Who says there’s no common ground in Washington anymore?
Tonight, President Obama will try to kick-start his legislative priorities for his second term in his State of the Union address to Congress. Much is being made, as is the case every year, of what the president is likely to say. Most of the guesses so far have him focused on the economy, while also mentioning gun control, immigration reform and climate change. There are bound to be a surprise or two, and I’ll have it covered for you here tomorrow morning.
Much less effort is given to predicting what the Republican response from Sen. Marco Rubio will be — or, for that matter, the “tea party response” from Sen. Rand Paul. But Ira Stoll has taken a crack at writing what he thinks Rubio ought to say, and I think it’s rather clever on his part.
Because “our nation’s challenges are too great” for partisanship, Stoll advises Rubio to say, “first thing tomorrow, I will introduce legislation in the Senate called the Barack Obama Campaign Promise Implementation Act of 2013.”
That legislation and its companion bill in the House, in Stoll’s imagination, would include five specific proposals covering corporate and individual tax reform, energy, immigration, and policy toward Iran. All five, he writes, have GOP support and “one thing in common — they’ve all been endorsed already by President Obama.”
I’ll let you read Stoll’s suggestions for yourself, but I’d add a couple of other promises the GOP could insist that Obama fulfill. One is support for more charter schools across the nation. Another is that, “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” even under Obamacare — a notion the Congressional Budget Office finds increasingly unlikely for millions of Americans.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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212 comments Add your comment
Jefferson
February 12th, 2013
11:24 am
Sounds sour.
JDW
February 12th, 2013
11:26 am
“If you’re going to set them up, JDW, I’ll keep knocking them down with facts,”
Only thing you are knocking down is your morning libation…facts are facts…Republican Think Tank (now run by DeMint), Republican Governors plan and 19 Republican Senators…that’s not a “couple” that’s a Republican idea…unless of course you live in Tiberusville.
RDavid
February 12th, 2013
11:50 am
Tonight starts the next four years of more lies and more promises that this moron will never keep. This is the beginning of what he thinks will be his legacy. But that is already set in stone. He was and will continue to be a failure and a power hungry grabber, Mochelle will be the all time biggest wasteful spending and thief of our money. When his term is all over he’ll still be known as the only President to have doubled, and by then perhaps tripled, the national debt and shoved this country down so deep it will take generations, if ever, to dig it out.
Good riddance before you are gone you idiot.
jconservative
February 12th, 2013
11:54 am
Well we could ask the House to pass a bill that is Dead On Arrival at the Senate.
Or we could ask the Senate to pass a bill that is Dead On Arrival at the House.
Or better yet, we could ask the House to sit down with the Senate and reach a compromise on a bill that will pass both chambers.
But I am sure the latter suggestion is just way to radical an idea for the 21st century.
So my money is on the first two suggestion, two DOA bills. Let the 2014 elections begin late tonight!
Bruno
February 12th, 2013
12:10 pm
From below:
JDW: Sorry but there is really no correlation between business budgeting and government budgeting. In 2011 56% of all spending was Mandatory Spending and could not have been changed except by legislative action and I have seen much of that recently. Of the remaining 44% almost half is Military spending. Of the remaining spending other than the stimulus it has grown almost ZERO.
Nice non-answer, JDW. With voters like you coddling Obama and the Dems, my hopes for this country aren’t very bright right now.
But keep sticking your head in the sand, cuz nothing bad can happen to us as long as your guys are in charge…….Not.
Just Saying..
February 12th, 2013
12:27 pm
Perhaps Nugent will attempt to assert his “unrestricted” 2nd Amendment rights tonight. Or educate Justice Scalia on the error of his published position on the issue.
md
February 12th, 2013
12:38 pm
“Of the remaining 44% almost half is Military spending.”
That tells me there is another 22% that needs adjusting…….
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 12th, 2013
12:39 pm
As the world wakes up to the reality of a heightened crisis with North Korea following its latest nuclear test, the Obama administration finds itself with remarkably few Korea experts at the top of its Asia policy team.
I’ll go out on a limb here and say that obozo has remarkably few experts anywhere in his administration.
Dusty
February 12th, 2013
12:40 pm
Well, seems some bloggers here think the Republican Party is gone. . Just smoked up and gone, they say. .If so, the country is gone. Democrats want to party with one party.
We will then have one RULER to whom all power is given and his supplicants will have everything supplied from education, food, good health, childcare, tansportation, all needs. No one will have to make those mean ol’ decisions.
That is where Democrats seem to want us to be. That is why I am a Republican and we are not going away. Too many of us believe in freedom to adjust to somethng else. No way!.
md
February 12th, 2013
12:42 pm
“I’ll go out on a limb here and say that obozo has remarkably few experts anywhere in his administration.”
Now, now….they know Chicago inside and out though…….
breckenridge
February 12th, 2013
1:13 pm
Marco “Hey man, I’m no scientist, I don’t know if the theory of evolution is correct” is a complete embarrassment to the republican party. Giving this extremist a national television platform is a disgrace.
Bruno
February 12th, 2013
1:19 pm
That tells me there is another 22% that needs adjusting…….
md–As the table I put up yesterday showed, our annual spending has gone from an average of around $2.6 T per year under Bush to around $3.5 T under Obama. It’s difficult to believe that an increase of that magnitude is strictly due to COLA increases to Social Security and the (questionable) expansion of the food stamp program, as JDW implied in his non-answer this AM. And even if it is, then that presents an obvious place to start in reining in the budget.
Unfortunately, trying to get a Lib to reasonably discuss the budget crisis is damn near impossible. Like Debbie Wasserman Schultz did in her interview with Anderson Cooper, any discussion about reforming entitlements is immediately shouted down with bogus cries about pushing Grandma off the cliff or some such nonsense. Their only solution is to propose higher taxes. However, as the table shows, our highest tax collection years EVER were in the $2.5 T range. Unless we’re all willing to pay nearly 50% more in federal taxes, then tax increases alone aren’t going to close the gap.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=200
Bruno
February 12th, 2013
1:21 pm
“Hey man, I’m no scientist, I don’t know if the theory of evolution is correct”
I do have an extensive background in Science, breckenridge, and can tell you unequivocally that the Theory of Evolution is junk science. Ditto for climatology, at least in its present form.
Bruno
February 12th, 2013
1:29 pm
We will then have one RULER to whom all power is given and his supplicants will have everything supplied from education, food, good health, childcare, tansportation, all needs. No one will have to make those mean ol’ decisions.
Dusty–It does appear to be one of life’s ironies that the (supposed) party of diversity and tolerance is anything but if you don’t agree with their socialist vision. In their world, a strong centralized government is the answer to all of life’s ills. A good example of that kind of thinking was on display this AM via Mary Elizabeth, who thinks it’s the government’s job to raise children from the earliest of ages, providing everything from food to the fundamentals of education, functions that were parents’ responsibility back in my day. Are there too many crappy parents out there who aren’t meeting their obligations?? Yes, but I don’t see how making the government their parents by proxy is the solution. Maybe a little less enabling might make a difference.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
February 12th, 2013
1:32 pm
JDW, to further debunk your nonsense, how many other states with GOP majorities have enacted anything close to Romney’s plan?
Peddle your stupidity elsewhere.
The intelligent aren’t buying your schtick.
md
February 12th, 2013
1:34 pm
“I don’t know if the theory of evolution is correct”
Everything has a beginning……care to explain when,why, how and where “evolution” started?
md
February 12th, 2013
1:37 pm
” Like Debbie Wasserman Schultz did in her interview with Anderson Cooper, any discussion about reforming entitlements is immediately shouted down with bogus cries about pushing Grandma off the cliff or some such nonsense.”
When she stated “It doesn’t matter” in response to the accusation that she intentionally mis-quoted the article, it became very apparent that her agenda was showing…….and to her that’s all that mattered. Character be damned…….
Thomas heyward Jr
February 12th, 2013
1:48 pm
Who says there’s no common ground in Washington anymore?
.
If you do point out the common ground, Wingfield or his associated state-sponsored employees will censor you.
MarkV
February 12th, 2013
1:54 pm
Dusty @ 12:40 pm
“That is where Democrats seem to want us to be.”
Not everything is what it seems to be. Especially when people have their blinkers on.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
February 12th, 2013
1:56 pm
Md, I have more faith in the proven scientific theory of radioactive mutations possibly sparking evolution than an unseen deity who allows the pain and suffering exhibited on this planet.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
February 12th, 2013
1:59 pm
Yeah, MarkV, ’cause ruling by executive order is so not dictatorial.
md
February 12th, 2013
2:02 pm
“Md, I have more faith in the proven scientific theory of radioactive mutations possibly sparking evolution than an unseen deity who allows the pain and suffering exhibited on this planet.”
“Faith” being the operative word.
I prefer to believe (operative word) that the possibilities are endless and leave it at that……
Hillbilly D
February 12th, 2013
2:03 pm
Personally, I think Thomas Jefferson had the best idea, just write the State of the Union Address out, send it over to Congress and let a clerk read it to them. That practice continued until Woodrow Wilson came along. Another of Woodrow’s bad ideas, in my opinion.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 12th, 2013
2:05 pm
And, of course, the new yorkkk times dutifully passes this along -
The official K.C.N.A. news service of North Korea said the country had used a “miniaturized and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously” and that the test “did not pose any negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment.”
Yeah, but what about all those human test dummies that were invited to sit in the front row to watch dear leaders glorious device go off?
md
February 12th, 2013
2:06 pm
HD…..yep, it’s becoming a show with props and all……pretty pathetic actually.
stands for decibels
February 12th, 2013
2:09 pm
Why do the Tea Partyers get a response? Are they Republican or not? They either need to form their own party or get on the train with the rest of the team.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that having multiple opposition-party responses didn’t originate with Michelle Bachmann in 2011, at least if last night’s Rachel Maddow show is to be believed. (Apparently there were a few years in the late 60s when several representatives delivered such responses, to the point where it got a bit out of hand and there were responses-to-the-responses from the party in power…)
indigo
February 12th, 2013
2:10 pm
“our nation’s challenges are too great for partisanship”
That’s a good one.
Does anyone honestly expect any Republican politician to adopt that position?
stands for decibels
February 12th, 2013
2:11 pm
just write the State of the Union Address out, send it over to Congress and let a clerk read it to them.
I’m incredibly sympathetic to that position–I find the multiple standing Os to be really annoying.
Then again, there’s nothing stopping any of us from simply reading a transcript of the SOTU a bit after the fact. It gets more tempting with every passing year, in fact.
Just Saying..
February 12th, 2013
2:20 pm
“I find the multiple standing Os to be really annoying.”
Common ground right there…
Hillbilly D
February 12th, 2013
2:24 pm
sfd
Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I watched the speech.
Does anyone honestly expect any Republican politician to adopt that position?
No but I don’t expect any Democrat to adopt it either. They’re all politicians and self-preservation is their job one..
JDW
February 12th, 2013
2:42 pm
@Bruno…”Nice non-answer”
Not a non-answer Bruno…just not what the “arggghhhh Obama is spending” crowd wants to hear. But it is a fact. Discretionary spending was $1.3 trillion in 2009 and was projected to be $1.289 in 2012. That means that the part of spending Obama actually impacts has been REDUCED in the last 4 years.
You want a culprit…in 2001 when Duhbya took over it was $825 billion….he grew to $1.3 trillion. You want a reason the problem has not been addressed in the last 4 years…look no further than the Republican House that refuses to acknowledge historic low revenues and wants to fund tax decreases with Grandma’s Social Security and Health Care.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/10/federal-spending-by-the-numbers-2012
JDW
February 12th, 2013
2:56 pm
@Bruno…”Unless we’re all willing to pay nearly 50% more in federal taxes, then tax increases alone aren’t going to close the gap.”
You need some math work Bruno…that $2.5 trillion in taxes was on a GDP of $13.88 trillion…last year it was $15.6 trillion. What we needed to do was collect at the same rates that were in effect in 2000. Those rates in a healthy economy yield tax revenue at about 20.5% of GDP which is what we need.
splavistic
February 12th, 2013
2:57 pm
And, Nuge will be the one that brings everybody together. Nuge, the ‘Patriot’ who pooped and peed himself for a month before his enlistment so he could avoid the draft. Patriot, my azz!
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 12th, 2013
3:32 pm
“More people are living in poverty, wages are flat, millions have completely exited the labor force, and fraud and abuse remain rampant. We will make the case that the time has come for another 1996-style welfare reform that reduces poverty, strengthens family, and helps more Americans transition from dependency to self-sufficiency. This is not merely a financial imperative; it is a moral imperative. No longer can we measure compassion by how much we spend on poverty, but how many people we help to rise out of poverty. Adding endlessly to the debt is not compassionate—it is destructive,” Sessions writes.
Now we’re talking.
Michael H. Smith
February 12th, 2013
3:53 pm
What State of the Union? When was the last “actual” State of the Union given to Congress, instead of a national grandiose personal political agenda address?
Article II, Sec. 3, of the U.S. Constitution requires that, “The President shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
CC
February 12th, 2013
3:54 pm
****BREAKING NEWS****
VATICAN CITY
An unexpected plume of white smoke appeared today above Vatican City and the announcement naming the new Pope was made. Pope Barack Hussein Obama I will assume the duties as Pope immediately. In a taped interview given to Bill Maher, Pope Obama expressed his delight in his new duties and stressed that he knew the awesome responsibilities of his new position. Pope Obama went on to say that he will be serving in a duel role as both Pope and Empower of the United States.
Maher: “Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, believe that you would ever be the Pope?”
Pope/Empower Obama: “Well, yes, Bill. After all, I’ve been blowing smoke up the Democrats’ collective ass for so long, I hardly viewed the emission of white smoke at the Vatican to be much of a problem.
Steve
February 12th, 2013
4:00 pm
JDW nailed it.
getalife
February 12th, 2013
4:04 pm
“GOP SAVIOR VOTES NO ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT… HOURS BEFORE STATE OF THE UNION RESPONSE” HP
Wrong move rubio.
What are there two cons running their mouths after our President?
getalife
February 12th, 2013
4:05 pm
Why not what.
md
February 12th, 2013
4:10 pm
” What we needed to do was collect at the same rates that were in effect in 2000. ”
http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm
Well, considering neither party sees that as an option, may as well say we need to win the lottery. In order to achieve that result, rates would have to rise on everybody, and that play isn’t in the dem playbook of class warfare. Do you really think O would have been re-elected had he campaigned on tax increases for everybody instead of “those evil rich guys have too much but vote for me and I’ll take theirs instead of yours”.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
February 12th, 2013
4:11 pm
JDW forgets that in response to lower revenues , the common-sense approach would have been to spend less.
That’s what normal people do.
indigo
February 12th, 2013
4:15 pm
Bruno – 1:21
Those opinions about Evolution and Climatology show your “extensive background in Science” is strictly of the Christian fundamentalist variety, and is esentially worthless.
md
February 12th, 2013
4:17 pm
“That’s what normal people do.”
Well…….that depends on one’s definition of normal. Some folks that think they are normal use their last dollar to buy a lottery ticket in the hopes of winning the big one and providing the necessary funds to get them out of debt.
It is a vicious cycle and seems to to be the model the dems are using.
md
February 12th, 2013
4:20 pm
Indigo….you are aware that the opinions of scientists on those subjects are nothing more than what we used to call an “educated guess”…..aren’t you?
When there is no concrete evidence, ALL possibilities are still on the table regardless of how great or how miniscule their possibility……
Steve
February 12th, 2013
4:20 pm
md – as if the GOP cared about the “debt” until a Dem was in power (look at their spending record and get back to me).
Steve
February 12th, 2013
4:23 pm
md – yeah, those multiple scientific disciplines who’s findings all pretty much corroborate each other, and then there’s “Creationism.” (banjos from Deliverance start playing)
md
February 12th, 2013
4:28 pm
“md – as if the GOP cared about the “debt” until a Dem was in power (look at their spending record and get back to me).”
You are falling for the “spousal” argument – when one spouse points at the other spouse and declares that s/he ran up the card so I get to as well.
The problem arises when the statement comes in and the bill must be paid……does it really matter (Clinton?) at that point which spouse spent what?
And, is it a good idea to spend more going forward?
The point being, at some point the madness needs to stop…..
md
February 12th, 2013
4:29 pm
“md – yeah, those multiple scientific disciplines who’s findings all pretty much corroborate each other, and then there’s “Creationism.” (banjos from Deliverance start playing)”
Yes, using models plugging in the same assumptions…..still an educated guess when not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. The same premise our justice system is supposed to be based on….
md
February 12th, 2013
4:32 pm
And Steve, I really don’t care which party stops the madness but they both better be thinking about doing it before it’s too late.
You do know the numerous countries and empires that have gone bankrupt in the past NEVER planned to do so…right?
Jefferson
February 12th, 2013
4:35 pm
its only madness to some, its survivial for the others.