As slinkerink pointed out yesterday in her
excellent post, lots of kabuki going on around the fiscal fail negotiations.
I stand with many who have expressed anger at the negotiations going private, and question the efficacy of continued negotiations on this with the Republicans while they should be focusing on jobs.
This just in from a source I myself usually give little credence to, so pardon me in advance if you feel that way as well
CBS:
The White House and House Speaker John Boehner have traded a second round of proposals to address the so-called "fiscal cliff," CBS News has learned.
The latest offer from the White House included $1.4 trillion in new revenue, down from its initial request of $1.6 trillion, a GOP source confirmed to CBS.
In response to the new White House proposal, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said, "We sent the White House a counter-offer that would achieve tax and entitlement reform to solve our looming debt crisis and create more American jobs."
"As the Speaker said today, we're still waiting for the White House to identify what spending cuts the president is willing to make as part of the 'balanced approach' he promised the American people," Steel continued. "The longer the White House slow-walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff."
Liar liar liar, private talks, he said /she said
Of course the Whitehouse DID include cuts:
The White House was quick to respond to Boehner, pointing out that Mr. Obama has provided specific spending cuts in his proposed budget. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer wrote on Twitter, "The irony of this is that the White House offer had very specific cuts, the GOP counteroffer had almost none."
White House spokesman Jay Carney added later, "It is simply uncontestable we have put forward a plan on spending cuts."
HOPE
Meanwhile, lots of us have friends and relatives among the 20 million plus unemployed and underemployed, Christmas is coming up, we need hope!
So he said she said and millions of lines of print more wasted in the MSM when they all should be like Forbes (!) and calling for action on jobs!
The Fed, QEs and the Housing Market Recovery Needs Jobs
Mark Greene, Contributor
SNIP
The mechanics of our US economy have become so complicated, so convoluted and so overburdened, that Chairman Bernanke and the Federal Reserve are powerless to engineer a solution. I get the theory of the QE approach but real world application has proven it impotent, at least so far, and I submit that cheap money in the form of low interest rates does not motivate anybody to do anything. Not if they are afraid.
From my little spot in the mortgage universe, and for almost 25 years, I have watched people buy houses when rates were 14% and when rates are where they are now at 3% and everything in between. People are not buying more houses now that rates are 3% than when rates were 5% or 8% or higher. People buy houses when they feel good about their station and their future, and when fear is part of that equation, they don’t.
Fear of losing a job, fear of a spouse losing a job, fear of a newly minted high school or college graduate child not being able to find a job and staying home, fear of static income succumbing to ever growing outgo, fear of losing status quo. This is our epidemic, this is the core of what keeps our economic growth from accelerating and what our leaders in Washington and the Federal Reserve should be focused on.
But they are not. Political brinksmanship has become more important, more right now than the economic well-being of the citizenry, many of which are struggling to make ends meet. Right leaning, left leaning and every office holder in between, seems to have deprioritized the reality that “hard times” are a way of life for too many people that are willing and able to work to realize better. The late Richard Pryor would sometimes feature a character named “Mudbone” in his stand up concerts, and Mudbone would explain how he grew up in “hard times” and how there wasn’t even a year or years that were hard times, it was just hard times. I submit that many here in the US would say hard times are right now, 2012 and have been for too long.
SNIP
There you have it. Look, even Bernanke has called Congress to create more stimulus. What are they waiting for?
Why does the WH give the kabuki credibility by continuing the dance. Okay, before the election, understand. But now? Please.
Kos wrote today about the costs of gerrymandering. Yes, we have to do something about that. Yes, we have a big hole at both the state and Federal level to crawl out of.
But what about now?
This year?
Right now?
President Can Act Now
As pointed out in the Forbes post, people are not spending because they are fearful; they don't see government working for them.
Solution? I am all in with Meteor-Blades on this proposal:
Group says Obama should crank up health, safety and climate regulations with seven executive orders
Those actions by the President would create jobs, give people some confidence that we will act on climate change, and these actions don't need the batshit crazy in Congress to cooperate.
Its been clear for some time that nothing was coming out of the lame duck unless Dem Leadership decided to collude with the Republicans on behalf of the Plutocrats and slice the safety net.
Mr. President, Please Act
How can we get this proposal for executive orders to percolate up to the WH...
... because I am not seeing much else getting done, and continuing to see the Whitehouse participate in this budget kabuki with the Republicans is bound to make more Americans more fearful and less willing to spend .