Last Tuesday night was anything but a mandate for the Republican Party’s agenda. Yet Sen. Mitch McConnell, minority Senate leader, made the inexplicable comment that has befuddled even the closest political observer: “I am not willing to raise taxes to turn off the sequester. Period,” McConnell reportedly told the Wall Street Journal. “We won’t agree to any tax increases that will hurt the economy.”
OK Senator, but if we go over the fiscal cliff that sequestration is as of Dec. 31, 2012 at midnight, then I guess it won’t matter if taxes are raised or not.
This kind of grandstanding is insane. It’s as insane as saying the only way to get us out of our current fiscal problems is to raise taxes on the rich — those who make $250,000 or more.
Raising taxes when we are faced with a $1.1 trillion annual deficit and a $16.2 trillion debt is imperative. Bush-era tax cuts must be allowed to sunset on all taxpayer brackets. Period.
And, deep cuts across all categories of government spending, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid must be on the table. Defense spending must also face the surgeon’s scalpel.
Sen. McConnell and anyone else on either side of the political great divide in this country better take a sober dose of reality before making provocative statements that only move this country and its citizens toward a point of no return. Reckless rhetoric has no place in this debate. Men and women who’ve been elected to represent the 300 million-plus citizens of this nation had better do their job before this economy slides into an abyss from which there is no return.
Can’t happen? Well, if sequestration is allowed to engage, our nation’s economy will slide, not into recession, but into a depression that might make our last world-wide depression look like a bump in the road.
McConnell and the rest of his high-minded Republican pals had better begin working with Democrats and the president. If these egos go unchecked, we the people will be the losers.
It’s time to solve the problem Senator, not add to the burden you failed to tell the American people about when you were running for re-election. Truth is, your silence during the election cycle could have placed Americans of all levels of the social strata in the bull’s-eye of economic meltdown.
Keith Hansen
Comments (25)
Add commentKing of Kentucky...Mitch McConnell...Failed...
Mitch McConnell: Top Priority, Make Obama a One Term President...NOT!
Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-A09a_gHJc
McConnell is becoming irrelevant.
The GOP needs to replace him with someone who understands the word compromise and doesn't depend on the filibuster to govern.
So is this a permanent change of thinking for Keith?
Raising taxes...cutting defense...sounds good.
Today's paper had a story about Starbucks in Great Britain not paying British taxes for ten years. They say they aren't making money. Let's see how the British handle that.
So long
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid must go and we can throw
in Boehner and McConnel.
Purposed you are right one when you say they all should go.
I'm asking Southie, Scribbles and all the rest to join in
by asking for all four to be replaced. I have to say that if you
don't notice the uselessness of both of them especially
Harry Reid (who makes sure his children get included in
federal contracts) you are too far gone.
Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Mitch McConnel
good-bye.
Southie
Seven out of the ten richest congressmen are Democrats. How much money, do you suppose, did they squirrel away in off-shore accounts? Do you think their tax rate was any different than Mitt Romneys? How about George Soros?
Spot on, Purposed!
Sadie
Just a word of caution. Don't hold your breath.
Sadiemarriedlady and purposed
Agreed 100%. Then we have some in St Paul also. It's time they started listening to the grass roots and throw out the good old boys clubs. You need to throw in Reince Pribus also.
Becoming Irrelevant ? Those Republicon Yahoos are irrelevant !
Right now the GOP young guns ( think Ryan(Eddie) & Cantor) are sitting around pondering their future or lack of it.
Really doubt they ever thought they were going to be crushed between that Big Rock and Hard Place.
John B & Mitch M are both old enough to retire and live off the Govt Pension program. Neither care much about anything besides what they are being told to say.
Stand by for the fiscal cliff on New Years Eve as the GOP goes the way of the Wig Party.
Dont let the door hit you boys !
Make room on the next Heavens Gate CA departure for Bachmann as well.
Cap
You'd have some credibility if you would include Pelosi and Harry Reid. Of course,there are many more on both sides.
If you can just realize that the Democrats have also been
responsible for the mess this country is in, then there is
an understanding on both sides.
i
It's a show!
Do you think when Sly Stallone and Kurt Russell got in a fight on Tango and Cash they stayed mad, or were mad in the first place? They didn't con anyone out of money because the people going to the movie KNEW it was a show. Did you think they were mad at each other for real?
Can you spell gullible?
Like pro-wrestlers. They don't con anyone out of their dollars, people know it's a show and they are actors just like Stallone and Russell, just not paid as well.
It's a job, you get the job to make money, right?
Of course you should leave your job richer than what you were when you walked into the job.
No
I commented on what you wrote, plain and simple.
There are many other drips, I didn't fixate on just one.
If the GOP
Don't like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, just maybe that is because they are doing their jobs.
And maybe Boehnner and McConnell are, too. Isn't their job to keep their bases committed?
Boehnner decided that the House only needed to meet a couple weeks a month so they could go home and campaign for the last two years. I hope they ditch that plan.
Nancy -are you stepping down?
It's possible that Pelosi will step down as minority leader.
Now, there is an extreme one, if she does, maybe they
could nominate a more moderate one that knows how
to compromise. Of course, it could be someone worse.
Now that we've decided
Now that we've decided that the leadership on both sides of the aisle are nothing but lazy, no good, stupid , good for nothing, useless, wasted, bums and tramps, let's all go ice fishing. There's ice on the lake this morning. Anybody out there like to ice fish. It won't be long now. Couple more weeks and politics will be a thing of the past and we can all talk about what goes on in a fish house. Oooh, how bout that one PB's GF. I think you claimed in an earlier post that you were well traveled. Done any ice fishing. PS: Notice the drift away from politics. ALERT ALERT: Breaking news: AVON to hire 2 more employees to keep up with the demand for ear-to-ear red lipstick for Nancy Pelosi. Hey, the Dems are creating jobs. I knew their jobs program would work.
Charlie
Wouldn't be casting disparaging remarks about. We all saw you in your debut appearance on the Daily Kos.
Purposed
Yah Sure, You Betcha. And if she keeps burning the springs out of her pop-up chair next to Bidens, flex-steel will have to hire more also. And if she keeps flapping her wrists around, they will have to hire another chiropractor at the capitol. WOW just look at the unemployment rate go down. We definitely need more clowns like her.
It doesn't happen often, but...
Keith Hansen got this one right when he when he wrote:
"McConnell and the rest of his high-minded Republican pals had better begin working with Democrats and the president."
They wasted the last four years in an effort to prolong the recession by refusing to compromise their demands, but they lost the election anyway.
Meanwhile, the wanna-be Republicans in Brainerd were posting insults and outright lies in this space a-- claiming that the President of the United States was a Muslim and/or a socialist who'd soon turn the US into a Communist nation.
Fortunately, It turns out that the no one fell for it.
Next time around, perhaps the Republicans can find a Presidential candidate who's not ashamed to disclose is income tax returns....
Voter mandate?
What la la land is McConnell living in? The Republicans lost in a landslide!
Even Boehner agrees on the need to compromise.
"What saved Boehner’s majority wasn’t the will of the people but the power of redistricting. As my colleague Dylan Matthews showed, Republicans used their control over the redistricting process to great effect, packing Democrats into tighter and tighter districts and managing to restructure races so even a slight loss for Republicans in the popular vote still meant a healthy majority in the House.
That’s a neat trick, but it’s not a popular mandate, or anything near to it — and Boehner knows it. That’s why his first move after the election was to announce, in a vague-but-important statement, that he was open to some kind of compromise on taxes."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/09/house-democra...
And Nancy Pelosi is going to be the House Minority Leader again. Yea!
what is the definition of
what is the definition of landslide? OK Nancy is still around.
She and Debbie are always good for being extreme.
Nancy didn't like young Russert asking a question inferring
that it was time to move on to let younger dems take over.
Nancy and Debbie are so good at compromising.
I'm so sick of all those people that have been there for 18-20 years. It is time to move on-- I mean all of them.
I thought she may be offered some job in the adm for pushing through the healthcare law.
Do you think John McCain is too old?
Should he move on? He was 72 when he ran for President.
28 Senators are over 70 years of age. (28%)
And we won't even discuss the aging Supreme Court.
That is a good balance if they quit when they get senile!
I'm not talking age, sorry if
I'm not talking age, sorry if that's what you understood.
I'm talking years in office. Yes, I do think John McCain should
move on and he shouldn't have been the nominee in 2008.
Not because of his age, but because he has been a Senator
for a long while. And, I don't think someone who has
only been a senator is the best presidential material.
There is nothing I can do about the Senate. The Supreme court is basically for life or if someone with some class
decides to retire.
Poor Ruth Bader at times does seem sickly.
We've had many old Senators that look like they need
a nap. I can't think of any that are there now.
But many have been there toooooo long. Then somehow
they magically acquire money when they are a Senator.
Puzzling. Thanks for listening.