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There were no real surprises among the choices made by John Boehner and Mitch McConnell for the Catfood Commission II. It’s perhaps interesting to note that Paul Ryan didn’t make the cut, but I guess Boehner figured that he’s toxic and therefore not a good face to put on the committee. Instead, Boehner picked two heads of other committees with jurisdiction over health programs and taxes, and made the chair a member of the original Catfood Commission as well as the House Leadership.
Jeb Hensarling*, Dave Camp, Fred Upton
So this is the Hensarling-Murray committee, and I don’t see how those two will find one thing to work together on. While Camp declared health care repeal “dead” earlier this year as well as rejecting putting up the Ryan Medicare plan for a vote in his Ways and Means Committee, he’s not exactly someone who would radically shift away from the stated agenda of House Republicans. He has indicated interest in individual corporate tax reform, but his tax plan would radically lower the top marginal rates to 25%. Fred Upton went from authoring the bill to increase light bulb standards to screaming about saving the incandescent light bulb, so any independent thought has been pounded out of him.
As for the Senate:
Jon Kyl, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey
So one retiring member of Senate leadership, and two freshmen. Portman was George Bush’s OMB Director, Toomey ran the Club for Growth. If there’s anything but orthodoxy coming from these three, I’d be shocked. Kyl was in the Biden talks over the debt limit; Portman wrote an op-ed saying it was a good idea to hold the debt limit hostage; Toomey wanted investors paid off first and Social Security beneficiaries stiffed. There isn’t a lot of daylight here. I don’t think any of these three were involved in any way in creating or even endorsing the Gang of Six recommendations.
Basically, these selections were interchangeable. There isn’t a great deal of ideological diversity in the Republican caucus. You could have picked names out of a hat. None of these six are going to diverge in any meaningful way from party orthodoxy on taxes, and all will seek to slash safety net programs.
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Will Obama criticize these picks as sanctimonious purists? Or as the professional right?
Nope, he’ll offer praise to mcconnell/boehner for picking reasonable, dedicated, patriotic men to work on a bipartisan plan.
Sorry to go OT, David.
Am I a day late and a dollar short? A link to Jane’s Town Hall post appears in a CNN front page link about Michael Moore and Matt Damon. CNN’s entertainment blog but…
We’re shittin’ in high cotton now. ROFLMAO oh lordy can’t breathe
it doesnt matter.
the deal is already done.
massive cuts to SS and medicare.
bush tax vuts stay forever.
no defense cuts.
some fake talk about fixing the tax code, which really means more taxcuts for corporations etc etc.
obama a democrat has destoyed the entire new deal the safty net for working and poor americans.
he will live in infamy.
my pelosi prayer:
b. frank
d. edwards
h. waxman
barney is my pick for the reasonable one.
Obama must be delighted.
Start making plans for your parents and grandparents.
A traitor to working Americans and the less fortunate of society but a champion of Wall Street. He’s insured he’ll always have an invite to the country club where he, Cantor, McConnel and Boner can share a good laugh.
Well that’s something. /s
You can go ahead and stop holding your breath now. That would be my advice, anyway.
He’s one of the coaches on the sidelines.
The deck is stacked. You can see the WH’s fingerprints all over the Baucus pick. Obama wants this whole thing to go away no matter what the price. He has no reservation about throwing the poor and the middle class under the bus to make sure that next year he can entirely focus on his reelection.
Kyl’s pick is an interesting didn’t he say that statements he made on the floor of the Senate in arguing against Planned Parenthood weren’t met to be factual? I wonder what “facts” he’ll make up to justify his positions on this committee?
ok, my brain has reached critical mass and I am confused
If there is deadlock, the triggers come in, right ? but supposedly the triggers don’t touch Safety Net – if there are triggers, the tribalists are going to call it eleventy dim.chess, ‘see, we just finessed around GOP’S wanting to cut safety net!’ blah blah blah
but it is clear POTUS wants to cut the net and Congress. Dems will go along, so, how’s that gonna get done with this scenario ?
WJ featured Cornel West and Tavis Smiley this morning. It was a beautiful thing…
Copy that.
should we call it the Cat Food Politburo?
Direct link here.
Seems fair since our MSM is Pravda.
This whole thing is a fucking joke.
Kyl is a lying sack of shit. I’m glad Cantor isn’t involved. This is all probably academic anyway. Nothing GOOD will come of this. Probably nothing at all.
I move “Catfood Politburo” be accepted as the official name for the Joint Select Committee on Screwing America.
Second?
Govt Printing Ofc (GPO) site sez the bill is not yet in their system so is unavailable for viewing.
I haven’t read the section pertaining to Catfood II and don’t want to rely on anything else.
The Writing Is On The Wall
Sperling is telling us in plain English, cuts are coming!!!
In addition to the other social programs they already cut, they’re going to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, even though SS doesn’t add a penny to the deficit or the debt!
The fix is in with the super congress and working people are going to take a shellacking!!! Shared sacrifice isn’t raising taxes on rich people who don’t need the money to live and cutting programs essential to life for the working class, poor and elderly!!!
Elected officials aren’t listening to working class people any more. There’s no alternative to direct action before these cuts are made!
We can’t sit and crib and claim “Who could have known?” after the cuts. He’s being very clear: Cuts are coming to the foundational programs of the New Deal and Great Society that will hurt the most powerless and vulnerable members of society.
http://october2011.org/….
We have to hit the streets! If the Egyptian and Tunisian people can topple dictators, we can save these programs from cuts, but not if we’re too lazy or obtuse to think they aren’t coming.
If you’re right it makes for some interesting math.
The trigger is $1.5T.
There are 52M people on SS.
That would mean a cut of $250 per month from our seniors.
Probably not going to happen.
Why, yes! I’ll go with that.
But I reserve the right to refer to the Committee of the Twelve Caesars.
As in “seizers” of your social safety net rights….albeit it takes only 7 to do so.
Probably site is just busy; I’ve previously downloaded that PDF.
Did a comparison and it is identical to this copy that’s up at the Rules Committee.
The section you really want to examine is Title II – Sequestration. That’s the triggers.
I am willing to DO IT!
Can we wait until October when it’s a littel cooler?
Think bigger. Topple these corrupt politicians as well.
Cat Food Politburo — check cat food labels.
Are you crazy? That’s the start of the new TV season!!! What’s wrong with signing petitions and writing “strongly worded” letters from the comfort of our homes?
“Twelve Caesars”?????
Maybe “Twelve Stooges”.
First proposal of the Catfood Commission. Summarily rejected for being “too extravagant.”
Check the link. The demo’s in October. See you there! Will you be the one in a car?
Can’t we can be done by 6PM????
That’s me. Good ol’ ‘Merican Muscle Car.
“Caesars” as in the time of the authoritarian, dictatorial caesars.
Undemocratic while, for awhile, maintaining the illusion of a republic.
As in their decisions cannot be appealed, amended, discussed. It’s just accept — or accept the consequences.
Well first let’s try and keep people from dying because Medicare cuts mean they won’t get needed procedures and making sure the elderly have shelter and enough to eat.
The demo can’t be a one off event. We have to build a movement to advance the interests of the working class, the poor and the elderly. Right now we’re getting out asses kicked all over the world.
The Egyptians and Tunisians showed us the way. We just need to do it.
I see why…….they are ALL called “Feast”.
I see your point. Still like “stooges”.
I heard the A-rabs pulled it off by using Twitter and Facebook. I don’t do that. Just put a flyer in my mailbox and I’ll come. Promise.
The only ones the corrupt political class worry about dying are themselves.
Are you cereal?
With whom are the GOPers interchangeable? Themselves, or the Democrats?
thanks didn’t know that
have even had discussions where some folks think this is just a brilliant ploy to place a national spotlight on GOP’s designs on safety net for 2012 – Dems aren’t that smart
I agree. That’s why we have to fight them by building a movement. A demo is the immediate, necessary indispensable step.
Whoops – sorry typed too many ‘Is”. It’s Title I with enforcement/sequestration.
I have now written several stronly worded memos to my senators, congressman the WH. Damn, doesn’t seem to be working. I think they ignore me really, but they all send back an e mail. And they always follow up asking for money.
I like Grape Nuts and Rice Chex.
Republican Obama filled his very own Catfood Commission with rigth-wing fascist REpubicans. Heck of a job, Barack… Obama is the biggest fraud in AMerican history.
Did you guys hear that Obama’s “Grass Roots” fundraiser the other day was $12,000 a plate? That sounds like real “grass” if ya know what I mean.
Thanks. I wuz doin’ the lazy man’s search.
What about, Famine for Thee, Feast for Me.
But you’ve gotta admit he’s a snappy dresser and by God he gives good speech.
Norway had a guy like him. His name was Vidkun Quisling. Didn’t end well for Vidkun.
Wow. Did your parents give you that (screen) name?
Are you sure you don’t like Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and/or Fruit Loops?
This all sounds so awesome! My only question is: When do we get to riot? Will someone send me a text notification?
I’ll let you know. I’ll meet you at the Chick-Fil-A at 10. I love their cole slaw.
I hope some of the women take off their shirts in protest.
Upton is notoriously anti-EPA. Dow owns lots of Michigan pols.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/08/watch-out-epa-fred-upton-is-on-the-supercommittee.html
We can only hope.
Man just reading through the bill. The Republicans in the House completely owned the Senate Democrats on this in 3 different ways. Its obvious which side was desperate for a deal. This is reads like a contract arent to own furniture stores would stick on illiterates.
1. The cuts were supposed divided between defense and non-defense discretionary spending, right? Good idea that GOP House has the right to waive, at discretion of House Budget Committee chair’s (Paul Ryan), the budget caps for national security spending. Funny how Senate didn’t get an escape hatch like that.
“In the House of Representatives, if a reported bill or joint resolution, or amendment thereto or conference report thereon, contains a provision providing new budget authority and outlays or reducing revenue, and a designation of such provision as an emergency requirement pursuant to 251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, the chair of the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives shall not count the budgetary effects of such provision for purposes of title III and title IV of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and the Rules of the House…
The term ‘emergency’ means a situation that… requires new budget authority and outlays (or new budget authority and the outlays flowing therefrom) for the prevention or mitigation of, or response to, loss of life or property, or a threat to national security…
2. Catfood Commission II bill says if either House sends joint committee bill to Senate (or vice versa) before the receiver passed its own version of joint committee bill, then after receiver passes the bill, its deemed that receiver had actually passed the sender’s bill. Before you start wondering why a “joint committee” would have two versions of the same bill, there’s a caveat. If the Senate joint bill is a revenue bill (that is, deals with taxes instead of only spending cuts), the House is free to reject it, That’s a very strange procedure, especially since Senate doesn’t get equivalent right to punt. But it gets better, much much better.
If, before passing the joint committee bill, one House receives from the other a joint committee bill—
(A) the joint committee bill of the other House shall not be referred to a committee; and
(B) the procedure in the receiving House shall be the same as if no joint committee bill had been received from the other House until the vote on passage, when the joint committee bill received from the other House shall supplant the joint committee bill of the receiving House.
(2) REVENUE MEASURE.—This subsection shall not apply to the House of Representatives if the joint committee bill received from the Senate is a revenue measure.
3. OK, this last section is can’t possibly constitutional but I’m impressed someone had the balls to put this in a law. Not only is the Senate stuck with House version the bill if it comes over before Senate passage, those idiots in the Senate agreed to deem passage of House bill even if it comes over AFTER Senate passage. Just, wow. As it happens, the Constitution is pretty clear that both Houses to vote on the on the same bill language, you can’t pass a bill having no clue what’s going to be added to it later with this “future draft pick to be selected later” scheme, but its pretty creative.
(2) TREATMENT OF COMPANION MEASURES IN THE SENATE.—If following passage of the joint committee bill in the Senate, the Senate then receives the joint committee bill from the House of Representatives, the House-passed joint committee bill shall not be debatable. The vote on passage of the joint committee bill in the Senate shall be considered to be the vote on passage of the joint committee bill received from the House of Representatives.