Happy New Year

Well, let’s start with a happy thought — reports are that since the election, Sean Hannity’s ratings have dropped like a rock. See also “The GOP’s Lost Year in the Fox News Bubble” by Eric Boehlert.

As for the deal — progressive/liberal pundits and bloggers are nearly all very angry and think the President could have gotten a better deal. I’m about on the same page as Josh Marshall — the worst part is that we probably will be vulnerable to another destructive fight over the debt ceiling. The rest of it is a big meh.

Ezra Klein has a breakdown of exactly what was agreed to. I’d like to point out that some of the “small stuff” hardly anyone talks about actually are big deals — the “doc fix” is fixed for another year, for example. Otherwise physician Medicare reimbursement rates would have plunged 27 percent today. Milk prices will not shoot up, at least not for nine months. Unemployment insurance is extended. If it took moving the tax hike needle from $250,000 to $450,000/$400,000 to resolve those issues, I’m not too concerned. But if we end up in another debt ceiling hostage situation in a few weeks, then this was a really bad deal.

Of course, there’s always a chance the House won’t approve the bill as is, and then we’d be back to square one.

14 thoughts on “Happy New Year

  1. I’m not sure if the House will pass this, or not.

    But, either way, you can bet that after losing the stimulus and healthcare debates a few years ago, and then getting their billionaires to fund the Bircher/Jesus-freak/Teabagger’s in 2010, enough to win the House, and then, after this year, losing in epic and embarrassing fashion, to President Obama, as well as some winnable Senate and House seats, they will do whatever they can to make the lives of Obama and the Democrats as miserable as humanly possible.
    And that, if the the results of their endless intransigence and hostage-taking, the country declines, or goes back into a steep Recession/Depression, they figure they can always shift the blame to anyplace and anyone, except where it clearly belongs – on them, the Repbublican Clown Car Congress.

    Party over country!
    PARTY UBER ALLES!!!

  2. The Republicans do not care about this country. Their stands on many issues are anti-American and they should be ashamed of themselves.

    Happy New Year!

  3. Happy New Year everyone!

    Awwww sean… Let not your heart be troubled my friend I am sure ted nugent is still listening. I am sure sean can get by on un- employment. He has food stockpiled from “Food insurance” so he and his family could live on the freeze dried food. And I am sure his “twitter army” will take a break from the “revolution” they think they are in the middle of to send him a few bucks to make sure his wife can stay in high priced handbags.

    I would like to suggest a new reality show for- well, people who have no grip on reality. It would feature irrelevant out of work d listers and it would be called “Gas bag island” the winner would be given a job in the media again as the head of a new “news service” in Iraq so he / she could have the honor of explaining to the Iraqi people how free they are and how much better off they are since our glorious war .

    Also I would like to propose that faux news move all of their operations there. It seems they are “too close” to the story here. So perhaps if they stepped a few thousand miles away they would get a clearer view.

    As for the fiscal cliff. I am a big picture gal. I see this as the start of the case Obama needs to build with the American people to throw those rat bastards out in the next election cycle. Obama is a smart guy. I think he is aware of his legacy. He has two years to do big things if he gets those jerks out of the way. He cannot afford to waste a day. It wouldn’t be a stretch to paint Americans a picture of a bunch of obstructionists who are a noose around our necks holding us back from progress and real solutions. It would be damn accurate actually. This is the mission, should they choose to accept it.

    I once new a tough old lady who taught me, half jokingly, that when something when wrong look for the first man you see and blame him. “It’s always a man’s fault” she said. I kept that and jokingly always blame my man. You don’t like the weather? It’s HIS fault! Well now the men in my life can breath easy! Until further notice it is NOT their fault. I will resume chauvinism at some point perhaps but my new motto is that CONGRESS is to blame. Don’t like the weather? Guess who gets the evil eye? I could care less if it is their fault or not, they are getting the blame.Seems like a fair trade for lifetime benefits and voting for your own pay raises don’t you think?

    I recall as a kid hearing “adults” saying someone “had more problems than Carter had pills” I don’t know what the hell that was suppose to mean but it was a common expression (keep in mind the evangelical racist right wing freaks that played the part of adults in my life)..( also keep in mind I love Carter and IMHO he was too decent of a person to be President and I think the job requires a BIT of hardass). In repeating the comment I suggest someone start a saying as common place as that one was , only this one would be true and about congress.

    • justme — a long time ago there was a product called “Carter’s Little Liver Pills.” I believed they advertised on the Ed Sullivan Show. It must have been a popular product, but I don’t remember what the pills were supposed to do. Anyway, I dimly remember some government agency complaining that the pills didn’t actually do anything for the liver, and the Carter company had to change the name or the advertising or something, and then the pills disappeared. But the phrase you refer to about Carter having pills is derived from the Little Liver Pills, I believe.

  4. Happy New Year to all!
    Many thanks to you, Maha – for continuing to maintain a blog where I can find online just what I need.

  5. Happy new year all. I’ve been repairing plumbing all day. I guess it’s just a cut above mucking out a porta jon. I hope y’all had a better new years day.
    On the bright side, I made a killer Shiitake / oyster mushroom soup yesterday, with ‘shrooms I grew in the back 1/4. You can find the recipe by googling “wild mushroom with bacon soup”.It’s a heart attack in a bowl, but OMG, it’s good.
    Many thanks to you, Barbara, for continuing to host your web site!

  6. “Of course, there’s always a chance the House won’t approve the bill as is, and then we’d be back to square one”

    I would wager that is almost certain. The teabaggers have already found an excuse not to enact “Obama tax cuts” calling them spending? I heard one of the baggers on CNN with the cheerleading of the bobblehead calling the deal 40-50 billion in spending (pegging the revenue lost for tax cuts for all under 450K as spending). My head almost exploded, I remember in 2003 when the liberals floated the same logic they were ridiculed: tax cuts as spending why that is crazy!!!!! Oh the hypocrisy. Nothing changes on new year’s day.

  7. I stilll think the dance we are going through now – and the next tango over the debt ceiling.. and all the weeping and gnashing of teeth over the next year and a half is a big game of rope-a-dope. Obama wants to keep the Senate in 2014 and take the House. For that to happen, he has to maintain the image of the grown-up dealing with a nursery of Tea-Party crybabies. So Obama will goad them into as many childish tantrums as possible while conceding more in negotiations than he should for the sole purpose of mainlining the image. But the game is to get a majority in 2014, not get anything meaningful now.

  8. I hope the home-care provision of the ACA gets put back in. It is one way the ACA would reduce the deficit, not that the Teapublicans care about deficits. The Teapublicans have wanted to destroy the ACA, and you would have thought that having a chance to slice out part of it would have been tempting to them. I guess Obama knew they wouldn’t go for any deal. They don’t want him to be President, even though we voted for him. They keep saying that elections have consequences when they win, but when they don’t, they seem to stop saying that. Or they mean that the consequence of their losses is hurt fee-fees and sulking and obstruction and resentment and meanness and … well, you get the idea.

  9. I sit corrected, looks like the boner has had a few and decided to put the bill up for a vote!

    I love the stuff about Hannity’s ratings. I watch the ratings pretty close and all of FAUX has been dropping since the election. Rachel beats Hannity on a regular basis and LAwrance kills Greta every night! I suppose the old crusty’s that watch FAUX are too desponded over that colored fella winning again, they must be tuneing into Honey Boo Boo instead.

  10. HUZZAH!
    It appears our Union troops won the 2nd Battle of Bullsh*t Run!
    Now, onto DebtCeilingburg.

  11. President Dad was on the radio this morning saying very sternly that he is not in the mood for any nonsense over raising the debt ceiling. Or else!

    Happy 2013 everyone!

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