I read the post twice and still don’t quite understand “the reason to be happy.” Kerry’s always be much more of Wall Street Dem that is usually recognized, Baucus is Baucus (the man who supported the original Bush tax cuts), and Murray signed that letter in support of A Grand Bargain. Just because there aren’t many Democratic Senators who would better (Harkin and Merkeley come to mind) isn’t reason to be happy.

And correct me if I’m wrong: don’t they just need a simple majority?

Eleventy dimensional robbery of workers and taxpayers being played by the wealthy non-tax-paying elite through their DINOCRAT agents.

Terrible list. Terrible idea all the way around. This whole idea is certainly anti-democratic if not unconstitutional. But if this idea is allowed to go forward, shouldn’t we stop all salaries of staff and congress people since they are no longer needed to govern except for naming airports.

“I think there’s reason to be happy about the three selections by Harry Reid for the Catfood Commission II, and there’s just as much reason to be skeptical. All three are on the record for a balanced deficit solution..”

OMG, you haven’t learned yet? Obama was “on record” as wanting a public option, negotiated lower Rx prices, repeal of BushCo tax cuts…..

Believe what they do, not what they say.

The Kommunist Kenyan Kid (KKK) plays the Hope-A-Dope game on us again.

I think you miss DDay’s point. Kerry and Max are anchors – they’ll drag any discussion down to watery depth of mediocrity (especially the long-winded Kerry). Murray’s presence will make the GOPers even angrier. So nothing will come out of it, so the auto cuts occur.

That makes the defense auto-cut possible. Now, President Milquetoast will probably give that away, but at least there is a shot at it.

The GOPers make this committee a joke anyway. May as well throw a monkey wrench into the deal, or in this case, two monkeys and a wrench.

Kerry Kerry Kerry – I remember the Queen Anne Yuppie-0-crats coming out of the woodwork of their leafy neighborhoods in Seattle to support Kerry cuz he was electable and how could the right wing lie about a war hero and … Howard Dean will scare the moderately independently swinging centrists, and we’ll lose!!!! (DFH! DFH!)

That year I checked off Murray’s name – who was the lying flat earther running against her … yawn …?

Last year I wrote in “Medicare ForAll” instead of checking off Patty Pathetic’s name – and I have NEVER regretted it.

Ya see, I still got all the right wing lies coming outta a Phake Democrat, I still got all the shitty sell out votes, I still got all the Queen Anne yuppies making excuses outta their double talking yuppie traps – BUT I DIDN’T VOTE FOR IT!

rmm.

“I think there’s reason to be happy”…

This somehow causes me to think of the movie, A Boy and His Dog. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072730/ Note the smiley face in the mushroom cloud on the movie poster. It may be a kind of “happy” that isn’t a particularly good or healthy kind of happy?

they want this Committee to force the federal government to make similar sacrifices without the red hot partisanship and brinksmanship of the last months.

Shorter MOTUs to TAP: La-la-la, we can’t hear you.

What bothers me is that Dems have stopped talking about raising taxes. Now it’s “tax reform.” What is needed is a firm commitment to let the Bush-Obama Tax Cuts For The Rich expire at the end of 2012, as promised. Remember, the ORIGINAL promise was that they would expire at the end of 2010.

Someone made the point that the single largest creditor of the US is the SS Trust fund. Since both parties are trying to find way to reform SS, you have to assume they intend to default on part or, if they can get away with it, all of this debt. When they went with special Treasury notes for the Trust fund, the plan probably was for, if necessary, the government to default on those bonds and not face market consequences. Otherwise, why would you issue special notes?

SS doesn’t need reforming and certainly not without adequate study. The Trust fund can continue full benefits for 25 years. If you want to make SS totally solvent forever just eliminate the wage cap. Problem is soon the Trust is going to start cashing in those Government notes. That puts a strain on the budget. If you reform the system, by paying less benefits SS can continue to pay out benefits without drawing on the bonds and affecting the budget deficit.

why even go through more….and expensive elections,if a POLITBORO has been selected,are there ever FARCES in the Kabuki theatre?

this sure seems like one

Robert Borosage on why this stinks:

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2011083210/harry-reids-appointments

Does seem like the special notes were intended to lead to a “special default”.

Wikipedia: From the point of view of the Social Security trust funds, the holdings of “special” government bonds are an investment that returned 5.5% to the trust funds in 2005.[12] Instead, the “specials” can be sold back to the government at face value, which is an advantage when interest rates are rising.

To escape paying either principal or interest on the “special” bonds held by the trust funds, the government would have to default on these obligations. This cannot be done by executive order. The Congress would have to pass legislation to repudiate these particular government bonds. The week after his State of the Union speech, Bush downplayed the importance of the Trust Fund:

GWB: “Some in our country think that Social Security is a trust fund – in other words, there’s a pile of money being accumulated. That’s just simply not true. The money – payroll taxes going into the Social Security are spent. They’re spent on benefits and they’re spent on government programs. There is no trust”.[13]

These comments were criticized as “lay[ing] the groundwork for defaulting on almost two trillion dollars worth of US Treasury bonds”.

The political class has lost all legitimacy and therefore the right to govern the “people.” This is a criminal class that plays the “people” for fools in the service of the elites. The people have the inalienable right to resist the actions of an illegitimate ruling elite.

The Writing Is On The Wall

“…[The] President, at a time when many of his supporters said we should save Medicare to be more of a political issue, said we are going to be serious, we are going to be willing to do modest, reasonable Medicare reforms, and other entitlement reforms as part of a comprehensive effort.” -Gene Sperling

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 saw this coming?” 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.

Agreed. Instead of so-called “reform” maybe the cry should be to “Reconstitute” and throw out trash like the Citizens United decree from the SCOTUS. Maybe a Redeclaration Of Independence from the criminals would clarify what’s needed.

4% tax increase on everybody.

The political class must be seen for the pariahs that they are. They are an even greater threat to the well being of a vast majority of the American people than any cave dwelling terrorists. When the “people” no longer trust or believe any of a corrupt political class the fate these scoundrels, liars and traitors have brought on themselves will be seen as inevitable. They are not representatives of the people but rather the enemies of the people.

All this Monday morning quarter-backing about who’s going to do what on this undemocratic, perhaps unconstitutional Super Congress committee, serves what purpose?

That this Super Congress even exists is not good for what ails the country! This committee replaces the will of the people (not that Congress — or the WH — has been listening to us) with a dictatorial legislative body. It’s just that simple.

We should be calling for action to dismantle this cockamamie, crackpot committee.

Why not just get rid of the wage cap?

Last week the NYT has a story how Saks, etc was booming due to high income types now buying plenty of luxury items versus 2008/2009. An example was given where previouly the max price for some designer shoe/whatever was $1200 and now the max is $1500 and they are flying off the shelves.

Sooo why not drop the cap, it is all just monoply money to them anyway. Oh, and same logic, drop the Bush/Obama tax cuts too.

These people, this machinery needs to be stopped. Time to throw somebody on the gears.

There is a lot of wiggle room in all of this.

The most important cuts will be those targeted for the remainder of this Congress (any FY2012 cuts) and those that set the limits for FY2013. The least important will be those after FY2016. Note that this is just a guide to determining how badly we’re being screwed.

The same on the revenue side. The Bush Tax Cut expiration is the most important item because it is supposed to happen before the next Congress takes office. Any closing of loopholes that is not forced immediately is not going to happen. At least not if this Congress is re-elected.

Then there are the triggers and the mandated vote. The whole apparatus is legislation that can be undone by legislation in January (or December or November). So the “neutron bomb”–what a tell: kills people, leaves property — is likely to be partially or totally defused (depending on the politics) almost as soon as it is triggered.

Just more drama, in other words.

And then there is the timing. By October we will know (1) how much of the government will be shut down during the budget fight; (2) what happens to Bank of America; (3) how bad business did in the third quarter, after the state and local layoffs began to bite; (4) whether the stock market will read the real economic condition and take a huge plunge, even another Black Monday, or even worse a Black Thursday.

In other words, events will probably be more of a backdrop than partisan scripts. And that will have an impact on public perception that all the spinning in the world cannot change.

Yes, This “committee” was put in place specifically to dismantle SS, Medicare and Medicaid and have the executive whoever he or she may be say, “What could I do?”. These appointees will deadlock and the automatic cuts will go into place. The Defense Dept. will find ways around their cuts. Just add another Dept of Homeland Security with another name. Like the CIA, it’s just another way of funneling money to the military academic congressional industrial complex.

If we don’t have a national strike over this, we need to just crawl in our shells and wait to get cooked. Because this isn’t about “the least vulnerable”. It’s about all of us.

I couldn’t agree more. Neither party works for “the people” and the SCOTUS has guaranteed that they never will again.

Your idea of a national strike just may be a good one. Another idea, just vote as many incumbents out of office as we can to show them we mean business. Only vote FOR candidates who support term limitations and campaigh finance reform. I know that’s “pie in the sky” but an armed insurrection is probably counterintuitive.

(“Counterintuitive” is my word for the day.)

i thought baucus had a reputation as a dim bulb.

is that unfair?

The idea of a “Grand Bargain” must be attacked visibly, viciously, and nationally. We have to have prominent Americans call it out as both stupid and evil. We also have to attack the notion of a “balanced approach.” It also is stupid and evil.

As long as “Grand Bargain” and “balanced approach” are the terms of the debate, we lose. We need to be explicit about how these terms are being used to cover up regressive policies that screw average Americans.

“Meanwhile, if Baucus is not liked for being parochial and sure to vote against any program that emerged, and given his performance during the health care debate, when he went into a room with a small bipartisan group and wasted four months not finding a solution, I’d say it was a great choice!”

David? Baucus was supposed to delay an outcome in 2009. Baucus did come up with a bill, one that had no public option. I’m certain he was doing this as Obama’s man.

In this CCII he has different orders. Get it done on time and cut Social Security and Medicare. I am certain again that he will do the job for Obama. I was right on the Default Deal. I predict that Baucus at least will vote with the Republicans on a deal that cuts Social Security and Medicare, that has minimal cuts in Defense, that has big cuts in the near term and that will be sold as tax reform that is revenue neutral but that we progressives will say is actually tax cuts but we’ll be ignored. A few Tea Party types will protest it as tax raises, but not enough to doom the vote in Congress (just like the Default Deal.) Let’s see how I do on this one.

Oh yeah, by 2013 the loopholes that had been closed to keep the lower tax rates revenue neutral will already have started being re-opened.

Google “Enabling act Germany 1930+/-”

It’s later than we imagine.

Yeah, but lower Queen Anne is still a great place to shop and dine.

Right. One of the whole point of this CCII is to make something even more drastic than the Bush-Obama tax cuts PERMANENT. They don’t need to use reconciliation now to bypass the filibuster. We will see the top rate reduced to as low as 23%, more likely 27%, and I expect with the lower rates covering much more income; all in the name of reform by closing loopholes so it is “revenue neutral” but “fair.” Then immediately the MOTUS will start working to create new and better loopholes more appropriate for the second half of the first third of the 21st Century, which will all happen under the radar just like after Reagan’s “tax reform.”

In Massachusetts, John Kerry’s turf, the defense industry has tripled in size since 2000. There’s that, and….

Dean Baker said today: “The Washington Post told readers that Senator John Kerry’s appointment to the ‘super committee’ that is supposed to come up with $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction ‘could help appease liberals.’ Senator Kerry has repeatedly expressed his willingness to cut Social Security and Medicare, despite the fact that retirees and near retirees saw much of their wealth destroyed with the collapse of the housing bubble. It is difficult to see why liberals would be appeased by this selection, especially since the Republicans selected are likely to be adamantly opposed to any tax increases.”

Sadlyyes, your use of POLITBORO to describe the Super Committee, (for which I prefer CCII,) made me realize something.

They could put ANYTHING in this deal. They could set up an ongoing Super Committee to fast track all deficit cuts and insure that it never include revenue raising to be fast tracked. They could make revenue raising from now on to require 2/3 or even 3/4 super majorities. Or they could do the same with raising the debt ceiling. They could outlaw unions for all federal employees.

The special notes were a GOP idea to avoid Trust sales that would “disrupt the market” – the part that is “special” in special notes is that they can only be redeemed by presentation to the Treasury.

Cutting benefits does indeed mean less redeeming of Trust fund bonds, but it has no effect on the deficit or on the size of the national debt. When SS bonds are redeemed Treasury just sells more to the market to get the cash to retire them – the total amount of bonds – the total debt outstanding – does not change.

Of course the US/Treasury could raise taxes to get the cash to redeem the bonds – but this would mean the rich would be repaying the financing the SS Trust provided for the bush tax cuts for the rich – and they are not about to give that money back.

I hope you are correct as the auto-cut is the best result.

Obama is determined to cut Social Security and Medicare – indeed his extension of the Bush tax cuts was to get a reason for those cuts.

http://my.firedoglake.com/papau/2011/08/10/extending-the-bush-tax-cuts-in-2010-to-get-socsecmedicare-cuts/

LOL – a prediction of 2nd Reagan – a 1986 redux.

yep – sounds right to me!

Anything to avoid the return of the Clinton tax rates.

http://my.firedoglake.com/papau/2011/08/10/extending-the-bush-tax-cuts-in-2010-to-get-socsecmedicare-cuts/

The Super Duper Pooper Congress will cut all so called entitlements and increase defense because the terrorists hate freedom.