A huge THANK YOU to all who worked so hard to protect Social Security.

The fight is never truly over, of course.

But, for the time being at least, it appears your voices have been heard!

:applause:

"In this stage, everything will be on the table. To hold us all accountable for making these reforms, tough cuts that both parties would find objectionable would automatically go into effect if we don’t act."

Hmmm. Who was it that said this tonight?

I'm not sure that Pres. Obama did hear those voices.

The GOOD things regarding tonight's deal

No default.

Up front cuts to the Defense Budget.

Did not touch Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid are still intact!

The Bush tax cuts are being left untouched, meaning they WILL expire December 31, 2012!

There is NO Balanced Budget Amendment stipulation in the new agreement.

Regarding the 'trigger':
IF the committee's recommendations are not acted upon, the trigger mechanism's mandatory spending cuts will be cuts will be split 50/50 between domestic and defense spending, and will kick in January 2013.
Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries and "low-income programs" would be exempted from those cuts.
Note: Since the GOP will not want to see defense cuts then they will make sure that there is no chance the trigger will go off!

... your talking points on every thread doesn't mean that this is a 'good' deal and we should all praise Barack Obama as the savior of the economy.

He caved when he didn't draw a line and demand a clean debt ceiling bill, period.

That we even had to endure this degrading display of political sausage-making for the past month is reason enough to support a primary candidate for the presidential nomination.

Too bad if you weren't paying attention. That's not his fault. It's yours!

I did hear him tonight say: "I will veto this latest job-killing debt ceiling bill passed by the Repuglicans in the House. I repeat my demand for a clean debt ceiling extension."????

That must have been on a different channel, uh?

So, you're conceding that perhaps the very first cave was giving the Repuglicans license to control the propaganda for austerity and balanced budget amendments.

If I tell you that there was a clean debt ceiling bill that went before Congress--specifically the House of Representatives--and you come back with some bullshit that you wrote, I would dismiss you as an idiot!

By law, budget bills begin in the U.S. House of Representatives (Article I, Section VII). If you don't know this fact and all you have are Straw Men and ad hominem attacks, then there's no need for further discussion.

April 13, 2011

FACT SHEET: The President's Framework for Shared Prosperity and Shared Fiscal Responsibility
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/13/fact-sheet-presidents-framework-shared-prosperity-and-shared-fiscal-resp

President Obama’s Framework for $4 Trillion in Deficit Reduction
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/13/president-obama-s-framework-4-trillion-deficit-reduction

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And I did NOT say anyone should praise Obama as the savior of the economy - STOP MAKING THINGS UP!

WTF do you want him to do? Program the brains of the Teabaggers with his Jedi mind skills and make them vote correctly?

Ya gotta love it when people denigrate the President daily and then pat themselves on the back when their dire predictions DON'T come to pass.

People who contacted Congress? Kudos.

People who sat around and typed what's in my subject line every day? Not so much.