We already know they want to cut SS and Medicare.

The rethug party is about DONE!!!!!

No more playing around with blue dogs, no more "Mr. Nice Guy and Ms. Nice Gal." We need more Warrens, Graysons, Frankens, Wellstones.

The xtian right,, holy rollers, end timers, fascists, racists, bigots, corporations have all been planning this and executing their plan drip by drip since. when,??... mid- 1970's at least.
It is now or never.

1) right-libertarians ("Hayek is the biggest hippie out there! he hates war and big business!&quot
2) Big Business ("no raises for you! how dare you ask anyone besides a middle-aged conservative white male on how to do things, you creationist!&quot
3) the Religious Right ("Apocalypse 1979?!&quot
4) Cold Warriors (giving them Cambodia and Latin America to play with so he could frolic with Gorbachev)

Something they take great pains to avoid.

It won't just be the repugs that pay The price.
MSM will be sure to spread the blame.
I voted for President Obama and he is
Out there talking about a chained CPI.
I feel betrayed by him as well as by the
Other Dems willing to go along with this.
Instead of raising the cap it is the old/poor that get the shaft!
The Jamie Diamonds rule this country!!!!

Ryan's point to have leverage in sequestration could result in castration.teddy cruz might explain.

Now that the Party has already surrendered the Bush tax cuts. Those have already been made permanent, so avoiding their expiration is no longer a bargaining chip.

Meanwhile for leverage, Republicans have
1. the sequestration
2. Government shutdown
3. default

And their starting postion in the "negotiation" is

R. The Ryan budget, which the House Republicans already passed, which supposedly balances the budget in ten years while at the same time cutting the top income tax rate from 39.6% to 25%.

Now on the Democratic side, what is Obama asking for? What are the Democratic Senators asking for?

D. A balanced approached to deficit reduction including spending cuts AND tax increases.

Okay. What tax increases? What is the Obama/Senate dream plan (if we could get Republicans to pretend they were sane and go along with something reasonable, or be pressured by the American people to agree with the Democrats "Contract for America".)

At this point, even I myself, a bit of a political junkie, have no idea what the Obama/Senate proposal is, except perhaps the vague mush above that I just stated.

If I know Obama, his starting plan will be

OP - We only give Republicans 75% of what they want.

I mean, if Obama has a plan, he sure is not using the bully pulpit to promote it. He will probably spend more energy promoting the final result as a "victory".

His victory will be - Republican get 85% of what they want, Democrats get the Buffett rule. And because many Republicans will shed crocodile tears about the Buffett rule, and because they will then not shut the government down or hold the debt increase hostage, Obama will declare that a victory. Ha, ha, we stood strong and made them accept the Buffett rule, and they only got 85% of what they wanted.

My own goal, and hope is - NOTHING gets passed. That's the only way I would see this as a victory, because I guarantee that the Republican House will never allow anything that I like, or consider good for the country, to pass.

If Everyone could get back the wages business has stolen from us over the past thirty years.

That is not negotiation, that is blackmail and will take the country over the cliff once again. This proposal is dead on arrival and stands in the way of any kind of compromise. Because the clock is ticking the media needs to get all over this but the hard work of reporting will never happen as long as there is a computer glitch to chase down instead.