Mr. Reid avoided choosing anyone in the so-called Gang of Six senators that recently came up with its own deficit-cutting plan. That group irked Mr. Reid by going its own way and trying to influence matters during the recent negotiations on the debt ceiling. In addition, those senators accepted cuts to Social Security at a time when Mr. Reid was strongly rejecting such cuts.I have an uneasy feeling about this...
August 10, 2011
Harry Reid names Patty Murray, Max Baucus, and John Kerry to the deficit-reduction "super-committee."
The WSJ reports, noting that these 3 "are considered neither ideological purists nor eager compromisers."
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Super Suckdom Committee it should be called.
There's nothing "super" there. And I've heard that Murray speak on economics - yiiiii - dumb as a brick.
God, I hope the Rep's put some aggressive tea party types on this committee.
Maybe someone should suggest new revenue enhancement by yacht owners.
Wow, Patty Murray and John Kerry at the same conference table? That's some serious intellectual firepower there. Prepare to be dazzled by their nuanced brilliance, America! Harry Reid is not fucking around this time!
In other words, the fix is in.
Only a few days ago, Kerry opined that the Tea Party is illegitimate and that the news media should refuse to cover the party.
Sarah Palin has spoken on the deficit. And she quotes Dylan!
A thief appoints a gigolo, an idiot and a faker. A democrat all-start team.
So can we send all the rest of congress home while these few do the job for them?
And John Kerry immediately condemned the media for allowing the three Republicans to speak.
OK, so we have the House of Lords represented, now what about the Commons?
Do they have a short bus to ferry them around DC?
Wasn't Murray the one who was praising Bin Laden for all of the schools he built? Yeah, she is really going to work out.
The Tea Partiers are the only adults in Washington. Until there are more of them we won't see any improvement in the deficit situation.
Now let's see which weak squishes the Pubbies put up to oppose the radicals Reid stacked his side with. I bet they will all be the same establishment types that got us in this mess to begin with.
If the supercommittee or, as Mickey Kaus likes to call it, "Congress Platinum" fails to reach a decision, is that "a bug or a feature" of the grand bargain?
I like the idea of blunt cuts to everything-- if that would really happen.
Baucus isn't the most profligate of Dems overall, and my sense has been that Reid and Kerry hate each other.
Baucus is the key. Although he isn't my favorite, he is from Montana and must face some pressure from conservatives. Kerry is a showhorse who will do what he is told, and Murray is an idiot who will do what she is told.
....The magnitude of the current jobs and growth crisis demands a boldness and urgency that’s utterly lacking. As the President continues to wallow in the quagmire of long-term debt reduction, Congress is on summer recess and the rest of Washington is asleep.
The President should present a bold plan, summon lawmakers back to Washington to pass it, and, if they don’t, vow to fight for it right up through Election Day.
That is Robert Reich asking for the impossible from this president. Reich says he is badly advised but I say he is too incompetent to think on his own. Everything is politically motivated and nobody is thinking about what is a good solution to the current crisis.
I won't be worried until I see the Republican component, if Snowe, Collins or Brown is on the panel, fuggetaboutit.
Any committee that starts with Lurch Kerry is definitely going to be full of hot air, or something more noisome. Patty Murray displays all the intelligence of a bowl of Jell-O; the difference is that there's alway's room for Jell-O, but not always room for Murray. As for Baucus, wasn't he one of the ones who was bought off in one of those bribes to pass ObamaCare?
All in all, a typical Democrat rogue's gallery. We couldn't expect better, sadly enough.
We need Paul Ryan, Alan West & Michelle Bachmann.
John Kerry is involved? Oh good, we have nothing to worry about!
Baucus, though certainly in the pocket of certain special interests, is a comparative moderate.
Kerry, though a reigning "liberal lion" (I'm sure he'll try to capture this epithet in caps), is something of a Senatorial 'lone wolf' and is likely to gobble up plenty of commitee time mulling this and that.
Murray's a useless idiot.
So I think this could be a lot scarier.
So, Patty seems to be very popular with Harry Reid (ha, or else he hates her). Late last year, he appointed her to be head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
In other words, she's the general in planning the attack against the GOP in the upcoming 2012 election.
Nope...no sign of partisanship there.
Not quite the best and the brightest, eh?
It is hard to believe they could throw three darts and hit three senators with a combined total of two years of employment in the private sector!
According to Wikipedia:
Murray is a onetime pre-school teacher, has never worked in the private sector and so she will protect the taxeaters.
And Baucus is 70 years old and may have worked in the private sector for only two years?
While it is well known Kerry has never worked in the private sector so he will protect the govt programs.
Patty Murrey is a lunatic. Nothing more. Nothing less. Basically Reid just gave a big Fuck You to this process.
Yes, Murrey is the one who said Bin Ladin was really a good guy who built day care centers in Afganistan.
Well, Patty Murray sure does know a lot about economics. She's lectured us before on how Osama bin Laden became so popular. You know what with the daycare centers he sponsored and everything.
bagoh's on the right track.
Don't know if Bachman will have time for that kind of thing right now.
I have an uneasy feeling about this...
Really? Can't imagine why. Reid doesn't want real deficit reduction, so he's throwing up log jams.
Obama already appointed one deficit committee and ignored their recommendations. Now, he can super-ignore their recommendations.
That is Robert Reich asking for the impossible from this president.
The same Robert Reich that doesn't care about creating jobs for white construction workers?
There's no mystery why we're in economic trouble. The Dems are desparate for you to look the other way.
Farce.
Just cut everything 5% (via Insty)
Then rinse and repeat as necessary.
I would actually favor some tax hikes if I felt Congress was making serious cuts NOW, instead of passing them off to the Congress of 2020 that will just rescind them.
What part of "they must be destroyed" don't you people understand?
What a joke.
I hope Pelosi appoints Maxine Waters.
That would be the whipped cream and the cherry.
The committee does not matter that much. Their recommendations will be worked out elsewhere by others.
But Dingy Harry might have problems getting Lurch to shut up and do as he is told. Lurch still thinks he is somebody.
Lurch still thinks he is somebody.
Well, of course. All those foreign leaders said so.
John Kerry- the one man who could manage to lose to George W. Bush in 2004.
The title of "The Stupid Party" may no longer be uncontested.
Kerry's only qualification is that he is a shameless gasbag who can filibuster on a Sunday show. Murray runs the committee responsible for Dem Senate campaigns in 2012, so she will do whatever is perceived to be in the best interest of those 33 candidates. Baucus at least is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and so has some relevance to the process.
Even if we assume that Max Baucus has an IQ of about 125, then the combined IQ of all three probably doesn't break 300. It is a national embarrassment that a country of 300 million, when selecting 100 people to serve in the Senate, can do no better than non-entities such as Patty Murray, John Kerry, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, etc., etc., etc.
"Although he isn't my favorite, he is from Montana and must face some pressure from conservatives."
He'll still probably cave under pressure from Montana ranchers wanting to protect their dental floss subsidies.
Clearly, Harry thought he was asked to staff a Deficit Production Super-Committee.
They will never agree on anything useful so the sequestrations, or whatever they call them, will come into play. Of course, defense will be savaged. That's how Clinton got to his "balanced budget." The only cuts made by Clinton were in defense. The Army was cut in half.
Putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. This will not end well.
Could have been worse: Babs Boxer could have been in the mix.
Hilarious choices.
Wow, really good picks by McConnell...Jon Kyle, Pat Toomey and Rob Portman. At least this isn't a sell out group like Snow and Collins. All three of these have serious ideas and have been active thinkers about the problem.
While it is well known Kerry has never worked in the private sector so he will protect the govt programs.
Kerry works the public sector every time he gives Teresa a reason not to dump him for another Senator.
Three strikes and you're out. Gee what a horrible start.
Inside the Supercommittee, Day 1:
Sen Kerry: I've got a surefire plan to end the country's budget deficit.
All: Great let's hear it.
Sen Kerry: Anyone know a rich widow who would marry the US?
Baucus is indeed from Montana and has hidden his liberal lights under a bushel to continue to be elected to the trough. Since the Leftists took over the government in 2006, he has felt himself safe and has let his inner idealogue out. His longevity in the Senate has tought him many things, none of which are good and his gutless pandering to Obumble (He famously gushed that he heard symphonies when Obumble talked)will lead to bad things. Remember he was a major driver of the Health Bill and the Trillion $$ giveaway. No, no good will come from Max Baucus.
DADvocate said...
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I am appalled by the apathy from this WH. Can you imagine Bill Clinton not rising up to this challenge? Of course the opposition party will make it all political but the Dems have the WH and they are responsible and should be held accountable.
These super committees were eagerly agreed to by Boehner and McConnell seeing as they help marginalize the Tea Party input.
It's the same old game Ann.
Reid and the rest don't really care what happens to the country as long as they are in power.
They would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven.
So how did the stock market react to this announcment?
Kerry? Really?
Oh well, he does have a magic hat, that's something.
I don't expect much from the Benedict Arnold Senator.
Zero Tea Partiers on the committee. That's not necessarily surprising since most of them are new Reps (and Congress rewards tenure). But I always thought the committee was designed to get the Tea Party out of the conversation. For better or worse, the TP was much like cold water to the face of the established order of things.
I don't see this committee doing anything to resolve the budget problems. I can't see 7 of them being willing to vote on meaningful reductions. Everything of substance will happen more than two years out, which will allow the post-election Congress to completely rewrite it.
For the most part, it seems the Dems went with the fossils while the Repubs, at least, picked two younger guns. I think the country will prefer young guns since the fossils have ruined things pretty much.
Where the hell is a super-committee in the constitution? Do you effing job congress!
So they've got one senator who thinks that the tea party is terrorists, another that thinks Osama bin Laden was a renowned philanthropist, and Max Baucus. At least they are very representative.
Patty Murray.....
unbelievable.
Patty Murray is as dumb as the proverbial bag of hammers. She was the one who attributed Osama Bin Laden's alleged popularity in the Middle East, as opposed to America's, to the "fact" that Bin Laden was building schools and day care centers there. A pure fantasy, of course, but revealing of the Democrat mindset: everyone must be better than America, especially our vilest enemies, because they must be doing what we Regressives think is the right thing. Actual facts are irrelevant. She is a rigid ideologue and dependable party hack. Her seniority makes her now a vital member of the Demcrats' "brain" trust.
Murray has been described as the Queen of Pork. I feel certain that she will be more than willing to address our spending problem.
*snigger*
And yes, I have the utter misfortune to be "represented" by her.
Sheesh, not a serious thinker among all twelve. Business as usual, I guess.
Look Reid actually said-
It's perfectly clear, the only compromise-
is mine!
I heard it on C-Span because I listen to C-Span radio while on the treadmill.
Do you think our flipping' media reported that?
Hell to the no.
Heck maybe half of America doesn't get how absolutely ludicrous that sounds.
The Seattle Times called Patty Murray "a 'prolific sponsor of earmarks.' Patty even defended the 'Bridge to Nowhere.' "
Dino Rossi on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 in a campaign ad
Earmark attack on Patty Murray rings mostly true
An ad attacks Sen. Patty Murray's record on earmarks.
The race for the Senate in Washington pits Republican businessman Dino Rossi against Democratic incumbent Patty Murray. Rossi says he wants to reduce government spending and debt, and he's issued an attack ad against Murray on that point.
"Has Washington, D.C., changed Patty Murray? She said she was elected to cut the budget. But now the Seattle Times called her a 'prolific sponsor of earmarks.' Patty even defended the 'Bridge to Nowhere.'"
The ad also attacked her votes on bailing out the financial system and voting for President Barack Obama's health care law. Murray did vote for those bills.
What we wanted to fact-check was whether the charges against Murray on earmarks are accurate. We'll take them in order.
• "The Seattle Times called her a 'prolific sponsor of earmarks.'"
I'm in Montana and Baucus is a liberal.. He is "conservative" for 6 months every six years and has been elected lately by the universities, west coast refugees, and unionistas.
We often find that campaign ads take newspaper quotes out of context to present a misleading impression. But that's not the case here. The quote comes from a reported profile of Murray that ran on the newspaper's front page on Oct. 3, 2010.
The article describes Murray as a hard worker who presents issues in common terms that people can understand and a congenial legislator who is willing to work with Republicans to get things done. But she is not known for authoring major legislation or giving lofty speeches. Instead, her seat on the Appropriations Committee has been the springboard for her accomplishments, according to the story.
"Her keenest impact has come from tapping federal coffers to benefit workers and programs.
"She has helped direct federal money to build Sound Transit light rail, clean up the Hanford nuclear reservation, repair the Howard Hanson Dam, pay for ferries and construct and repair countless miles of roads. She also has funneled billions of dollars to veterans, who have few better advocates in Congress."
The story concludes by noting Murray's penchant for earmarks.
"Perhaps Murray's starkest transformation has been her emergence as an unapologetic -- at times even defiant -- dispenser of federal dollars.
"During her first year in the Senate, she defended her frequent votes to reduce the Clinton administration's spending requests by saying, 'I wasn't elected to bring home the bacon. I was elected to cut the budget.'
"Murray since has become a prolific sponsor of earmarks, grants awarded at the behest of individual lawmakers to favored groups and companies. Her office churns out seemingly ceaseless news releases touting millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars she helped win for projects in Washington state.
Baucus at least is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and so has some relevance to the process.
Max Baucus, as longtime ranking member of the finance committee, is one of the principal architects of the 2007 financial crisis. He's a finance industry pawn. Don't expect him to support, let alone propose, any real solution.
[...]
cont.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., an opponent of the earmark process, decided to highlight the bridge and other earmarks by proposing a series of amendments that would send the money for those projects to other projects intended to help the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One of the projects was the Alaska bridge; another was an earmark for a sculpture park for Seattle, Wash.
Politfact.com
I'm just surprised Reid was allowed to make any decision at all. Now if he could just get Schumer to let him propose a budget for 2012...
From the Washington Post's article on Boehner's and McConnell's picks:
Toomey, like Portman, is a freshman and is the only member of the panel to vote against the debt compromise reached right before the Aug. 2 deadline. A former Wall Street executive, his selection represents a nod by McConnell to the tea-party movement
A nod? More like the twitch of an eyebrow.
Why not appoint Coburn? He's the best advocate in Washington for spending restraint, and has experience serving on both the President's Debt Commission AND the gang of six.
I forgot to highlight this:
Additionally, we checked with Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group that works to publicize and reduce earmarks, on Murray's record. Its 2010 database of earmarks showed Murray won or helped win 187 earmarks worth $219.5 million. Out of 100 senators ranked for the amount of earmark money they garnered, Murray ranked ninth.
******
Let me also put Politifact's conclusion down here on this thread:
*******
Getting back to our ruling, we're checking two points here about earmarks. Rossi's ad said that the Seattle Times called her a 'prolific sponsor of earmarks.' " That comes from a reported story and is a fair summary of one of the points in the story, and it's a fair summary of the newspaper's findings on Murray's record on earmarks. The ad also said Murray "even defended the 'Bridge to Nowhere.'" Murray didn't specifically defend that project, although it was very clear that she felt like the bridge and other earmarks being discussed on the Senate floor should be left alone. We find Rossi's statements Mostly True.
******
Thank you Harry Reid!
He's assigned the Senate's ninth biggest porker to the "Super"-Committee.
Toomey is a good pick. He is for small govt.
Murray is about the dumbest cunt to ever get get elected--fortunately for her western wa is solidly democratic so my beloved evergreen state is stuck with her.
she couldnt find her substantial ass with both hands in the dark.
Kerry? what a joke
Baucus? possibly sane
this commission is going to be a bad joke.
Murray is about the dumbest cunt to ever get get elected--fortunately for her western wa is solidly democratic so my beloved evergreen state is stuck with her.
she couldnt find her substantial ass with both hands in the dark.
Kerry? what a joke
Baucus? possibly sane
this commission is going to be a bad joke.
"...this commission is going to be a bad joke..."
Not surprising as much of the political leadership today is a joke.
Hopefully the emergence of the Tea party will force some adult supervision in Congress.
Baucus I can respect. Kerry and the brainless Murray, now chair if the relection drive - I can't respect.
I'd respect Bernie Sanders, a Socialist that has private sector work, was a mayor who had to balance a budget, and would fight hard for social programs - and fight with an understanding of the costs and nuts and bolts of such a program.
Tom Carper, Joe Manchin, Mark Warner, Jean Shaheen, and Ben Nelson - former govs who had to balance a budget.
Lot of talent...and they end up with Kerry and Murray...
John Kerry who just described the downgrade as the "tea Party downgrade"? He has no ideological agenda?
Lurch is again reporting for duty.
We r doomed w/that group!!! Bonehead appointed Upton!!! Mr. Fwance doesn't pay his taxes. He's gonna dictate to me???!!!
Patty - Osama bin Laden opens day care centers - Murray?
John -I won't pay taxes on my New Zealand boat if you don't notice it- Kerry?
Max - Am I drunk over Obamacare in the Senate - Baucus?
Mmmmm.
wv flusect
On the bright side, if the walls come down, we get to tar and feather the whole lot of corrupt congress-critters.
I look forward to them whining "Don't you know who I am?!" as we line them up.
Murry is there because Gorelick wasn't eligible.
Portman, Kyle, and Hensarling may not be nominal Tea Party candidates, but they are all pretty much supported by their local versions.
Not familiar with Toomey or his views. Portman was a very good choice, IMO.
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