Debt Deal Done - Obama Reveals Liberal Agenda: Wants More of Your Money for Big Government

Today in Washington, D.C. - August 2, 2011:
Yesterday, the House passed S. 365, the vehicle for the debt ceiling and spending reduction agreement, by a vote of 269-161. The House is now in recess.

This morning the Senate passed S365 by a vote of 74-26. The bill was immediately sent to President Obama who will sign the bill and is as of this post pontificating and bashing conservatives. He is taking no responsibility but blaming the parties as if he is "above the process."

With the Senate set to vote on the agreement to cut spending and prevent default by raising the debt ceiling today, it’s instructive to continue reviewing the reactions which was begun in yesterday's update. We should recall that for two years, 2009-2010, the democrats controlled all aspects of the Federal Government and they could have 1) extended the Debt Ceiling in 2010 but the democrats waited as they did not want to have this topic affecting the elections and to bear the criticism alone and 2) it was the excessive spending and expansion of government by the democrat leadership during that pushed us to this point.

Though a number of news reports and conservative commentators yesterday suggested that the agreement was a win for tea partiers and Republicans, it’s telling how upset many liberal Democrats who still after the previous fiasco wanted more spending and higher taxes are after getting neither of those things.

The Huffington Post wrote yesterday, “Liberals were extremely displeased with the final result of the talks, which began with Democrats saying there should be no strings attached to a debt limit increase that would enable the country pay its bills. Then they insisted that if deficit reduction was going to be linked to the debt limit, then closing loopholes and raising taxes on the rich had to be part of the deal. They lost completely on both counts, and House Republicans managed to pull the entire deal further and further to the right, even inserting a requirement into the agreement for a vote on a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

And The Washington Post writes today, “Dispirited liberals fumed Monday over the deal to raise the debt ceiling that would cut deeply across the government, include no new tax revenue from wealthy Americans and would not provide any additional stimulus for a lagging economy. Most of all, they lamented President Obama’s failure to anticipate and overcome the leverage exerted by House Republicans who threatened to force a national default. ‘It’s a surrender to Republican extortion,’ said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who voted against the deal. . . . Off the Hill, liberals searched for silver linings but came up with little more than the consolation that some of the particulars were not as damaging as they could have been. Liberal policy experts decried the absence of the upfront economic stimulus measures that Obama had pressed for . . . . More generally, [liberal] faulted [Obama] for having adopted the Republicans’ framing on the need for austerity at a time when the economy still suffers from a lack of demand.”

Liberal Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson summed things up from his perspective on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today. “The Tea Party had a really good month. They got some of what they wanted. They played their hand quite well and they ended up winning. So they won. The Democrats lost and we’ll move on from there,” he said.

In a story titled, “Democrats Feel the Short End of the Stick,” Roll Call writes today, “In the end, it seems the only people in Washington being forced to eat their debt limit peas will be Democrats, who found themselves swallowing a bitter political deal forced on them by the White House and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). When President Barack Obama issued his famous ‘peas’ admonishment, he didn't have just his fellow Democrats in mind. But in the end, it was clearly Democrats — and not Republicans — who were feeling the pain from his agreement.”

Roll Call noted, “Rep. Raúl Grijalva, co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, dismissed the negotiations as little more than a capitulation by the White House to GOP demands, arguing it was ‘all give and no take, no back and forth. This is no compromise.’ ‘We're trapped in this tea party agenda. They won, so they should be able to deliver the votes,’ the Arizona Democrat added.”

Left-wing Oregon Democrat Rep. Peter DeFazio summarized, “No revenues, big domestic cuts, the only specified cut is to student financial aid; that's kind of bizarre. . . . And the prospect of things getting worse in November. No, I don't think it's a good deal.”

Roll Call also pointed out that “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ripped the package because nothing would come from the wealthy or from corporations. ‘This deficit reduction package is grotesquely unfair, and it is also bad economic policy,’ he said.”

On CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) complained, “There are people on the left who would probably say 'no cuts,' but they haven't been able to have their way within our caucuses, whereas this hard right group seems to get its way all the time.”

In his column early this week, the Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney highlighted, “Chris Hayes, Washington editor of the liberal Nation magazine, wrote on Sunday, ‘Deal on the table is all cuts, no revenue. This is a rout.’ New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, the stern parson of progressive true believers, objected on Sunday morning television that ‘we shouldn't even be talking about spending cuts right now.’”

Krugman actually titled his Monday New York Times column, “The President Surrenders.” He wrote, “For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. . . . And then there are the reported terms of the deal, which amount to an abject surrender on the part of the president. . . . It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away.”

And The New York Times editorial board fumed Sunday, “[I]t is a nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican extremists.”

As The Washington Post wrote, “One senior Senate Democratic aide said that averting a default was a victory of sorts for Obama, ‘but when you look at the emerging details, spending cuts and triggers with no revenue, the president got rolled.’ Asked if the deal was balanced, as the president had required, former Obama White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said, ‘Not by any stretch of the imagination.’”

Elections matter and TEA Party conservatives should not form CIRCULAR FIRING SQUADS. The democrats are moving on with their agenda and again as clearly noted in the president's comments today.

Liberals are still coming after you and your money and the money of those who create jobs and the source of money of those who provide the spiritual and good works outside of the control of Big Government. Liberals including the President are using class warfare. He is already pushing the dialog. Liberals want Big Government to determine winners and losers and which charities are allowed to exist.

They want those who create jobs to pay more taxes. The U.S. has one of the highest corporate taxes in the world. The loss of jobs in the U.S. have noting to do with businesses not paying more taxes to a wasteful government. It has all to do with the interference of government with businesses, banking, the markets, and even which light bulbs and other products you can buy. The liberals want to make the decisions for you and they see Big Government as the way to get this done.

Liberals despise people deciding directly which charitable programs they wish to support - especially churches . They want charitable programs which they control and support via grants. Why, because presently liberals cannot control the messaging of the organizations that you support.

In summary, President Obama laid out his road map - more revenue for big government. He calls it tax reform.

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