rhetoric out of them. The sky has not fallen in the last 4 years…in fact things have gotten a lot better.
As for a Partisan…
I was once one of those now nearly extinct rarities a moderate Republican…Newt cured me and most like me. My ideas haven’t changed…Barry Goldwater has become a RINO.
JamVet
January 10th, 2013
2:37 pm
And of course outrage cannot be expressed unless on a blog.
Are there a lot of sunpsots lately?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 10th, 2013
2:37 pm
Don’t get me wrong, AmVet, Bush is a close 2nd or 3rd worst President (I’m always torn between Bush and Lincoln as to who was worse), but Carter takes the all-time prize.
Until 2017.