In supercommittee, Dems moved right and Republicans moved righter

[coyotes_geek]

Shup! Boutons is from Enfland!

Isn't that a hobbit community in the suburbs of The Shire?

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Boutons is just flexing his mastery of the Socratic method. You guys hate on him way too much. He's not too far off from what a lot of you say he just says it in more....colorful...ways.

He still has his blue pom poms mindlessly out and he still tries and portrays corporate political interest as some boogeyman.

Its not hard to find them. You look at the congressional committees and requisite members then you look at the contributions. For example. Take the senate committee of banking, housing and urban affairs.

http://banking.senate.gov/public/ind....Subcommittees

There is there website. You can from there look at the committee heads and senior members that because of senate rules maintain their posts in said committees. You then look at their campaign contributions which are public record and you quickly see where the rubber meets the road because that is exactly the front line of political corruption and dysfunction.

when he portrays such mechanism as a boogeyman he makes himself look foolish and paints the situation in a light as if there is nothing that can be done. You hear similar nonsense about the devil within religious circles. its bull .

[boutons_deux]

Despite Supercommittee Failure, Republicans Intend to Get Their Pound of Flesh in 2012


From reports now leaking out, it is apparent that Democrats on the supercommittee offered massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, amounting to a minimum of $500 billion over the coming decade. Those cuts were in addition to the automatic $1.2 trillion automatic additional deficit cuts negotiated as part of last August's debt ceiling deal. That deal already authorized $1 trillion in spending-only cuts. So, the Democrats' offer was the $1.2 trillion automatic deficit cuts - all spending, and about equally divided between defense and nondefense cuts - plus another $500 billion in Medicare-Medicaid, matched by another roughly equal $500 billion in tax revenue increases.

The Republicans on the supercommittee offered a different "mix" of tax revenue and spending cuts. Their counter was $760 billion in Medicare-Medicaid cuts, plus approximately $300 billion in tax revenue recovery. However, that tax revenue recovery was largely raised from increasing taxes on the middle class, by reducing the mortgage interest deduction and other middle-class tax breaks. In addition, the Republicans required a further major tax break for the top personal income tax bracket and for the corporate income tax. Both currently are set at a 35 percent tax rate. Republicans proposed to reduce both to between 25 and 28 percent. In other words, raise taxes on the middle class and give the money to the rich and their corporations. And make seniors, retirees and the poor pay $760 billion in Medicare-Medicaid benefit cuts.

First, Republicans' top priority is shielding the Bush tax cuts. Those cuts cost the US budget a minimum of $2.9 trillion last decade, another $450 billion in extensions in 2010-2012 and a projected $2.2 to $2.7 trillion if extended for another decade.

Second, it is clear the Democrats continue to be more than willing to put Medicare-Medicaid on the chopping block.

Third, the sticking point between the two is not whether Medicare-Medicaid will eventually be cut, but when - nor is the amount of these cuts really in question. It will be between $500 billion and $1 trillion, when it happens - and it will, eventually, happen.


Fourth, the real bottleneck is the Bush tax cuts and Republican efforts to not only protect those cuts, but to extend them as well, even if, now, at the expense of the middle class.


http://www.truth-out.org/despite-sup...012/1322076830

==========

iow, the 99% WILL BE SCREWED, the 1% will be protected and enriched further.