Soooo we're definitely going over the F. Cliff right?

[Eric]

Like, my understanding of what went down the past 3 days might be off, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Boehner offered a plan that had some compromises in it, and despite that, the White House wasn't happy about it at all. At the same time Republicans don't like the fact that it had ANY compromises to higher taxes, so they didn't even vote for it.

The White House wants even more then the plan Boehner offered, meaning even if Boehner and the White House did come to some agreement there's no guarantee Republicans would vote for it, because it'll no doubt be even worse then what Boehner just offered up.

Soooooo yeah, we're goin over right? After we go over, Obama will offer up a tax break to the middle class but not the upper 2% he was talking and the Republican party will have no choice but to say yes or explain to the people why they won't get a tax break?

Politics hurts my brain at times, I'm not the most political man in the world lol.

[Don]

Right now things are looking pretty grim but I think there'sa a good chance they'll make a last minute deal that just kicks the can further down so we can repeat this again in another 6 months. Certainly any 'grand bargain' type of deal looks completely impossible at the moment.

[SineSwiper]

TRMS had a really good analysis of Boehner himself, and whether his job is doomed for failure or not, given the political fracturing of the GOP. Or to put it in cartoon form...

I think it's mostly both. John doesn't even whip properly (ie: count votes before actually voting), and he's done a string of idiotic mistakes throughout his career as Speaker of the House. Frankly, if this was a normal GOP, they would have taken a compromise, since they are losing much of that strong majority margin they have now. But, this is not a normal GOP right now.

Really, check out that TRMS clip above. Good stuff.

[Shrinweck]

Between the Norquist pledge to never raise taxes and general GOP stubbornness, I'm finding my generally optimistic outlook difficult to hold onto. This issue apparently really bothers Obama and I trust he's doing his best at least.

[SineSwiper]

Never understood how this no-name Norquist could get so much clout and popularity.

[Shrinweck]

Agreed.. It really doesn't make any sense why this guy that the majority of the country could not give less of a shit about seems to have this hold over such a huge part of the government.

[SineSwiper]

A very good illustration of how the fiscal cliff looks:



It's actually not bad.

Payroll Tax Cut - It's supposed to be temporary, anyway
New Health Care Taxes - Only affects the rich; fuck em
Obama-Era Tax Cuts - Sad, but it's been 4 years of recovery, so let's roll them back
Extenders - The third biggest cut, and it looks like the rich get most of that, anyway
AMT Patch - Temporary, and most people itemize, anyway
Estate Tax Cut, High Income, etc. - Rich shit; fuck em
Bush-Era Tax Cuts - By far the biggest chunk, these needed to die, anyway

[Don]

For all the talk about US decline, US is probably still the best economy out there which is why this crisis is odd in the sense that it's completely self-inflicted. You could just borrow a trillion dollar from the Chinese and it's not even that risky because either you just depreciate the US dollar or China declares war on US at some point and you no longer owe them money anyway.