Bob Corker Kills the Catfood Commission - EmptyWheel

[WillyT]

Bob Corker Kills the Catfood Commission
By: emptywheel
Friday July 9, 2010 12:17 pm

<snip>

The catfood commission (aka Obama’s deficit commission) is dead.

Well, it must be, right?

After all, that great figure of Beltway-corporatism-posing-as-moderation, Bob Corker, has decreed that we shall pass no legislation during a post election lame duck session.

Corker called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), the Democratic leaders in their respective chambers, to make a similar pledge.

“I think for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to say the same thing — that they’re not going to try to use the lame-duck session as a place to do things that otherwise would not pass,” he said. “That type of thinking, that concern about … cap-and-trade and other types of policies just feeds into this whole unpredictability issue, the issue of what’s going to happen in Washington. We need to move away from that uncertainty.”

And that’s precisely when the Obama Administration plans to implement the catfood commission’s cuts on social security.

White House officials are working closely with the president’s new fiscal commission in the hope that the bipartisan commissions final report will provide Republican cover for the deal. The commission, due to report by December 1, needs fourteen out of its eighteen members to make an official recommendation. One hope of the deficit hawks is that a super-majority report could steamroll a lame duck session of Congress to act quickly, pending a more Republican Congress in January.

If someone like Corker won’t play along with the plan to cut social security, then it’s unlikely to get the mix of Republicans and deficit hawk Democrats they’ll need to pass the Commission recommendations.

So long as Corker keeps his word, then, about opposition to moving big legislation during the lame duck session, then social security should be safe.

<snip>

Link: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/07/09/breaking-bob-corker-kills-the-catfood-commission/

Wow, er, What???

:wow:

:shrug:

BTW... That second quote comes from Robert Kuttner from an article last May 13th that I missed...

If you did too, it's worth a read: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_new_white_house_economic_strategy

:hi:

[gratuitous]

1. I am not sanguine about this commission

The personnel involved and the insider mentality that frets over the have-nots getting too many crumbs make me doubt this commission will do anything positive for deficit reduction, and instead seek to make cosmetic changes that will only hurt people who are hurting enough already.

Lame duck passage of practically anything makes me highly suspicious that something very bad is being cooked up.

[WillyT]

2. "... highly suspicious that something very bad is being cooked up."

Yep, me too.

:wtf:

:hi:

[bobbolink]

5. Yet, we have-nots don't have dedicated people who will strongly act on our behalf.

We are the orphans of the party.

[socialist_n_TN]

3. Hmmmmm. And I went by Corker's office last week

and talked to a staffer about the Social Security commission. I didn't think that it would do any good. Well, we'll see how he votes either in lame duck session OR in the next Congress.

[spanone]

4. no one speaks ill of social security in an election year

[WillyT]

7. But Isn't That Exactly Why They're Trying To Wedge The Decision Into The Lame-Duck Session ???

AFTER the mid-term elections, and BEFORE the swearing in of the new Congress?

:shrug:

[ProSense]

6. Great idea:

Let's join the Republicans to kill a Democratic President's agenda before we know what it is.

Who's with me?

[gratuitous]

8. I'll be watching to see what comes out

But I'm not sure what effective action can be taken after Election Day, if the recommendations come out then, and Congress goes through a lame duck session to plunder us again. By the time we know what's in the agenda, it may be too late. And as I said above, considering who is on this commission (e.g., nobody actually dependent on social security), we could be looking at a sea change in the most successful government program ever, decided by a bunch of people fixated on only one dimension (deficit reduction).

[Edweird]

9. The appointees and timing make it clear EXACTLY what is up.

[WillyT]

11. And... If The President's Aim, Is Good And True...

Then there would be ABSOLUTELY NO NEED to try and stuff it in the Lame-Duck Session.

Right?

:shrug:

[Edweird]

10. I'm sure he's just holding out for something. The alternative

is unthinkable at this point.

[WillyT]

13. Oh, Don't Get Me Wrong...

I'm keeping BOTH eyes on Corker now.

Still trying to figure out his angle, and what he's up to with this statement.

:shrug:

[Name removed]

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