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“Senate Passes Compromise Tax Plan by Wide Margin”

The message received in November? Americans want new deficit spending, a stagnant economy, and few new jobs just so long as the only tax hike is on the wealthy dead and their families.

Compromise. Pragmatism.

****
update: the vote. Most of the nays were from far-left Dems. On the GOP side, Ensign, Sessions, DeMint, Voinovich, and Coburn voted against.

112 Replies to ““Senate Passes Compromise Tax Plan by Wide Margin””

  1. cranky-d says:

    The house will tromp on it some more, they will “reconcile” (that means all the pork gets in) and then they’ll both have to vote again on the final piece of shit.

    That’s what’s left of our Republic.

  2. Squid says:

    The message received is not the message that was sent. Guess we’ll have to keep sending it.

  3. Jeff G. says:

    Guess we’ll have to keep sending it.

    At what point will it no longer matter? We’re getting close, that’s for sure.

  4. cranky-d says:

    BTW, I fail to seen any compromise it this deal. What I see is capitulation.

    Apparently our GOP representatives cannot tell the difference between the two.

  5. cranky-d says:

    I think comment #10 from the “Here’s the thing” thread bears repeating up top. The GOP clearly wants to stop the TEA party people from doing much of anything.

  6. LTC John says:

    Voinovich?

    Wha…?

  7. George Orwell says:

    So, was this whole exercise in November just a puppet show? Look, in New Jersey, Chris Christie has had to precipitate a state-sized version of a constitutional crisis with the dispute over New Jersey Supreme Court judges; he’s had to confront state bureaucrats over e-mails literally asking state employees to pray for Christie’s death.

    And as far as I know, Christie has still only made a dent in New Jersey’s rotten political edifice, as fine as his efforts are.

    Perhaps I’m a lunatic, but I won’t believe this incoming Congress behaves any differently than the previous one until I see at least one government shutdown. It’s becoming implausible, with asymptotic speed, that this government will not reform itself through business as usual. Someone is going to have to try unconventional tactics to alter its course. Crying on 60 Minutes does not count.

  8. George Orwell says:

    I can mangle a sentence as well as anyone. What I meant was:

    It’s becoming implausible that this government will reform itself through business as usual.

  9. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The Senate is in violation of the Constitution, by the way.

    Fortunately it’s only a set of suggested guidelines, so no big thing.

  10. happyfeet says:

    so Meghan’s coward daddy voted for this failshittery?

    What is his function?

  11. Squid says:

    At what point will it no longer matter?

    Around the time when we turn into Greece, and the Dems turn on one another in blind murderous rage.

    On the bright side, those few lefty elite who survive can finally claim vindication for all the apocalyptic nonsense they’ve been spewing. Ice age, global warming, resource depletion, mass starvation, killer influenza — they never guessed that the real end-times catastrophe would be the money running out.

  12. pdbuttons says:

    a mangeled sentenc..
    maybe not-an utterance
    jerry-lee lewis..pounding them keys
    saying
    we got chickens in the barn,-whose barn,. your barn?

  13. Jeff G. says:

    The Senate is in violation of the Constitution, by the way.

    Yup. Should proceed from the House.

  14. Joe says:

    Ensign, Sessions, DeMint, Voinovich, and Coburn…

    Voinovich?

    On to the House to see who does the right thing.

  15. Joe says:

    Oh you nit pickers. Constitution, Prostitution. Whatever.

  16. George Orwell says:

    I look forward to Mitch McConnell appearing on Oprah to discuss his unresolved feelings about capital gains taxes, permanent unemployment benefits, and his mother.

  17. JHoward says:

    It’s becoming implausible that this government will reform itself through business as usual.

    The federal government is by now so staggeringly corrupt that it’s pushed itself well into positive feedback. It will fail because it must. It’s inherently unstable.

    Our problem is that failure plays into the emerging global collective. That game is afoot.

  18. pdbuttons says:

    3 words i don’t want cops to say
    to me..
    u’ve been drinking?
    spread your legs
    empty your pockets
    look at me
    touch your nose

    gee.them cops got some verbiage!

  19. bh says:

    The Senate is in violation of the Constitution, by the way.

    Fortunately it’s only a set of suggested guidelines, so no big thing.

    Strangely enough I just heard a progressive get away with calling the Constitution outdated “horseshit” on live radio today.

    It was sorta entertaining because she was so damn ignorant. Confused the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence right out of the gate. Yet, she gets to vote. Yay!

  20. JD says:

    They hate the Constitution.

  21. Crawford says:

    So, since we’re holding the 112th Congress responsible for the acts of the 111th, are we going to hold the 113th responsible for the acts of the 112th?

    Or are we just going to toss a tantrum now because we’re not getting our binkies?

  22. Crawford says:

    They hate the Constitution.

    Correction: They hate any law that limits their power.

    Look at New Jersey — the state supreme court is ignoring the letter of the state constitution because it gives the governor some power over who is on the supreme court.

  23. JD says:

    All of this deficit spending is the teabagger’s fault.

  24. pdbuttons says:

    yesterday,all my troubles seemed so
    far away
    i believe,in yesterday

  25. happyfeet says:

    Team R cuts the deficit pretty much the same way Julian Assange rapes scandi hoochies.

  26. Ernst Schreiber says:

    It was sorta entertaining because she was so damn ignorant. Confused the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence right out of the gate.

    Your Department of Education, NEA, state board of education and local school board tax dollars at work!

  27. pdbuttons says:

    love,love me doyou know i love you
    so please
    love me do!

  28. JD says:

    Though Team R is aiding and abetting, this is a Team D budget, Team D, spending, and Team D deficits.

  29. pdbuttons says:

    the world is treating me bad
    misery

    i can do them whole meet the beatles album
    but, i don’t wanna be a pain in the ass

  30. cranky-d says:

    Team R could have stopped it, I think, but they were too afraid.

  31. cranky-d says:

    Can we blame Bush for this as well? I’m pretty sure the statute of limitations on GW will never run out.

  32. Squid says:

    Then we need to make them even more afraid of us.

    OUTLAW FEAR!

  33. pdbuttons says:

    i don’t want to spoil the party, so i’ll go..
    the second beatles disc
    with the killer harmonica..
    1st side/1st song
    i..
    shoulda known better..

  34. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Team R could have stopped it, I think, but they were too afraid.

    Afraid of whom cranky? The democrat-media axis? Or the incoming TEA-party supported GOP House freshmen?

  35. Jeff G. says:

    Bachmann thinks the CR will pass in the Senate.

    I’m ready for a more vigorous revolt. I really don’t give a fuck what the pragmatists say anymore. And I don’t care that I’m in the minority, either. I’m right. And that’s what’s important.

  36. pdbuttons says:

    c’on
    we all got certain buttons[i said butons!]
    that we program..
    i got’s 100.7-classic rock’
    103.3-oldiies
    107-altenative
    92.9..fuck
    and them the am’s
    rush..
    used to be on 770 wrkobut now he’s on 1270

    fruck it, i got a john lee hooker greatest hips..
    and i just pop that sucker in..
    and listen to boogie chrldren..

  37. Jeff G. says:

    Serious question: does anyone know if the new Congress will have any recourse to reversing any of these deals?

  38. pdbuttons says:

    go jeff g.! go!
    i’m right behind ya!
    i got arms that wave and point..
    let’s take that hill!

  39. Ernst Schreiber says:

    You mean ones that won’t also require action on the part of the Senate and the President?

  40. Bob Reed says:

    I’m certain the new House could pass legislation reversing all or parts of any of these deals. But whether the Senate would go along is another question; as well as overriding Obama’s near certain veto.

    On their own, the house can only make the Senate take uncomfortable votes.

    That said, I’m all for discomfort when it comes to reversing these measures.

  41. pdbuttons says:

    like a cat,who licks his paws
    or a dog that poops in drawers..
    u gotta know your place
    doggerel!
    otay..
    i’m not done..
    bob marley had cancer
    on his toe,don’t ya know?
    killed him
    graveyard dead..
    i gots the b.marley 4 disc set..
    the first disc is all ska, uptempo
    my fav is
    ‘back out’
    control ur temper

  42. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I’m all for discomfort when it comes to reversing these measures.

    It’ll be less discomfitting for our side if we’re on record as opposing them right now. Otherwise we run the risk of making Barak “This is a bad deal. I hate this deal. I’m being forced into this deal. I promise to do everything I can to undo this deal two years hence. The republic cannot survive without passing this deal immediately. I’ve kept the first lady waiting, here’s President Clinton to explain why.” look like a rhetorical genius.

  43. pdbuttons says:

    i heard the lyrics for
    ‘back out’
    was cuz when he was just a splatter..;
    in trenchtown
    and he was taking a pee
    that some dude came in to his..abode,with a knife
    and he said
    back out, control your temper

  44. Stephanie says:

    Bill Krystol:

    I can’t believe the Democratic Congress will be foolish and hubristic enough to go ahead and jam though the omnibus appropriations bill with its 6,488 earmarks totaling nearly $8.3 billion. But if they do: Shouldn’t the Republican House leadership commit to making H.R. 1 in the next Congress a bill rescinding all the earmarks and the whole $8.3 billion?

    None of the appropriated funds will yet have been spent—and so Republicans will have the chance to begin their control of the House by acting against earmarks and saving taxpayers money. The Republicans in the Senate can then offer the bill as an amendment to the first piece of legislation on the floor in the new Senate, if Majority Leader Harry Reid refuses to bring the rescission to the floor. I suspect such an up or down vote on the earmarks, separated out from a broader appropriations bill, would pass. And President Obama—who’s against earmarks—would surely sign the rescission.

    It would be a nice start for the new GOP Congress.

    UPDATE: A reader writes:

    H.R. 1 should read:

    “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is hereby repealed.”

    H.R. 2 could deal with the pork.

    I accept this modification, and believe that both should be advanced by the GOP Congress as early as possible.

    It ain’t over til it’s over

  45. JHoward says:

    Serious question: does anyone know if the new Congress will have any recourse to reversing any of these deals?


    Plan B
    ?

  46. JHoward says:

    Or, what Stephanie just said.

  47. happyfeet says:

    it’s 3rd party time

  48. pdbuttons says:

    i’m going to a party

    and i hope you are hearty
    please don’t be haughty
    cuz its’ a punky reggae party

  49. Ernst Schreiber says:

    We’ll see. My best guess is that today’s pork will be tomorrow’s indispensible economic stimulus.

    I’d love to be wrong.

  50. happyfeet says:

    it would have been better to simply let the tax cuts expire than to pass this spendy spendy farce I think.

    This is Team R saying fuck you, America. Who you gonna elect, socialists?

  51. Stephanie says:

    HF: The omnibus spending bill loaded with extra barbque is not the same bill as the tax extensions bill.

  52. happyfeet says:

    yes but the tax rate bill had plenty plenty spendings all by itself

  53. Stephanie says:

    And with that I’m going out on the newly icing roads to the club to eat dinner. Just so’s I can keep my Country Club Republican creds and all. Except that the club is the home port for the tea party group here and that as Bmoe and Donald will attest, ain’t exactly brimming with haughty types.

    Oh and F*ck all of you who sent this winter shit down this way, BTW. Atlantans don’t do well on roads with rain much less ice and sleet and snow and shit. ;)

  54. Squid says:

    Off to the club? Tell your driver to be careful!

    (Yesterday was the first day since Saturday that I didn’t have to pick up a shovel. Didn’t have to today, either. But we’re expecting 2-3 inches of snow overnight, so I guess that little vacation is over.)

  55. Jeff G. says:

    This is Team R saying fuck you, America. Who you gonna elect, socialists?

    Yup.

  56. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – The key is “no funding”.

  57. Big Bang Hunter says:

    – BTW – Gallup shows Congress at a 13% approval rating today. Lowest in history.

  58. cranky-d says:

    Afraid of whom cranky? The democrat-media axis? Or the incoming TEA-party supported GOP House freshmen?

    I think the GOP is afraid of the MFM making them look like big meanies because refusing to back this piece of shit bill would mean they are “against tax cuts for the middle class” and “against setting aside money for all those unemployed people” and other stuff like that.

    Their fear of the incoming TEA-party people is that they are afraid the newbies are serious about reform, and they want that money to spend spend spend.

    So, while I was originally thinking of them being afraid of the MFM, I think both fears are valid and operating here. Plus, they get cover (not from us of course, but they don’t care about us, obviously) by saying they were “forced” to do this out of “compromise.”

  59. George Orwell says:

    Bill Kristol:

    Shouldn’t the Republican House leadership commit to making H.R. 1 in the next Congress a bill rescinding all the earmarks and the whole $8.3 billion?

    None of the appropriated funds will yet have been spent–and so Republicans will have the chance to begin their control of the House by acting against earmarks and saving taxpayers money. The Republicans in the Senate can then offer the bill as an amendment to the first piece of legislation on the floor in the new Senate, if Majority Leader Harry Reid refuses to bring the rescission to the floor. I suspect such an up or down vote on the earmarks, separated out from a broader appropriations bill, would pass.

    Senate Republicans wouldn’t want to do anything that would make Snowe or Collins cry. That would be divisive and smack of labels. Besides, the pragmatists keep reminding us that we will have no control of the Senate. And pragmatists always know the wisest course.

  60. cranky-d says:

    The earmarks are a symptom. They grease the wheels of the real outlandish spending. Cutting them would be a start, but only just a start.

  61. sdferr says:

    Fred Barnes covers the news the MSM won’t.

    The change engineered by Obama also makes it all but impossible to have an election to “decertify” — or throw out — an airline or railroad union.

  62. bh says:

    OT but here‘s what’s happening in my state right now:

    The vote [on state union contracts] is expected to be close, and the unions need every vote. So they go pick up a disgraced legislator named Jeff Wood, who is SITTING IN PRISON and drive him down to the Capitol. Wood is in jail on three separate OWI arrests within the span of a year, and lost his seat in the last election.

    They’re lameducking the hell out us.

    I hate the bastards. I really do.

  63. JHoward says:

    Gallup shows Congress at a 13% approval rating today. Lowest in history.

    Their red badge of courage.

  64. bh says:

    hell out of us

  65. dicentra says:

    Tweeth [sic] Burge: Last days of congress has created the Turporducken: pork, inside a lame duck, baked inside a gigantic turd.

  66. dicentra says:

    Also tweeth Burge: “Lame duck session: Dems finally get the car out of the ditch, strip it for parts, leave it on cinderblocks.”

  67. newrouter says:

    If you watch the systematic looting of the treasury, and the swallowing of giant swaths of the private sector so they can be stripped of whatever’s immediately of value and divvied up between accomplices, with no concern for any immediate or long term consequences, you’ll understand what’s what in the federal government right now. If you’re concerned about the next few lame duck weeks, you should be. We foreclosed on the House of Representatives in November, but the squatters are still in there, furiously trying to pull the plumbing out of the fiscal walls before they’re evicted. Everything on the table right now legislatively would have no shot to become law after January, and in the aggregate reminds one of thieves burning down the vacant house they just stripped on the way out.

    link

  68. happyfeet says:

    DeMint pussied out on his threat to delay the legislative ass-rapings at the behest of the double-chinned fuckhole…

    Amid staunch White House criticism, GOP leaders signaled that they wanted to avoid DeMint’s threatened theatrics to delay debate over the treaty. Instead, they believe they have the political high ground to force a major battle over the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor that a full reading of the START treaty was “not essential.”

    and here in that same article is a very alarming thought from Team bumblefuck what should make every one of you appreciate his stalwart leadership of our failshit joke of a country

    “Every minute that the START Treaty is being read on the Senate floor increases the time that we lack verification of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.”

    Yes this man has his finger on the fucking pulse of America. And to think this piece of shit leads Sarah Palin by 22 points.

  69. Jeff G. says:

    If Romney is the nominee, I will sit out the election. It was bad enough I had to hold my nose and vote for McCain last time. This time, they can go fuck themselves.

  70. Jeff G. says:

    Also, Palin’s would do well against Obama head to head. He has a problem with uppity bitches not named M’chelle.

  71. happyfeet says:

    Romney isn’t an option. I might still go vote for other stuff so I can get the sticker but no way in hell would I vote for Romney.

  72. happyfeet says:

    Palin v. Obama would be marginally entertaining but it would end badly for America I fear.

    I have given this no small amount of thought.

  73. Jeff G. says:

    DeMint contends he was successful in forcing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to back off for a day.

    “Sen. DeMint opposes ramming the controversial START Treaty in the lame duck session,” said Wesley Denton, spokesman for DeMint. “After Sen. DeMint asked for the entire treaty to be read aloud to slow down the process, Sen. Reid relented and agreed to delay the debate until tomorrow.”

    DeMint is working hard for us with little support from the majority of his GOP colleagues.

    I don’t think he’s a pussy in the slightest.

  74. happyfeet says:

    He made a toofless threat I think.

    I think he’s mostly all talk.

  75. bh says:

    Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion, guys.

  76. sdferr says:

    I’ve not been able to figure out how come Obama is so worried about Russians spending themselves into oblivion. Must be something I’m missing.

  77. happyfeet says:

    You can have Sparkle Motion up the wing wang and guess what? The bond market vigilantes care not a whit. It’s not even a conundrum it’s just a truism.

  78. bh says:

    Bond vigilantes are jerks.

    (… and they send you powerpoint presentations full of nude chicks to your work email.)

  79. sdferr says:

    Bomb vigilantes too.

  80. newrouter says:

    One New Mexico activist, Marita Noon, said the federal plans to usurp nearly a half-million acres in her state would result in an “illegal immigrant superhighway” off-limits to border security enforcement. Security analyst Dana Joel Gattuso pointed to a recent General Accounting Office report on how environmental permitting rules and land-use regulations have hampered policing efforts at all but three stations along the border.

    This jumbo green goodie bag would be a threat to financial security for untold numbers of workers in the demonized mining, logging and construction industries already reeling from economic hardship. Vigilant GOP Sen. James Inhofe has also called attention to how the Democrats’ ambitious water protection schemes would enhance the “broad, and unprecedented, scope of authority it grants EPA over state permitting programs.” In addition, restrictions on public access to newly expanded wilderness areas would hit hunters, fishermen and others in the recreation and tourism businesses.

    link

  81. newrouter says:

    Border patrol agent killed: Are smugglers becoming more daring?

    Border patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a gun battle Tuesday night. It could be a sign that smugglers are becoming more willing ‘to just to shoot it out with agents.’

    link

  82. serr8d says:

    Speaking of Sarah Palin: Zogby Person of the Year!

    Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is the Person of the Year for 2010, according to a new survey by Zogby International, which also designated George W. Bush as Person of the Decade (2000-2010).

    Palin was cited by 21 percent of the respondents, while 16 percent chose President Barack Obama. Glenn Beck and Julian Assange of WikiLeaks notoriety tied with 13 percent.

    None of the other seven possible choices for Person of the Year — Gen. David Petraeus, Hillary Clinton, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Conan O’Brien, Apple’s Steve Jobs, basketball star LeBron James, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates — garnered more than 6 percent.

    Seems neither Huckholio nor Romney were mentioned. A good thing.

    This has much significance…

    Democrats favored Obama with 33 percent, while Palin won among Republicans (39 percent) and independents (17 percent).

    I think we’re seeing the 2012 race playing out right there.

  83. happyfeet says:

    Conan… Sarah.

    Conan… Sarah.

    On the one hand Conan is funnier but Sarah Palin is a very pretty girl. On the other hand Conan has limited knowledge of policy whereas Sarah Palin is a very pretty girl.

    Why isn’t James Cameron a choice? Avatar was mostly a 2010 dealio really.

  84. pdbuttons says:

    if we gotta have a bubble-head as commander in chief
    can we at least have one with big cans?
    lie to yourself..
    don’t dare lie to me..
    everybody on this site is punching
    republican

  85. Stephanie says:

    Guilty as charged. I’d dearly love to punch a republican. Several in fact.

  86. happyfeet says:

    I just feel…

    it’s my feeling that…

    I think for reals

    what we have to do is

    get serious all of a sudden… not just us here but like our whole entire little country

    and Sarah Palin sends a lot of signals but one of them isn’t

    let’s get our serious on

  87. serr8d says:

    If we could get rid of Michael Steele in the short-term, that’d be very satisfying. Ann Wagner is challenging.

  88. pdbuttons says:

    if mike hucabbeezle
    has mammary glands..

    i think he might..
    i..mmm,aint voting for she
    well
    maybe
    delicately

  89. Big Bang Hunter says:

    “I have given this no small amount of thought.”

    – Which is ti say, with enough invective to fill the bottom three floors of the Smithsonian.

  90. Mike LaRoche says:

    Sarah Plain > each and every one of the other Team R toolbags who are running, by a million fucking miles

  91. Mike LaRoche says:

    Oops, that should have been “Palin”, for there is nothing plain about the mama grizzly! Yee-haw!!

  92. guinsPen says:

    Back on topic.

    Save your copy of Meet the Beatles, pee dee, it’s worth a fortune.

    Yours is the only pressing holding those tunes in its grooves.

    This one isn’t on there, either.

  93. Silver Whistle says:

    If we could get rid of Michael Steele in the short-term, that’d be very satisfying. Ann Wagner is challenging.

    Very strange – there appeared to be a pair of furry caterpillars undulating on her orange forehead. Is she any different from the usual RNC shlemiel?

  94. McGehee says:

    I fear I may use up my first iTunes gift card on Beatles tunes.

  95. pdbuttons says:

    i guess we can only meet two beatles now
    cuz 2 of them are dead..
    i think paul will die of old age..
    but poor ringo..
    a propane accident? meteor strike?
    food poisoning?burning bed?…
    taking the wrong medication?..
    toaster in tub??
    poor luvable,affable ringo
    he’s going down,hard

  96. pdbuttons says:

    not to be morose but..
    yea, a little morose..
    skiing mishap?[ yup,thats my bet]
    stair tumble?
    hanging?
    killer whale at sea-world tradgety..?
    ahh- that lovable mop-top..
    dead man [drumming] walking

  97. pdbuttons says:

    getting stabbed,by pete best?

  98. pdbuttons says:

    walking about,and drifting into traffic?
    [ i thinks i should go doggerel]

  99. pdbuttons says:

    polo pony uproar?
    papercuts?
    choking on a drumstick..
    going on some African ‘holiday’
    and getting stampeded?
    ahh-ringo..who put the beat,in the beatles?

  100. Slartibartfast says:

    ‘buttons always has a lot to say but, unfortunately, none of it is relevant or even intelligible.

    Hit the doggerel thread, dude. This is almost worse than when hf gets all manic on Palin or Pam Tebow.

  101. happyfeet says:

    buttons is rare and special and he makes threads better

    you can scroll by if you like or you can get that hammer schlammer thingy Mr. Slart

    you got to give a little take a little and let your poor heart break a little

  102. Bob Reed says:

    Certainly special.

  103. Slartibartfast says:

    Why is there no post #103?

  104. cranky-d says:

    Trollhammer is no longer an option. The script doesn’t work with the new site.

  105. happyfeet says:

    hey what happened to #105?

  106. guinsPen says:

    Bang-bang, peewell’s silver hammer came down upon this thread.

    Clang-clang, pewell’s blah-blah-blah…

  107. guinsPen says:

    And now an e’s gone missing.

  108. happyfeet says:

    Mr. guins here is a song I used to listen to but hardly ever anymore

  109. guinsPen says:

    Good, good.

    ~~ Official List of non-Christian non-Christmas Carols ~~

    2.) It Came Upon a Midnight Cowboy

    3.) Elevator Boy

Comments are closed.