the republicans want to do this all over again in six months.

that's how much they care about this country.

day.

Nothing to motivate this country to fight the repukes. Just a lot of calm, relaxing, tranquilized zzzz words.

"mandatory spending" ... (Sen. John Thune)

Call your representatives (many times) we have to!

They don't give a crap who they hurt to reach that goal.

Or is he just being his usual calm, relaxed, tranquilized self, speaking as if he were discussing planting more trees along highways?

We need him to GET FORCEFUL! DEMAND we get out there and protest! Stop making this seem like a small discussion! He needs to kick this country's behind to push the Repukes back into the holes they crawled out of.

But instead, he's relaxed, calm, mellow. :(

Last Friday's presser was pretty forceful. You did hear about him asking the people to call their representatives in Congress last night, which, according to some accounts, resulted in servers getting crashed, didn't you? What do you expect him to do/say? He can't fire the Republicans (unfortunately) and/or MAKE them do his job- but he can try to persuade the public to make them do their jobs.

Not hitting the podium, not getting visibly angry, not seeming to react, always cool, always relaxed. I don't know, my friend. Sometimes one has to SHOW intense emotion, particularly when one's country is going to hell.

that's when you REALLY need to be able to be calm and rational. I'm sure he's privately seething over all of this like we all are but going on a tear isn't exactly his personality nor is it particularly presidential IMHO. Do we really want more false bravado and GWB-style "bring it on" attitude? President Obama is definitely being a lot more charitable than I/we might be when faced with the same situation but that doesn't mean that he doesn't care nor that he is interested in letting the Republicans get away with this.

and look out of control would help the situation in any way.

The Orange Man said that he didn't sign up for mano a mano with the president. That kind of indicates that things may be pretty damn fierce in the meetings.

They are trying to change the way government itself works.

Essentially, this is the way terrorists would take over a govt if terrorists dreamed this big.

They say, you will comply with these demands, or else we will blow up the monetary system by destroying the value of the most important, stablest investment vehicle in the world, (US Govt. Bonds) and trash forever the credit of the United States, and the world will witness the overnight transformation of the United States into something like a former Soviet Republic.

And we will return again in 6 months to inform you of our further demands.

"We offered the president an increase in the debt ceiling that would give us 6 months to try to figure out how to fix our debt problem. The president turned it down, because he's unwilling to tackle hard problems in an election year. If we gave the president what he wanted, he and the Democratic party would spend the next 18 months borrowing money that you and your children will have to pay back."

It's a political poison pill, the mere existence of which is problematic. If you take it, you risk the elections by being forced to talk about cuts a few months before the polls. If you don't, you risk elections in the year after an economic disaster.

And the GOP's cuts will make the disaster worse.

Asswipes.

work on the 'jobs' issue. They need to address the real problem and that is getting people back to work. When people are working they are paying taxes. They feel good about themselves and begin to spend money again. They go to restaurants, movies, take vacations, buy houses and furnish them.

This is what they should be focusing on in Washington. Instead they want to bog things down again with another go around with this useless negotiations on the debt ceiling.

Obama has already said, he would not extend the Bush tax cuts. the Repugs need to get the Bush tax cuts extended, by the democrat before the summer of 2012. Because, it would be a reenforcement that the dems are weak, do not really understand the economy and that tax cuts really do create jobs.

They are trying to shape major policy direction by holding the government and economy hostage. And they want to do this again and again, as I keep pointing out. Obama wants his 4 trillion dollar Grand Bargain in order to move the time horizon for the next stickup out to some out year, a non-election year. Cantor in particular wants shorter intervals. If they succeed at all now, they will just keep coming back with humiliating and destructive demands, at every debt ceiling crisis opportunity. Debt ceiling expansions, usually routine, happen more frequently than Congressional elections. More frequently than Congressional elections - and that is how MAJOR POLICY will be set in the United States from now on, if Republicans succeed with Obama. Even more frequently than you elect new House Representatives, the Republicans will return to a Democratic President or Democratic Senate with a fresh set of impossible demands. That is why I say, a deal is not the end of a crisis but the beginning of a new PERMANENT state of emergency. That is why they have to be fought and not dealt with or agreed with.

There's not much that's gonna get done this year in either house as long as its divided. For the most part the rushpublicans have been pulling their puds with all sorts of insane legislation that no one has been paying attention to. This is one of the few times where the House does matter...without their consent, along with the Senate, not only can't the debt ceiling be lifted (14th ammendment or not)...but more important, no money can be borrowed and eventually the government will shut more and more programs down. Thus Boner, Cantor and their puppetmasters at Koch Industries know this is one of the few times they can be heard and make a big stink. Of course they won't back down.

In the end, Boner will have to craft a coalition of Democrats and "moderate" rushpublicans. The teabaggers want to destroy this country to destroy this President.