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Obama declares victory for Americans as tax deal reached

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Total cave by the Republicans. Of course, they have only themselves to blame for painting themselves into the corner. Thank you, GOP, for the Christmas present!

A great WIN for President Obama.

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As a complex political chess game unfolded in Washington,

...

the republicans found themselves playing checkers.

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A great WIN for President Obama.

A great win for Americans too. The White House has been flooded with 2,000/hr emals from ordinary US citizens. Eventually this will backfire to the Rep.

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What? The GOP was trying to shaft hard-working Americans?

Again?

Why is this even news?

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Still not a done deal, all of the members of the house have to agree. What are the odds of that?

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Yuri : Not quite. If a member does object to the voice vote, than all the members have to return to D.C. for a formal vote (and pass it of course). But you can imagine at this point that this member (or members) would infuriate many. Wouldn't be suprised to see a Tea Party politician try this though.

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"Obama had put off plans to head to the surf and sands of Hawaii to join his wife and daughters"

Heck, Michelle and the girls aren't stupid enough to hang around freezing Washington D.C.!

How dare the Republicans delay Obama's surf & sand trip! They should be punished severely.

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What? The GOP was trying to shaft hard-working Americans?

The Democratic-led Senate voted for a two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday in a compromise at the weekend, but the bill was blocked by the Republican-led House which wanted a one-year extension.

I guess trying to give workers a 12 month extension instead of 2 months is now called a shafting.

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It's all political theatre. The real story is that Obama's administration hasn'even tabled a budget for the entire time he has been in office. The US has been run literally hand to mouth for three years, and counting.

He's a smart guy, but an absolute disaster as a leader. It shows that the conventional wisdom that Senators generally make poor presidents is true. They have no experience making decisions, hectoring people into line, or getting the job done on time.

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With the unilateral obstruction tactics of the gop how on earth do you expect to get anything done? And that's uttely ignoring the eight years of the Bush train-wreck when Obama came to office.

The fundemental problem is the defunct two party system in the US still attempting to pass itself off as a democracy. It's embarassing.

And besides, who else is there for the job? They may as well call of the elections, the repub candidates are abysmal.

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$40 USD?? This is pathetic! Rich, corrupt bastards like that slob Newt Gingrich are living high off the hog and are too stingy to even care about helping the hard working men and women of America?? Even these $40 per paycheck are a joke! You can not expect this to be of any real help in the USA, and is it any wonder so many people decide to go a sell dope??

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With the unilateral obstruction tactics of the gop how on earth do you expect to get anything done?

That will be the most ignored sentence in the history of JT. That's the rub. Republicans LOVE to rake President Obama over the coals for not doing enough while ignoring the fact that they are doing everything in their power to prevent the man from doing anything positive for the country.

I have never been more ashamed of the Republican party. Cannot believe I used to be a McCain, Olivia Snowe man. Where did my party go?

Rand Paul? The shark has been jumped.

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Cannot believe I used to be a McCain, Olivia Snowe man

Olympia Snowe, Truth (I went to college in Maine and remember her well). I understand how you feel; the center still exists, though, and it really is Obama. For all the brutal commentary heaped on him by the right, he still is advocating mostly what the Republican center was advocating back in the '80s - the age of Reagan, let us not forget.

I would not vote even for a moderate Republican at this point as it would only enable the radicals in Congress. Let us hope that they come back to their senses soon or their will be a tremendous trainwreck, either of the GOP itself or the USA. America needs two viable parties.

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Laguna, Thanks for the correction. Silly mistake on my part. I know better. My exit from the Republican party came by way of Paul Wellstone. If ever there was a US Senator that cared about the people and tried to do right by the people, it was Paul Wellstone. I would have followed him into hell. He changed a lot of the way I looked at things and at the same time, the Republican Party jumped the shark.

I agree with you that the US needs to viable parties. I really think for the sake of the nation, the best thing to happen would be for the Republican party to fold and for the Democratic (not Democrat Party you morons) Party to become the party of the right. The Green Party should take the position of the left.

I believe this would put us back in proper balance. The country has taken a hard right turn over the last 20 years and it's safe to say, it's been a disaster.

It's very easy to make a list of the good things liberalism has brought us: Women's suffrage, the Civil Rights Act, Child Labor Laws, Sesame Street, the Emancipation Proclamation, all liberal ideas.

I have put my mind to it and I have asked myself, what has conservatism brought to us? I'll ask you the same because I have no answer. I can't think of a single accomplishment that I can chock up to conservatism. I guess a free Israel would be their lone chestnut in which case I have to wonder why they care more about the Israelis than they do Americans.

Anyone, how have conservatives benefited America?

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Truth, you have two eyes, two ears, two nostrils - because three would be too many and one is not enough. Conservatism has worked marvelously to check the extremism of liberalism over the decades, just as the reverse has been true. Honest men may disagree over solutions, but honest men will never claim infallibility - nor will honest men subjugate their sense to ideology. This is true across the political spectrum, and it is the dual party system in the US that has led to it being the longest-surviving government since the Roman Empire.

The sewage spewing from the current far-right is not conservatism; it is sewage. Eisenhower, Reagan (to the extent that he was not hijacked), the senior Bush - heck, even Nixon on his good days: great Americans all, and disagreements on certain policies areas aside, one could trust that they would steward America in the interest of the broad majority, in a common-sense manner, with goodwill towards those who disagreed and an ability to work out bipartisan solutions.

The answer is not a third party; the answer is reconstructing both existing parties, and the method of government in general - particularly the GOP, as it is most crippled in this area - so that they better reflect the will of the American people and are better able to translate that into effective policy and legislation.

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Laguna;

The sewage is spewed from both sides. You forget the histrionics from the far left during the Bush years?

I've had enough of both parties. Both are tools of business- just look where Wall Street puts its money. Obama gets millions, te GOP gets millions, and corporations guarantee themselves a place at the trough along side the career politicians and other leeches.

The current president had 2 years of a total majority- both houses of congress as well as the presidency, yet he did nothing that helped the economy. Like I said, he couldnt even perform the basic task of making a bufget.

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t's very easy to make a list of the good things liberalism has brought us: Women's suffrage, the Civil Rights Act, Child Labor Laws, Sesame Street, the Emancipation Proclamation, all liberal ideas.

The Emancipation was from a republican president just to let you know. Also child labor laws have been detrimental to children and to the productivity of an entire nation. Here http://mises.org/daily/2858 the myth that gets perpetuated is that child labor laws somehow abolished child labor and that without it children would be "forced" into hard labor. Also the civil rights act is full of a bunch of holes that has made things worse for minorities since then here http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=244, much like how the "war on poverty" was a complete disaster and failure and achieved the exact opposite.

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The sewage is spewed from both sides. You forget the histrionics from the far left during the Bush years?

The problem with that statement is that it confuses everything that is less conservative than the hard right wing as "far left." The far right has real issues with any moderate conservative who is willing to compromise with centrist Democrats -- calling them RINOs.

There is far more rational and balanced thought and discussion coming from the Democrats these days. It is where the real political center is.

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Like I said, he couldnt even perform the basic task of making a bufget.

Yes, you said that. The sad part is that it is not true. President Obama's Office of Management and Budget has indeed submitted two yearly budgets (for 2010 and 2011) to Congress, just as his predecessors have done. Anyone who tells you otherwise is dead wrong.

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Forty bucks a month to millions of Americans. This is HUGE. Not since OsamaBinladen got caught and shot dead last May have us Democrats had so much to celebrate. Of course, the OBL kill was only possible with the intel they got from waterboarding done while bush was still in office but we will take this. It doesn't matter that inflation has already eaten up that 40 bucks. It's the symbolism that counts,and the headlines screamin "House GOP Bllinked." Good work Mr President. You have earned that 4 million dollar getaway to Hawaii for you and the First Family..

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Yabits, I meant that he hasn't had a budget passed. The last proposal lost 97-0 in the senate. He can't even get his own party's support. Some leader...

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Yabits, I meant that he hasn't had a budget passed. The last proposal lost 97-0 in the senate.

When the president submits a budget to Congress it does not go for a vote. It is clear that you are not aware of the budget process and the role of Congress in it. Blaming a clear Congressional failure on the president may make for a nice talking point, but it's clearly divorced from reality.

Maybe that's why President Obama's favorable ratings have been climbing as of late and Congress's has never been lower -- despite or more likely because of the right-wing Republicans.

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Forty bucks a month to millions of Americans. This is HUGE.

Wrong. The average is $40 a paycheck, averaged on 1.5 week pay cycle. (As the vast majority of Americans are paid either weekly or bi-weekly. That's around $120 a month.

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"President Obama's favorable ratings have been climbing as of late"

Yeah, they were really in the cellar, weren't they? Why is that?

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Yeah, they were really in the cellar, weren't they?

No worse than Reagan's or Clinton's at the same period during their first terms -- and that despite the far greater challenges facing President Obama and the nation.

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No worse than Reagan's or Clinton's at the same period during their first terms -- and that despite the far greater challenges facing President Obama and the nation.

Ronald Reagan Dec 12 1983 popularity approval 53%

Bill Clinton Dec 15 1995 popularity approval 50%

Barrack Obama Dec 12 2011 popularity approval 42%

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/popularity.php?pres=40&sort=time&direct=DESC&Submit=DISPLAY

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Yabits;

First two years of power, no budgets from Obama. He had majorities in BOTH houses. Didn't need a 60 vote margin in the senate, since budgets require only a majority. He had 59-60 seats and didn'T even try. The GOP tried in congress in 2011, if didn't get past the senate majority leader. I guess HE has more power than the president....

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The Emancipation was from a republican president just to let you know.

Sigh Shaking my head.

Yes, it was. Good for you. You know your history. Move to the head of the class. Now genius, here's the double jeopardy question: Do you think that Abraham Lincoln's Republican party has anything to do with today's current GOP?

The emancipation proclamation was an act of liberalism from a republican president. The conservative thing to do was to maintain the status quo, Lincoln threw that out the window.

As for your argument against child labor laws, honestly, I am going to reserve comment about what I think. It would likely get my post zapped. You are suggesting that since kids are good at computers, why not put them to work as computer programmers?

Do you want to know why? Because every child psychologist in the world will tell you that kids should spend more time being kids and that they are growing up too fast. You want to compound an already existing problem.

The following is a link to child and adolescent obesity rates in America. You will see that there is a trend across the board that our youth is becoming more obese and you are suggesting making them more sedentary. Again, this is not in their long term best interest.

Lastly, if they are going to be spending their times programming computers instead of going to school, when and where are they going to learn to interact with other human beings? That's an important skill and it needs to be taught and what you are suggesting kind of denies them that.

Moving on...

You come up with a handful of incidences where the Civil Rights Act has proven not to be perfect, SO...you want to throw the baby out with the bath water. I'm sorry, but I think that's a radical agenda. I think, by and large, for the most part, the Civil Rights Act doesn't do enough because we still have corporate farmers getting away with slave wages to illegal immigrants, a civil rights violation AND a contributing factor to the illegal immigration issue. Why we round up the illegal immigrants and let the scum that hired them walk is a miscarriage of justice in my opinion.

So there, I think at best, we'll have to agree to disagree.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

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Second Obama landslide next year thanks to the republicans continually failing to do anything positive for the country. Bush in 8 years did nothing but screw up the country, useless wars, tax cuts for the rich, huge budget failures, the wall street lead republican blessed bush depression the world is in now. No one wants that again. Not a single positive achievement. Nothing. The party of No gets no results.

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A two month pay-roll tax holiday doesn't really do anything for anyone. It has very little stimulative effect - as the last year's very anemic growth has shown. It damages social security because it subtracts another $30 billion from the "trust fund" without making any reforms to keep it from going bankrupt. Social security has already made the transition from a retirement program to a welfare program. Obama and Democrats demagoged the issue by saying that allowing the rate to return to normal would be a tax hike. Well, then the rate can never return to normal without it being considered a tax hike. So the program has now lost a third of it's funding.

If Obama succeeds in being re-elected with the new levels of debt projected to double from about $10 trillion to $20 trillion, American's will not feel very much like winners. This statistic alone would qualify him as the worst president in American history - hands down.

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