President Barack Obama: A bowl of Jell-O

 Speaker John Boehner

Speaker John Boehner, explains what it's like negotiating with President Obama on the debt ceiling. He said dealing with the White House "is like dealing with a bowl of Jell-O." 

Boehner forgot to mention that he was the one who melted like a bowl of Jell-O when he walked away from the table.

"But according to the New York Times, a White House official confirmed that the president had agreed over the coming decade to cut $250 billion from Medicare spending and $310 billion from other domestic entitlement programs, like farm subsidies and education programs. 

"He was also willing to change the formula for Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, which many economists say would more accurately reflect inflation, for savings of about $125 billion more. These concessions were contingent on Boehner and his colleagues agreeing to higher taxes for wealthy Americans and corporations".

The breakdown in negotiations between President Obama and Rep. Boehner was the second time this month that Boehner had walked away from the table with the president after word of their private talks was leaked to the news media, provoking protests from Republican lawmakers and antitax conservative groups.

“I’ve been left at the altar now a couple of times,” President Obama said. “And I think that one of the questions that the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself, [is] can they say yes to anything?” (Rolling Out, July 22, 2011)

Definition of Jell-O: Used for a gelatin dessert usually with the flavor and color of fruit.

Gelatin: a gluttonous material obtained from animal tissues by boiling; a colloidal protein used as a food, in photography, and in medicine.

  Jell-O Images of "fruit flavored"Obama. 

It must have been difficult for Boehner to hold his attention and focus while sitting at a table with colorful "bowls" of eye-catching Jell-O. Wonder which flavor he was referring to during his press conference?

  

Underhandedness in the House

Congressman Paul Ryan

"The incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives has laid out a series of changes it would like to make to the House rules, including replacing the current “pay-go” rules — which require all spending increases to be offset with spending cuts or tax increases — with a rule called “cut-go,” which requires that new spending programs — but not new tax cuts — be offset with spending cuts. The GOP has also proposed a new rule requiring that each piece of new legislation include a statement justifying the legislation’s constitutionality.That’s not all, however. 

"As National Journal reported today, 'a little-noticed detail in the new rules proposed by House GOP leaders would greatly increase the power of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee.' Indeed, under the proposed rules, if the House and Senate do not agree on a budget resolution (a distinct possibility with a divided Congress), Ryan will be able to unilaterally set spending levels that are binding on the House, and any attempt to lessen the impact of these cuts can be ruled out of order." Think Progress, December 30, 2010.

The proposed "rules" by the incoming House are bogus. Tea party Republicans are shoring up to legitimize their underhandedness to impede President Obama's agenda. This is a scheme to further enrich themselves and their donors. They are endeavouring to constitutionally empower themselves against the power of President Obama.

Tea partiers who screamed they want a smaller government may get their wish. Republicans see Social Security and Medicare as entitlements, and they plan to put them on the chopping block. I remember President Obama saying several months ago that he would see how serious Republicans are about decreasing the deficit when it's time to cut programs. The President told them in advance that they won't be able to sit on their hands and say "No!" Or as John Boehner screeched in a drunken stupor on the Senate floor: "Hell no!"

Of course tea party Republicans will swim upstream  to transfer their weaknesses and ineptness onto President Obama and Democrats.

Talking loud, saying nothing

House Speaker John Boehner

Boehner was voted Speaker of the House to the 112th Congress. He finally got his wish. He says the House Republican caucus has yet to engage the issues they campaigned on. “We’ll have time over the coming months to discuss that issue and how we might move such an issue, but those conversations haven’t started yet,” he said.

This is the staged, planned, concocted strategy of Republicans. Not to engage the issue. They have sat on their hands for two years because they have no answers to problems. But mostly because they want President Obama to fail in a big way. They want his fall to be heard around the world.

Republicans have no answers to decreasing or balancing the deficit. They are only sure that they want to bring President Obama and his administration to its knees. They are are only sure that they want President Obama to be a one-term president, as stated by Mitch McConnell and Jim DeMint. They are sure that they want to tamper with the Constitution of the United States, and then tell Americans that President Obama is violating and ignoring the Constitution.

Republicans are sure they want the George Bush tax cuts to remain in place. The rich and powerful impregnated them with millions of dollars to win the midterm elections. And it's time to deliver. No waiting until the January swearing ceremony.

The obstruction will continue. Republicans will wait for Democrats to make a decision and they will disagree, and then tell America that Democrats refused to work with them; refused to seek their input. They have already decided that President Obama will have to play ball with them or else. They are daring him to think independently. They expect the President to extend more olive branches. They said the American people gifted them with a mandate.

If nothing gets done Republicans will hold regular press conferences to tell America: "We tried to do what the American people expect us to do, but President Obama wouldn't take any of our suggestions. He wants to ram his agenda down our throats. That's not what the American people want."