Publicly, the White House and top Democrats are still talking about a “balanced” plan requiring new revenue as part of a long-term budget blueprint that would replace the sequester and tackle the nation’s long-term debt challenges.
But almost no one expects that to happen.Last week, the Nevada Democrat and the Wisconsin Republican lowered expectations by ditching the grand bargain talk. Ryan told reporters that tax hikes aren’t going to be in the deal; Reid cited the GOP’s opposition to more tax hikes on the wealthy as a reason people should stop talking about cutting Social Security or Medicaid.The focus instead will be on forging a deal that can replace some of the sequester spending cuts — perhaps for just a year or two — and un-sticking the mess that has become the annual appropriations process.
Pres. continually expresses his desire for long term fixes the republicans who accuse him of kicking the can when they are the ones that only seek short term so they can create a bunch on mini tragedies designed to slow growth make the Pres. look inadequate and deny you all of what he is trying to do for Americans, who's zoomin' who?
Both sides have at least some incentive to get a deal. An agreement would give Republicans a chance to change the post-shutdown political narrative that they can’t govern. And with big defense cuts kicking in come January, Republican hawks are already pressuring their leaders to find a way out.Democrats and the White House, meanwhile, have been chafing as the president’s agenda has been squeezed by both the sequester and a gridlocked Congress. If they give in on taxes in a short-term deal, would they settle for one of the unfinished Obama agenda items that has been going nowhere in this Congress, such as a minimum-wage hike, infrastructure spending or universal preschool?
in the republican side there is no mention of anything that is for "we the people" their concern defense cuts. there can be no common ground when one is against everything and their actions prove it, they are only concerned with big business prevailing and we stay in our place as their pawns. as time goes on so does the right wing machine 2014 will deprive that machine of oil thereby locking it's gears.
