With all of the talk about going over the “fiscal cliff” and, everyone must be equal in sacrificing to achieve a fiscal resolution beneficial to all,my question is what if anything are our congressional representatives,both democrats and republicans going to concede?They have MUCH to give back.

Back to school.

The only “numbers” that don’t add up are the presidents’….formed a “jobs council” he never met with; record high unemployment for 4 years; Never worked in private sector, so no possible knowledge of job creation; costs American taxpayers $188,000 per hour to fly around globe with staff, jets, fuel, etc; more than 4 inaugural balls at same time while he advises citizens to “do with less.”?????

Because ignorance begets more ignorance. Its not worth responding to. We have more issues to deal with then to sit around and continue the same rhetoric that was used before and during the election. The POTUS is who we wanted and thats who we got. Sorry you are such a sore loser and yet you call yourself American!. Why don’t you move to Iraq or iran where they always fight if the lose an election or cannot get their way.

Republicans are not stupid, they are irresponsible and loyal only to their donors. Suggesting that $800B in additional revenues by revising the tax cuts and eliminating deductions and loopholes not only falls short of the $1.3T in additional revenues gained by raising the tax rate for the top 2%, it is also impossible to do in 3 weeks. Modifying the tax cuts is a worthy endeavor that deserves to be done – in addition to raising the tax rate for the wealthy – but that will take anywhere from 6 months to a year to accomplish. Part of the compromise should include a promise that the tax code will be modified before FY14.
Promising an additional $600B in savings without offering specifics is classic Republican campaign strategy. Unfortunately for them, the time for pie in the sky panaceas is over.
The worst part of their proposal is their promise to save $200B by “adjusting” the Consumer Price Index. The CPI is used, among other things, to determine whether or not seniors will get an annual raise in their Social Security payments to keep up with inflation. The hypocrisy of those who claim class warfare when someone suggests raising the tax rate their benefactors pay, and don’t hesitate to deny people trying to survive on $900 a month a raise exemplifies the difference between Republican and Democratic values like nothing else would.
Incredibly, millions of Americans who will be adversely affected by the proposed GOP panaceas, support the GOP agenda, against their best interests, ostensibly because of ideological leanings, ignorance, or reasons that should not be part of our decision making process.

What makes the rich elite so special? Why do they get a break & not have to pay Medicare taxes after the magic number of $110,000? Everyone else has to pay Medicare taxes on all of their earnings? The answer is that the special elite are the ones writting the rules. i.e. I don’t have to play by the rules because I make up the rules as we go along.

What is new, they expect President Obama to take the blame for the economic stagnation in America, while Boehner and his chaperons do nothing but play games at the expense of the people.

Speaker Boehner and his men are still enclosed in their Republican shady bubble. Deceitfully, they claimed to see the rest of the world from there. They must know that their Hitler mentality or the time for gerrymandering politics are things of the past in our modern history.

once again it has become obvious that the republican party only cares about grabbing power and imposing their views on an American public that does not agree with their proposals. If there is no meeting of the minds I hope the people of this country understand who deserves the blame.

Once again the G.O.P. is banking everything on Americans being stupid. This is the exact same crap Mitt Romney tried to pull on us and failed, and yet here they are trying to pull it again not even one month after Romney’s defeat.

Paul Krugman, our noble prize winning economist, was on New Hour last night and once again stated that the defict is not a problem in the short term and a stimulas is far more important. The tax cut to the middle class will boost the economy since they spend it. The 2% don’t spend it they invest. He also said they could carve out the middleclass tax cut as well as extend the unemployment insurance program now, and deal with the upper 2% later. The drastic cuts the republicans want will kill the recovery and plunge us back into recession. Changing the medicare eligability age from 65-67 won’t save much money since the real health problems and costs start later.He also said that Obama care will bend the cost curve in health care, and calls for cuts in medicare/caid.

The reality is we need to fix our infastructure and nation build here. The institue of medicine did a long term study and found 700 billion of waste, fraud and abuse in the Health care system. So this can be cut with out hurting patient care so liberals have to be resonable also. We have an overblown defense budget with no real enemy. Giant cost over runs on procurments are common, and do we really need a new generation for fighter jets at a cost of 1 billion/plane, to fight who? Once we leave Afganistan, we can draw down the DOD budget. Future conflicts really only call for drones and special forces, not a giant land based army. To the contrary of Republican myths we are not going to fight China or Russia since they are our trading partners and buy our debt.
My son was in the navy on a ship stationed in Japan. When the ship was in dock it cost 2 million/day.That is where the money goes.
We really have to think about whether our strength depends on a giant defense that spends more than every country in the world put together, or do we want to spend it at home prorecting our food supply, creating energy independence from petro-dictatorships, investing in the health of our population, and having a 21′st century transportation within a green ecomony and energy grid
This is what the conversation should be about

While we can all say jump over that cliff, what we are missing here is the fact we have a Congress we pay to work with our president and they just walk off the job. John Boehner says we have nothing to vote on so go home. We need to make real changes when they don’t work they don’t get paid. That means all year. They need to work for a wage of about $20.00 a hour, plus of course the travel and houseing they have already got, they also need to be dropped from the best health care in America and put on a regular group health plan for them and their families. When they leave office any pension they are expectiong should all go into SSI as that would be a very nice additive and when they hit 66 or in some cases a later age they could collect it. If they cannot do the job they are put in office for and cannot vote on issuse they need to be removed. We put them in office to work on issues of Americans not the rich or the Corporations. While Wal Mart keeps hireing workers they pay minimum wages, not enough hours for benefits, so all of us,
THE AMERICAN TAX PAYERS PAY FOR THEIR HEALTH CARE AND FOOD STAMPS. That is correct. AMERICAN TAX PAYERS SPEND OVER 3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR TO SUBSIDIZE WAL MART EMPLOYESS. So that good deal you just got at that store that saved you about $20.00, just add that to what we have to pay for the welfare for the employees. I don’t want to see them go out of business, but I do want to see them pay a living wage with health care.

Montanabill and others who post here with this belief and similar views are absolutely off base and have no idea about what is on te table. The statement is so bizarrely simplistic, we all need to ignore this from montanabill:

“It is quite amazing that Joe Conason is complaining about bad math. He claims Boehner’s math doesn’t add up, but he’s been a cheer leader for increasing taxes on the wealthy, which also clearly don’t add up to any real reduction in the deficits the President is running up. ”

This is absolutely false in its belief. This is an illogical of an analysis of the facts. At least it goes past a “bumper sticker” phrase….interestingly….it mimics far right wing neo-fascist-GOP thinking at the Teaparty level.

The purspose of this article is summed up quite rationally by Conason when he states:

“Unless and until the Republicans start talking about real numbers that can actually add up, there is nothing to be gained from pretending to negotiate. Nor should the president start negotiating with himself, as he has sometimes done in the past. Instead, he ought to make sure that the opposition understands what will happen when they fail to act responsibly. ”

This country has endured the McConnel politics of inaction as well as a first time in the history of this country a “default” leading to a downgrade.

This mess was inherited by Obama from the GOP and it continues to be a mess.
The GOP collectively is a mess, and the American people have inherited that.

Go over the fiscal cliff? “go ahead—-make the 47%’s day…”

The GOP is basically a dead party, and if they FAIL to understand that the American people have had enough of the Rove/Koch/Teaparty neo-fascisim…well…

There will be an “American Spring” this spring if we go over “the cliff”…and I assure you those of us who are poor and near poor middle class will be in the streets.

It is time for the American people to rise up against Boehner and the demented GOP.

GOP…montana bill and friends….You and your Teaparty friends don’t count anymore.

You lost.

Here is what you and Rove and your other right wing friends tried to do to the REAL AMERICAN people—-straight out of the fascist propagandists playbook.

Hitler’s Mein Kampf lays out blueprint of fascist propaganda efforts. 
Hitler writes in chapter VI:

“Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another. The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however, is not complex, but simple and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood.”

The American people saw through the GOP and the propaganda that was in the guise of “truth.”
The GOP can’t do the math because they can’t handle the fact that 1+1=2. They want it to equal 3.

Conason staes it best with this:

“…there is an even deeper problem with Boehner’s arithmetic. The Republicans are fighting to extend all the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest two percent along with everyone else — but their alternative proposals are utterly inadequate to compensate for the $1.3 trillion in revenues lost by continuing those cuts for the rich. To “offer” $800 billion in new “revenues” obtained by eliminating deductions rather than raising rates simply doesn’t work, as a matter of basic math. It isn’t nearly enough money.”

What is wrong with this picture? they want to make cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and then give the wealthy more tax breaks?Wow, talk about math problems. The simplest way to stop going over the “Cliff” would be to raise the taxes on the wealthy, or those that make $250,000 and up. Paying their fair share would greatly reduce the deficit, but they would rather “STEAL” money from programs that help those in dire need, like the elderly, and those on a fixed income. If they don’t fix this(Republicians) then there would be a worst reseccion, then they are going to blame Obama, when it wouldn’t be his fault, because Boehner doesn’t want to lose his kick backs. Just a though.

Well said.

I agree!! This congress is worthless!! I wish we could put term limits on the members of Congress. They don’t care about their constituents; their only “care” is keeping their job, and their Party agenda. I’ve contacted Jon Huntsman (when he was campaigning for the RNP blessing to run for president, he stated he was in favor of term limits), Al Sharpton, and a local newspaper editor, to find out what I need to do to TRY to get term limits into a bill. I have not received a reply from either of them. Do any of you know how to get this started?