Thoughts on the budget deal
Boehner seems to have turned out to be a better negotiator than previously thought.
When Obama spoke, he sounded so relatively sincere that for a moment I allowed myself the luxury of imagining what it would have been like if he’d been the president so many people had hoped for and believed he would be, the one who truly was interested in working in a bipartisan way to solve problems. Sigh.
Now that the temporary budget is settled, the real fun begins.
NATO has never been anything other than a pain in the ass. When Reagan beefed-up the American missile component in Europe to counter the USSR’s SS-20’s, arguably one of the last straws on the Bear’s back, all they did was whine and protest.
…if he’d been the president so many people had hoped for and believed he would be, the one who truly was interested in working in a bipartisan way to solve problems. Sigh.
Exactly. Even to the sigh.
We have such an unhealthy relationship with our Presidents. I think it started with George Washington. People bought busts, plateware with his imagery on it, etc.
In any event, FY 2012 budget is going to be a blast. Find some cover…
(I feel safe in using military language now, given the Left’s total rejection of “the new civility.”)
The real problem is that Obama doesn’t believe in working, that is, in thinking through problems and trying to find a way forward. He wants to be something like a king who fantasizes that square circles would solve problem A and then gives orders to make make them to inept cronies. While all this budget debate is going on, he proposes high speed rail and buying more land for national parks. He can’t let crunching numbers get in the way of his brilliant fantasies. He sees his job as claiming credit or blaming others.
Well put, expat!
One wonders if President Obama has managed to avoid truly hard work for his entire adult life. (His record of voting ‘present’ in Illinois, his dearth of professional publications of any sort from law school onwards, and his tendency to spout un-thought-through nonsense when off script, suggest this.)
It would also explain why he claims to feel unchallenged, and thinks he’s always the smartest man in any room. Everything is easy if you don’t have to produce results yourself.
DiB
I went to bed thinking the government would be shut down and the mean Republicans would be blamed and I woke up and read this and was happy for the rest of the day: Boehner gets $39 billion; Harry Reid gets nothing.
Karl Denninger isn’t impressed.
Neither am I. (hat tip It’s About Liberty)
rickl,
Karl Deninger will never be impressed.
That said, it is just a start. Ryan’s plan is also weak tea, but it’s politically possible. Have to do what’s possible until – the ultimate solution: A fiscally conservative President and Republican Senate in 2012.
I’m amazed that anyone who wants to see fiscal responsibility in DC is pleased with this measly $38 billion cut:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/debt-jumped-54-billion-8-days-preceding
Perhaps it is as J.J. says, “Ryan’s plan is also weak tea, but it’s politically possible. Have to do what’s possible until – the ultimate solution: A fiscally conservative President and Republican Senate in 2012.” However, I remain skeptical. Don’t show me the money, show me you will not spend, borrow, print the money.
“…if he’d been the president so many people had hoped for and believed he would be, the one who truly was interested in working in a bipartisan way to solve problems. Sigh.”
I don’t remember that there were such people at all.
That’s a remaking of history.
The last thing in the world the 69m people who voted for Obama wanted was bipartisanship or solving problems. They wanted revenge (on Goldstein, I mean Bush) and victory. They wanted to be on top, at the front of the wave, with the crowd, being historical.
They got EXACTLY what they wanted. And what they deserved I might add. To the T and then some.
If we forget that, and excuse this great sin against America away, then the whole thing will be pointless.
Mike Mc: I know those people. Some of them are friends of mine.
Neo – I have mostly liberal friends too. I know the lies liberals tell themselves and others. We have an agreement between us. They don’t try the lies out on me, and I don’t call them on them. They are free to lie amongst themselves all they want and they know what I think about their ideas and desires. All things considered it works pretty well.
In my own mind I separate people, myself included, into parts. There is the whole person, and then the person insofar as they are democrat or republican. I have no problem being brutal to the person insofar as they are a democrat, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a good person. It just means that as democrats, in their aspect of being a democrat, they are evil and want evil things. I know for a fact they think the same about republicans.
Still, even my best liberal friends had no thought at all about Obama being bipartisan. Sorry. That’s ridiculous. Every liberal I know or heard about was drunk with the thrill of victory and power.
The rest simply wanted to be on the winning side, the exciting and new side. There wasn’t one actual serious and reflective person I knew or even heard about who said they voted for O because he would be bipartisan and work to unite. Now that I think about it, the only one who even insinuated it was Obama and his campaign team.
No one cared about such things. No one does now.
The whole idea of people wanting bipartisanship is a fiction. I think it is one of those excuses people put on a shelf so they can plausibly change their minds about Obama now. It was a bet hedge.
I really wish you would bring one of your friends on here as a guest blogger or something to lay out the case for us how they had all these visions of bipartisanship and working together before the election. That would be embarrassing for them I suspect – since it isn’t true. Such an explanation wouldn’t pass just a few questions on details – like, ‘What are the exact three or four issues you were expecting bipartisanship on, and your reasoning about that, etc..”
Puhlease.
Must we pretend?
I got friends who are more radically liberal than any you have. I’d bet on it. They are serious, long term, high energy, practical socialist neo-trotskyites all – and we don’t even pretend to pretend that one of us wants bipartisanship.
I never met an actual, real, honestly talking political person who really wanted bipartisanship.
I don’t have any liberal friends. Friends, as opposed to “good” acquaintances, are those who are to be trusted, those who will have your back, those for whom you will do the same for. Leftists do not make my cut.
Relatives are a horse of a different color, but those who are liberal do not have my trust on any matter of substance.
“Make no mistake: I oppose this negotiated deal,” Bachmann said in a Twitter message sent out at about 11:00 am on Saturday. “It does not: Cut enough spending, stop funding Planned Parenthood, or defund Obamacare.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/make-no-mistakei-oppose-negotiated-deal
@jon baker: I think it shows how far we have come that the opposition is from the right in a deal where 40bn was cut.
That’s a great sign. People like Bachmann are already setting the 2012 agenda.
The Rs could easily backslide though. They have to use this small victory as a momentum builder for the next larger one.
Obama can’t be what he isn’t. What is he, by the way?