The McConnell/Reid plan . . . or is it the Reid McConnell plan? Is this a good idea?

The essence of the plan is to give Obama the unilateral ability to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for the repubicans having the absolute right to vote down any tax increases he proposes.

Reid and McConnell have proffered this as a bipartisan "Plan B."

To my mind, this is a "Plan B for Backstabbing."

There is no way on gawd's green Earth McConnell would do this unless he saw it as a repubican win or a way to trap the Democrats for purely partisan gain. McConnell has no principles and isn't a teabagger. He is simply a hardball playing partisan who wants to win. He doesn't care *what* he wins, so long as it is a win.

Reid, in my view, long ago wore out his welcome as a "leader." He's as useful as teats on a bull.

He want to shift responsibilty to the Democrats so Repukes can bash Obama for running up the debt.

It clears the House of the responsibility to do something about a problem. They can now say we kept him from rising taxes (or any future president) but gives the treasury the authority to borrow as much as it wants. Real courage would have revoked the stupid limit on borrowing or done so meting that they are all afraid will make Obama look good.

The House should not surrender its power or responsibility to the executive branch. They should do their job.

The tax breaks and the wars are what has fueled the deficit for the last decade plus. Why take them off the table?

The Progressive Caucus budget is the answer. I think I read where that got rid of the deficit in a little over 10 years. Support that.

tails, you lose.

It's a way for the Republicans to be able to vote against raising the ceiling (3 times!) without actually preventing the raising of the ceiling. So they can appeal to their base while avoiding the financial destruction of the country.

Of course, anyone with half a brain can see what it is and realize that they are allowing the raising of the ceiling, just in a roundabout convoluted, politicized manner. But they're apparently assuming that a large portion of their base doesn't have half a brain which, unfortunately, may be a safe assumption.

Is it worth going along with their silly charade? I don't know. On the one hand we're looking at potential financial chaos, on the other hand if we hold out they may realize that they have no choice but to do it the normal non-partisan way.

I'm not sure that putting the onus on Obama would really hurt him that much anyway. The ones who would use it as an excuse to slam him aren't going to vote for him anyway. His base doesn't have a problem with raising the ceiling so it wouldn't hurt him with them. I believe that independents, for the most part, are discerning enough to see it for the game it is.

I think Obama, like it or not, is pretty much a slam dunk.

I want to see us hold the Senate and increase our margin and I want us to take back the House. I think both are very possible.

Making Democratic congresspeople agree to raise it three times could be used against them in individual races. In some districts it might be enough to make a difference, especially with the vote suppression that's going on.

eom

That is very similar to our situation in California, and that is precisely why California has so much debt.

Thanks to Prop. 13 and other measures, our taxes cannot be raised. Voters won't vote for higher taxes. But voters will vote to borrow money -- issue bonds.

The McConnell Plan should be renamed -- The California Bankruptcy Plan. Because it will make things much, much worse.

The Republicans have to grow up and accept the fact that, thanks to our huge trade deficits, we have run up a lot of debt and so now those who can will have to pay higher taxes. Those who can of course are the rich.

Sorry. It isn't a question about what is fair.

When you have a war, the bombs don't fall where it is fair. The bombs fall where the side dropping them thinks they will be most effective.

The Republicans have dropped the free trade bomb. Now we have a debt bomb. And we are going to have to drop a tax bomb somewhere to get rid of the debt bomb. Cutting expenses may be part of the solution, but it has a big drawback: when you cut expenses you cut demand. Not only do people who need the most help suffer the most but you slow down your economy.

The only people with discretionary money to pay in taxes are the rich. So they will have to pay fair or not.

Moms can't send their kids to school in the snow without shoes.

Elderly people cannot be left to die of starvation in lonely rooms somewhere.

If we can't pull together as a nation, then we will be pulled apart.

to have much concern about the will of the people regardless of what polls tell them what we want.

there are no good ideas currently in Washington. It's all working on the premise that cutting domestic spending in a near depression economy is a wise thing to do. The tax cut issue was already a bad idea lenghtened and signaled final abandonment of economic principles not tied supply side politics.