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Obama Press Conference on Fiscal Cliff

By Jeralyn, Section Obama Administration
Posted on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 04:48:50 PM EST
Tags: fiscal cliff (all tags)
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President Obama just gave a press conference on the fiscal cliff. He says we need to find some common ground. He's met Republicans half-way.

"This is something within our capacity to solve....Call me a hopeless optimist, but I still think we can get this done."

He wishes everyone Merry Christmas and because Congress didn't get this done, he'll see us next week.

The first question from the media was about the NRA. (Then the video cut off.)

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    Obama Press Conference on Fiscal Cliff | 19 comments (19 topical)

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    Pelosi on passing Obama's last offer (5.00 / 8) (#1)
    by MO Blue on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 05:14:45 PM EST
    Brian Beutler December 21, 2012, 3:06 PM In the wake of House Speaker John Boehner's Plan B debacle, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is calling on him to consider bringing President Obama's most recent fiscal cliff offer -- which includes $1.2 trillion in new tax revenue, and hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to safety net programs -- to the House floor. link

    If a Grand Bargain containing cuts to safety net programs and tax increases to the working poor and middle class passes the house with a majority of Democratic votes and just a sprinkling of Republican votes, the public will hear that it was the Democratic Party who was instrumental in cutting these programs and raising taxes on the poor the middle class.

    And Steny Hoyer was parroting the same line (5.00 / 2) (#2)
    by shoephone on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 05:31:23 PM EST
    today on CNBC. Boehner failed with his own caucus and slinked away in pieces. ANd what do the Dems do? They chase after him saying, "But wait, Johnny! Don't go home mad! We'll give you whatever you want! Just please come back and play!"

    And yes, you are right, MOBlue. They are the ones who will be remembered for decimating the New Deal, betraying their own party's decades-long principles, and betraying the American people.  

    It doesn't get more disgusting than this.

    Parent

    This (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by lentinel on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 06:25:17 PM EST
    should come as a surprise to no one.

    Parent
    It comes as no surprise to me (none / 0) (#9)
    by shoephone on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 06:52:48 PM EST
    But many of Obama's biggest cheerleaders will never even admit the ongoing corruption of the party and its historical principles.

    The example of Pelosi as the great party leader is over. Today she's trying to act like a tough broad who's going to bring everyone back from the brink. But she can't successfully walk back her outrageous comments from yesterday that 1) Democrats will follow along with Obama on whatever deal he comes up with, and 2) that chained CPI "strengthens Social Security."

    Parent

    Lesser of two evils (5.00 / 1) (#15)
    by koshembos on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 10:42:49 PM EST
    We just reelected the lesser of two evils. Though, we did elect evil. In 2008 we had a choice between a wise woman and evil. We chose evil. Don't complain about Pelosi. She is of what is for bizarre reason called the US left. The left doesn't care about us. What poor? They deal with some rights here and some rights overseas. What poor?

    Parent
    What the heck (none / 0) (#16)
    by Jack203 on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 11:01:21 PM EST
    What are you lefties complaining about?

    There is no way ever the Republicans pass some deal before the new year that raises taxes on the rich.  Especially by 1.2 trillion.

    The right wingers want to keep their promise to their overlord Grover.

    We're going over the cliff.  And so be it.

    Parent

    Hillary was the wise woman (none / 0) (#19)
    by MKS on Sat Dec 22, 2012 at 02:03:58 AM EST
    in 2008 and Obama is evil?  

    You think Hillary is to the left of Obama?

    You think Hillary is to the left of Pelosi?

    Sounds like a grudge against Obama and Obama supporters like Pelosi, rather than a principled analysis...

    Parent

    I'm convinced this the GOP strategy. (5.00 / 3) (#6)
    by oculus on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 06:27:24 PM EST


    Parent
    Boehner trying Plan O (none / 0) (#4)
    by KeysDan on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 06:19:13 PM EST
    would make Plan B look like a Boehner success story.  But then, Boehner may be looking forward to a very long vacation in Ohio.  I am hoping that Nancy Pelosi, as a  deal sweetener, will provide details on  how cutting social security benefits will "strengthen" the program.

    Parent
    MoBlue I know you have some influence in DC (none / 0) (#7)
    by mogal on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 06:27:37 PM EST
    NOW IS THE TIME TO USE IT!!!!

    Parent
    If this is snark, (none / 0) (#8)
    by MO Blue on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 06:37:45 PM EST
    you forgot the tag.

    If I had influence in D.C., we would not have gotten where we are now.

    Parent

    Not Snark, I respect what your comments (none / 0) (#10)
    by mogal on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 06:53:35 PM EST
    I too am from Mo and thought I knew who you were through your wife. We both  believe the "pen is more powerful than the sword."

    Parent
    I am glad that you respect my comments (5.00 / 4) (#11)
    by MO Blue on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 07:25:05 PM EST
    I also believe that the "pen is more powerful than the sword" - but unfortunately my pen is not that powerful or influential in D.C..  

    On a lighter note:

    As a female, I have longed for a male working wife but alas that was not to be.  

    Parent

    The national imagination is dead (5.00 / 5) (#3)
    by Dadler on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 05:39:07 PM EST
    Obama's above quote evidences an intellect corrupted by the prevailing American political premise that, sigh, money matters more than people. Only that disgusting paradigm can explain the complete corruption of the public intellectual processes of a nation. Money first, people second. How else to explain our ability to create trillions for financial junkies while we tell grandma to suck it.  

    This is leadership?  On the contrary, it is complete surrender to historically discredited right-wing economic dogma.

    And to hold this paradigm as a nation sovereign in its own currency? Insane. Socially suicidal. Delusional.

    Mike Lux (5.00 / 4) (#12)
    by MO Blue on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 08:04:36 PM EST
    It's pretty hard to negotiate with a guy who can't deliver anything.

    And this is the bumbling, ineffectual man to whom the President, in the words of his own proud press release, has already given in to Boehner "halfway on revenue and more than halfway on spending". This is where the high tragedy and crying comes in. The President won the election by uniting his progressive base and working class and older swing voters with a message that trumpeted that he would fight unceasingly for the middle class.
    ....
    Why, exactly, has the President already given away more than half of the game?

    You know what? Scratch that: I don't really care why. All I care is that now that Boehner has rejected the president's "more than halfway" offer, and shown dramatically that he can't deliver the votes anyway, that the offer be withdrawn and we wait for the Republicans to cave, just like we did in 1995. As Damon Silvers of the AFL-CIO, who have been impressively strong and tough against the President's offer to Boehner, said:

    "He needs to recognize what everyone else recognizes, which is that he made an overly generous offer to Boehner, and Boehner threw it back at him. The appropriate response is to tell Boehner the offer is no longer valid. We want the president to come forward with an offer that reflects the reason why he won. We want the president to fight for two things: One is an end to the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent, and the other is to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid." link
    As we approach the end of Obama's (5.00 / 6) (#13)
    by Anne on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 08:28:09 PM EST
    4th year as president, I don't know how it could not be abundantly clear that if the president truly believed in the integrity and purpose and principle of the safety net, if he truly wanted to close the chasm that is the income equality gap, he would not have relied, again and again, on the advice and counsel of economic advisors and cabinet members and party leaders who keep trying to take us in the opposite direction.  Who want to weaken the safety net as a precursor to privatizing it.  Who couldn't rescue the housing industry from the criminals who killed it.  Who can't seem to do more than levy cost-of-doing-business fines against mortgage fraudsters and banksters.

    So, to now expect the president who has rivaled a pit bull in the strength with which he has latched onto the Grand Bargain, to stand up to Republicans and show them the consequences of winning an election by fighting for the people who made that win possible, is to go down the rabbit hole and join the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and all their friends for a lovely spot of tea.

    Honest to God, I don't know why people still expect Obama to be something he has never, ever shown himself to be; it just ain't happening, people.

    Parent

    We have a winner (none / 0) (#17)
    by Jack203 on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 11:06:13 PM EST
    Yes, it's posturing.   Obama is boxing them in.  

    If we go over the hill, it will be 75% bad for the Republican  (Tazes on rich and deep Military cuts) and 25% bad for Democrats. (Reduced entitlements, Taxes on Middleclass, Payroll Tax)

    You got to let ie happen, and then move on from there once the previous deal is off the ledger book.

    Ah, I see (none / 0) (#20)
    by sj on Sun Dec 23, 2012 at 09:40:43 PM EST
    It is 11-dimensional chess.

    Parent
    What's the problem? (none / 0) (#18)
    by MyLeftMind on Sat Dec 22, 2012 at 12:11:41 AM EST
    This it not a setback. It's an opportunity!

    All we have to do is swing out over the fiscal cliff, eliminate the Bush era tax breaks, start with a fresh blotter, and in January our elected Democrats simply have to propose tax breaks for the middle class without Obama's plutocratic compromises that include tax breaks for the super rich.

    Why don't we TL folks simply write the bill(s) we want to see passed, which include reinstatement of the tax breaks that affect the middle class between $25,000-300,000 annual income. That would include things like the child tax credit and the mortgage interest deduction, among others.

    Heck, the oil companies wrote bills that funneled millions of tax dollars into their coffers. Agribusinesses did the same thing, managing to hoodwink the US taxpayers into paying farms (I use that term loosely) not to grow certain crops. What a gimmick. War profiteers (AKA military contractors) do the same thing. These clever people write  bills and hand them to US senators, and lo and behold, the working Americans end up on the hook for millions, even billions of dollars of tax money spent to help the super rich get richer.

    It's time we reclaimed control of our government. You TL people have money and other resources. You're smart. You care about our country and our future. You get it. You're a bunch of lawyers, for Pete's sake, and, dare I say, a bunch of political junkies.

    Let's do this. Jeralyn, BTD, can you start a series of discussions that would result in ready-made middle class tax break bills for our elected Democrats to propose in January 2013?

    Let's do more than just Talk Left. Let's Walk the Talk. No less than the future of our country is at stake.  Let's get this done!

    Obama Press Conference on Fiscal Cliff | 19 comments (19 topical)

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