Few options left for Boehner on the fiscal cliff
“At this point, I only see one route to avoiding the cliff, a replay of the TARP debacle in 2008,” said George Washington University’s Sarah Binder, an expert on Congress. In September 2008, the House defeated the bank bailout bill and the market collapsed, prompting a terrified lawmakers to reconsider and pass it…
Boehner’s only other apparent option – one that he hinted at late on Thursday following the collapse of his bill – would be to walk away and leave the problem on Democrats’ doorstep.
“Now it is up to the president to work with Senator Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff,” Boehner said in a statement referring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
But in a closed-door session before that statement, Republican lawmakers said Boehner told them that he would at least try to work out something with Obama.
Blowback
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Boehner will resign.
JPeterman on December 21, 2012 at 1:02 PM
Let it fall. The republic is now an empire anyway. Let the collapse happen, the get 2/3s of the states to call a Constitutional Convention.
MoreLiberty on December 21, 2012 at 1:04 PM
Well he could lie like a dog as Obama does.
But in that he and the R’s do not have the msm protection thugs to hide behind, his best bet is to,,, say, it was a mistake even to attempt a rational deal with Pres. Obama. Now we will do what we should have done to start with.
Send over a bill with nothing but across the board real cuts, not just lower spending deals.
No point in giving in to a bully, it will just get your lunch money taken tomorrow too.
APACHEWHOKNOWS on December 21, 2012 at 1:05 PM
what’s the word for one of those fancy Japanese ritual suicides? He should try one of those. though he’ll make a mess of it and probably have to end up having a piece of origami surgically removed from somewhere but at least he can say he tried to pass it.
bannor on December 21, 2012 at 1:08 PM
I don’t believe he’s tried crying yet.
Chuck Schick on December 21, 2012 at 1:09 PM
If everyone’s taxes go up on January 1st because the republican party was unwilling to raise the taxes of the top 1 or 2% it will be the end of the republican party.
Please Santa bring some sanity to Washington D.C.
meci on December 21, 2012 at 1:14 PM
Notwithstanding all of the cliff talk and over the cliff falling/jumping/being pushed.
Call in the Navy Seabees, have them build a nice deep blue lake at the bottom of the cliff and we all have a fun jump.
APACHEWHOKNOWS on December 21, 2012 at 1:21 PM
A constitutional convention would be a disaster, but I otherwise agree with your sentiments. A sudden collapse would be a good thing from the stadpoint that it would increase the chances of a national divorce of the good states from the bad states, which is what I’m rooting for.
I’ve had it with the left. There is no rehabilitating them. They are as American as Karl Marx.
The Count on December 21, 2012 at 1:21 PM
Democrats controlled the House then and Demcorats refused to be the only ones supporting TARP, which Obama later took credit for as “saving the economy”. The Republicans should have stuck to their guns and forced the Democrats to own the bank bailouts, just as they should have stuck to their guns in 2010 and rejected McConnel’s “grand bargain” over the debt ceiling, and should stick to their damn guns now.
Daemonocracy on December 21, 2012 at 1:24 PM
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
If the Republicans decide that it is okay to punish the top 1 or 2% so the spending and redistributionist bloodlust of the masses can be satisfied, then the Republican party needs to end. Raising taxes will not solve anything when we are borrowing 43 cents on every dollar spent.
Hi, my name is “the government” and I have a spending problem.
The solution is to cut spending. If that simple fact cannot be agreed upon, then let it burn.
Fallon on December 21, 2012 at 1:26 PM
Once again the “true conservatives” hand the Democrats a victory. smh
crosspatch on December 21, 2012 at 1:26 PM
Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn’t. But the fact remains, we could at least start the dissolution because that’s actually what is going to happen sooner or later.
MoreLiberty on December 21, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Here is the reality of our overall situation. The United States is in debt over $16.4 trillions and it’s growing every single second. There are no real plans to cut any spending. Obama and Boehner know this. The plans they have are to do nothing but slightly slow down the rate of increase in government spending.
It was just 2010 that the CBO claimed that our National Debt wouldn’t reach $16 trillion until at least 2016. They of course were wrong. Our largest expenditure will be the interest we owe to our debtors in less than a decade. It’s going to collapse – and they know it.
MoreLiberty on December 21, 2012 at 1:35 PM
Boehner needs to MAN UP and walk away from obama’s CLIFF games. Going over obama’s CLIFF is exactly what America needs – why save his sorry ass?
Pork-Chop on December 21, 2012 at 1:39 PM
Extend the status quo for 90 days.
Anything passed that is a so called “deal” in the next week is going to be a disaster.
gophergirl on December 21, 2012 at 2:00 PM
Why are we fixated on these limited media-generated options? Rush suggested today that the House should pass a bill that actually cuts taxes and I say why not? I say pass a bill that cuts middle class tax rates a percentage point or two, leaves the tax rates the same for millionaires, and fixes sequestration and the AMT. I’m pretty sure Boehner could get the votes for it. Never mind about fixing the debt right now bcuz the $80 billion we were gonna fleece millionaires for in the first year isn’t gonna do anything to noticeably address the debt/deficit issues anyway. Force Obamuh and Reidiculous to veto a bill that cuts taxes and then let them explain that or maybe it’ll force them to get off their high-horses and start doing their bleepin’ jobs and start negotiating seriously.
stukinIL4now on December 21, 2012 at 2:55 PM