Interesting news this morning. Bernie Sanders is planning a filibuster and he said he thinks some Democrats and Republicans may join:
Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent and self-described "socialist," told reporters hours after Vice President Joe Biden pitched Democrats on President Obama’s plan to extend the Bush-era tax rates that he will do anything possible to defeat it, including a one-man filibuster.
"I intend to do everything that I can to defeat this proposal and bring back something which in fact protects the middle class and unemployed workers and not the wealthiest people in this country," Sanders said. "I’m willing to anything and everything that I can to win this, including a filibuster."
Sanders would not answer a question about the number of Democrats who agreed with him, but said he was seeking "a handful" of Republicans to join his cause in opposition to Obama’s plan.
Sen. Bernie Sanders reiterates vow to filibuster Obama’s tax rate extension plan
Well, it looks like there may be Republicans who also will filibuster.
Senator JimDeMint just announced on my program that he will oppose the deal as well as a vote for cloture on the deal. He is reluctant to criticize GOP Senate leadership, but believes the deal at a minimum has to be paid for, and that we need "a permanent economy" not a temporary one as well as permanent tax cuts, not temporary tax cuts.
DeMint To Oppose "the Deal"
Two key obstacles emerged Tuesday night to the passage of President Obama's tax cut compromise with the GOP. This time they come from the right: The influential anti-tax group Club for Growth and conservative kingmaker Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) both came out in opposition to the agreement, threatening the breadth of Republican support for the plan.
Two Major Conservative Obstacles Emerge To Tax Cut Compromise
President Obama likely will point to this to say his compromise is right. That his game for the next two years. Tack right and demonize progressives. We're hip to it.
And there will be talking points soon calling Sanders a tea bagger. No doubt, we'll hear them here.
40 senators is all we need to defeat this.
The deal is not done. And until it does, there is hope.
And if they pass it, we fight the Obama Tax Cuts for the Rich just as we fought Ronald Reagan's pernicious tax cuts and those of George Bush !! The Obama Tax Cuts For The Rich are immoral, just as the others were.
Reaganomics: Based on the belief that the rich had too much money [sic] -- too little money and the poor had too much. That's classic Reaganomics. They believe that the poor had too much money and the rich had too little money,- so they engaged in reverse Robin Hood - took from the poor, gave to the rich, paid for by the middle class. We cannot stand four more years of Reaganomics in any version, in any disguise.
How do I document that case? Seven years later, the richest 1 percent of our society pays 20 percent less in taxes. The poorest 10 percent pay 20 percent more: Reaganomics.
Reagan gave the rich and the powerful a multibillion-dollar party. Now the party is over. He expects the people to pay for the damage. I take this principal position, convention, let us not raise taxes on the poor and the middle-class, but those who had the party, the rich and the powerful, must pay for the party.
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And you hold on, and hold out! We must never surrender!! America will get better and better.
Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive!
Jesse Jackson, 1988 Democratic National Convention Address
We keep hope alive by fighting the Obama-McConnell Tax Cuts For the Rich.
In other interesting news, Dem Rep. Michael Capuano: I 'May Or May Not' Support Obama Reelection (VIDEO)
"Anybody who buys an automobile or a car, I would say I would not have President Obama representing me in those negotiations," Capuano said. "I want somebody who understands on occasion you have to get up and walk out of the room, and then you come back and you make a deal. You don't just take whatever deal is thrown at you from somebody who you don't agree with."
Triangulation has its costs. The President may get a short term gain selling out the core principles of the Democratic Party, but there is a cost and I believe we will see it in 2012.
We know now what he thinks of activist Democrats, the ones who get out the vote and donate in small amounts. We are "sanctimonious" progressives. He calls into questions our motives.
There is a cost to actions. Perhaps the Senate and House will reject his odious sellout, the McConnell-Obama bill.
But whatever happens, we now know where we stand with Barack Obama. There was another President who moved right and attacked working people in the late 1970s. And a champion arose, and although he fell short, we remember that he tried and see the bright hope of what can be. We will try and try to create justice in spite of all who oppose that project.
My fellow Democrats and my fellow Americans, I have come here tonight not to argue as a candidate but to affirm a cause.
I'm asking you -- I am asking you to renew the commitment of the Democratic Party to economic justice.
I am asking you to renew our commitment to a fair and lasting prosperity that can put America back to work.
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Let this -- Let this be our commitment: Whatever sacrifices must be made will be shared and shared fairly. And let this be our confidence: At the end of our journey and always before us shines that ideal of liberty and justice for all.
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For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
Teddy Kennedy, 1980 Democratic National Convention Address
Update I: Obama-McConnel bill endorsed by Grover Norquist and Wall Street Journal!
•Grover Norquist: "'a much bigger victory than people see' for the Republicans."
•The Wall Street Journal: "this deal is superior to anything we could have imagined six months ago. Much credit goes to Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans for holding together against the class war attacks of Chuck Schumer and other Democrats."
Influential Conservatives Line Up Behind Tax Cut Compromise