The win is "so far" ... The deal still needs approval of the full Senate and House of Representatives ...
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But maybe they'll win-win in the end and the average American will pay more and put up with more pollution ...
Yesterday Congress came up with an agreement to extend payroll tax cuts for just two months.
And only after Democrats caved in to the unrelated Republican/oil industry demands to rush to start an environmentally controversial Canadian pipeline to Texas.
No tax increases on the super rich to help balance the budget ...
Obama wanted a one-year extension of the tax relief and long-term unemployed benefits to boost U.S. economic recovery.
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Obama never said "no" to the pipeline but put off a decision on the pipeline until 2013 while the government studies alternative routes that won't have as much environmental impact.
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http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-agree-2-month-payroll-tax-cut-extension-003819166.html
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Comments: 41
>If Obama doesn't start standing up to these People
I won't hold my breath.
He needs to grow a backbone and the Democrats in Congress have to stop acting like Republicans. We need a third party in this country. One that will work for the people and the environment and not for Big Business.
BECAUSE IT MEANS GOOD PAYING UNION JOBS!
Hello?????????????? It's good for the MIDDLE CLASS!
And YES, we know all that about its plus sides, if that's all there was to it, it would have been easy. But there are the complicating environmental factors. You know that and stop ignoring that it exists. On some level you have to agree that the environment is important to all of us, too!
I guess you must not have read the papers about Chrysler and GM.
Whatever makes you feel better about yourself, Winston!
Sure, Chrysler and GM were innocent bystanders. They wouldn't have minded going under. Yup, uh-huh.
(yes, they HAVE unions, and those unions were cut back very badly)
Here's an alternate thesis:
Think forward two months (February 29). The payroll tax break for 99% of Americans is due to expire. Because of the Republicans in Congress the Obama government is forced to make a decision on the pipeline without enough time to get sufficient information to demonstrate its safety. The State Department has already issued a statement (12/12/11) warning Congress that it would be "unable to make a determination to issue a permit" for the project if Congress were to "impose an arbitrary deadline."
In other words, the State Department would be forced to reject the permit for the pipeline due to the meddling of the Republicans in Congress.
Think where the Republicans are around that time. Assuming no further timetable changes, 11 states would have had their primaries or caucuses. More than likely the Republicans would have chosen their nominee.
Do the Republicans now refuse to further extend the tax break for the 99%, all because they forced the administration to reject a permit due to lack of time to review the case? Do the Republicans let Obama have a campaign slogan just when the Republican nominee is at his most vulnerable? Do you think the Republicans will let Obama spend the next several months telling the 99% of Americans that the Republicans killed payroll tax relief for 99% of America just because the Republicans wanted to give the super-rich fossil fuel companies yet another taxpayer-subsidized benefit by forcing a permit approval without adequate safeguards?
And when the Republicans try to claim that Keystone would bring many jobs, do you think Obama will forget to remind the 99% of Americans that the Republicans have voted dozens of times to reject jobs for every day Americans and reject tax breaks for every day Americans and reject health and safety for every day Americans...all while they, the Republicans, were voting to give exorbitant tax breaks to the 1% of super-rich billionaires and refuse to close tax loopholes that allow the super-profitable fossil fuel megacorporations to hide the profits from being taxed while they send American jobs overseas?
In 2008 I was asked why I thought Obama should be President. My answer, "Because he thinks."
He's still thinking.
He's still thinking."
No matter how hard we sell this point of fact, it appears this Nation really does, more strongly, support a fighter over a thinker. Then there is the fact that no tow leaders lead with the same staff, as no tow humans are exactly the same. When will they ever learn (a statement, not a question).
Again, the GOP are spinning their hate for POTUS 44 into a seemingly laudable voice built to influence the 2012 election and strengthening their cry that: "this President is not a leader". It is so easy for them to cherry pick the evidence for the pipeline (as they do with each issue their heels are dug into) and that remains JOBS. Obviously that is the only thing they choose to hold high in 2012.
Jobs are the economy, so they have one voice for that pair of issues and have nothing inventive, or creative in the way of resolving issues and troubles, other than fabricating and omitting facts which have nothing to do with any decision POTUS 44 has made.
They want to kill the EPA, along with other regulatory agencies, for the same reason they cry about the "Job creators". I worked all my life in the health care field, without regulations every surgical and medical procedure would be experimental...totally experimental, with a small hope of success.
The GOP also state: the JOB creators need to spend more time and money just to deal with the regulations; shall we not do business with such businesses who feel so burned to DO THE RIGHT THING that they see no need to build compliance into their business plan and Mission statement? I would demand a list of such companies thus, I avoid their products.
Everything the tea party has done has been focused on this fact. They have rejected tax breaks for the middle class, and indeed the 99%, over and over and over and over...increased the debt over and over and over and over...and stood with the big fossil fuel corporations, the big insurance corporations, the big financial corporations over and over and over and over.
Every. Single. Time.
The tea party has even fought to increase taxes on the middle class and working poor, solely so the tea party can give even more taxpayer subsidies to the mega oil corporations and the Wall Street financiers that own the Republican party.
Just like the tea party funders and organizers run by the billionaire Koch brothers want them to do.
Abraham Lincoln was underestimated by those who thought they were smarter than him. He achieved greatness and transformed America despite those fighting him all the way.
President Obama knows the hand he was dealt - the previous administration bequeathed him an economy that was approaching depression-era proportions, the bigotry and delusional rantings of the tea party, and a Republican party that vowed before he even took office that they would block the resurgence of America for political expediency.
Despite this he has accomplished amazing things. Is it enough for rabid liberals? No, and that's probably a very good thing because most of the country are not rabid liberals. But he has accomplished much of what the liberals would want. If they abandon him they will be guaranteeing that the GOP will reverse America's resurgence and put even more burden on the 99% of us. I suspect liberals don't want that to happen.
Obama has also accomplished things that conservatives would want if they ever choose to return to the principles of honesty and integrity, something they seem to have given up on in recent years as they fight even the ideas that they themselves had previously supported. In the last three years there have been unprecedented tax breaks given to small and medium sized businesses - the very businesses that hire the most workers and put their profits back into the local economy (while the mega multinational corporations hide their profits overseas and contribute nothing to the local economy). Obama has fought for the middle class and working poor to help put them back to work and prepare them for the jobs of the future, all while the tea party has tried to stop any job growth.
And Obama has accomplished many things that independents and moderates want. Despite Republican vows to not work with the Democrats or the President and the bigotry of the tea party, Obama has bent over backwards from the beginning to incorporate GOP ideas for the future. In fact, many of the things the tea party scream about were ideas stemming from Republicans, the very same ideas that they now disavow. But despite this outreach by the President, the tea party has gotten even more strident, not to mention have created an alternative reality that is largely divorced from fact. Independents and moderates would lose everything they worked for if the extremist tea party were allowed to destroy the gains so far achieved by the President.
And where are we now? After inheriting the worst economy in nearly a century we started seeing the bleeding stop and job growth begin as soon as Obama's policies were put into place. The economy continues to grow, and though it is slower than we all would have hoped, it has been growing despite the tea party attempts to kneecap it from the beginning. Through his efforts we have seen the US start moving toward building the energy resources of the future, again with the tea party trying to hold back American innovation and protect the fossil fuel interests of the mega oil corporations and the billionaire Koch brothers that own the tea party. Through his efforts we have seen basic human rights enhanced in the US and throughout the world, again all while the tea party bigotry has fought to demonize anyone that isn't what they deem to be "the right kind of American."
We have also seen the US regain its strong leadership role in the world and do what the previous administration could not do in 8 years - get bin Laden and the vast majority of al qaeda's leadership, end the Iraq war, start drawing down our involvement in Afghanistan, etc, etc, etc. We have even managed to keep our economy moving forward despite the economic difficulties in Europe being the main drag on the world.
All of this despite the tea party Republicans working to hold back economic recovery for purely political expediency.
We've moved this country forward despite those in the tea party who want to drag it backward and give communist China the lead. We have a long way to go. The answer is to continue pressing forward, not complain we haven't moved far enough yet.
(and finally shot by a hater who had very very common anti-Lincoln issues)
I will vote for the best choice. At the moment, I like Ron Paul.
Domestic things are mostly all the fate of Congress, anyway. So even though his ways would bring the quick destruction of the environment to wanton deregulation, I would hope Congress would slow that .... (unless there's also a lot of GOP in Congress, EEEEK!)
the pieline could start from any of the 2 oil fields there.