The Washington Examiner has a preview of what’s in store for us from Washington, DC in 2013. It’s not going to be pretty. Now that the fiscal cliff crisis was resolved in the middle of the night, they will move on to the debt ceiling crisis. From there they will move on to the sequester, another man made crisis, before taking up the budget. No doubt the Senate will fail to pass a budget and instead use another continuing resolution to keep the gravy chain rolling.
Expect 2012 to be like 2013, but worse.
The crisis just averted reached its apex with an intransigent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., trashing House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on the Senate floor, and Boehner responding by telling Reid to “go f–k [himself]” in a meeting at the White House. For his part, President Obama enraged Republicans by taunting them during an appearance at the White House on New Year’s Eve. He was so aloof and detached from negotiations that Vice President Biden had to be called in to do the heavy lifting.
This will be the new tone for Obama’s second term — bitter, divided and getting worse, even as the nation’s fiscal status deteriorates. After a few months of ugly showdowns like the one that just ended, it will be considerably more difficult for Obama to make progress in Congress on the remaining big-ticket items on his agenda — guns, immigration and climate change, for example. Even more difficult will be bigger, bipartisan goals like the entitlement and tax reforms that America desperately needs.
If his first term is any indication, Obama will retaliate against congressional resistance by acting alone, as he already has by using executive power to make policy in education, welfare, labor law, the environment and immigration. He will test legal limits with new administrative changes, executive orders, memoranda and creative regulatory rulings.
Americans will also start to feel the negative effects of Obamacare starting this year. The Democrats purposely crafted the legislation so the most painful aspects wouldn’t hit until after the 2012 election. But hey, it’s not like voters weren’t warned. They just weren’t listening.
Update: We can also expect another credit rating downgrade.
What do you want to hear me talk about tomorrow? Pags
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cronyism and corruption….
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The D.C. circus is disfunctional. The happy clowns are fighting the sad clown. Either way, they are all clowns.
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While you are reporting on serious news, I see that the NY Times is reporting that “gang violence is not spread evenly across the city” (chicago). A brilliant observation from the smartest people on the planet ! And AlterNet is pushing Marijuana Smoothies but “…not all doctors are convinced that marijuana juice …” Wow. I wonder how many doctors they interviewed, and would it be a statistically representative sample ? I guess they just throw that out there, along with their blabber about “right wing lies,” and how islamophobic memes get traction.
The reason I keep an eye on the blog comments i see is the noticable trend towards idiotic beliefs that will lead to trouble. Such as ‘only The State should have a monopoly on the use of force’. Such as “only America is so weird” and blabber about what would you do with your 38 against an Abrams tank. I get the impression they think that Obama can just order the army to confiscate weapons. I wonder how far they think they can push that little meme, or other equivalent schemes.
Another thing I noticed is that they view the Bill of Rights in a goofy legalistic way where one can slice and dice the words, rather than the Bill of Rights seen in the context of Tom Paine, as a statement of ethics – everybody has the same rights, and if rights are respected there is peace. They focus on guns rather than on the threat picture. They like to pretend they are against violence, yet they promote the very notions that lead to constitutional crisis. One academic blogger reported that the sentiment he sees is that they “have to strike while the iron is hot” or public opinion will wane. Funny – i thought they were into all that psychobabble about ‘the grieving process’ – nope, they want to ram stuff thru congress. Sounds like a bunch of freakin sociopaths, if you ask me.
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I wonder what they’ll do when 10 or 15 thousand pissed off Americans decide to take over Washington. With that many people not one gun will need to be used. Security couldn’t shoot them fast enough and we can get our country back. Kinda like Chinas approach to war. Keep throwing bodies at the enemy until you finally overrun them.
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I say millions….
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I expect a new record in caving in. The GOP will make the French army look like the greatest resistance in history. Go get ‘em Boehner and McConnell! Our fate is in your hands. OMG!
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I’m afraid of what Obama, Reid, and the Pelosi gang will do to destroy the country! 2013 seems to be prime territory for these unrestrained fools!
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Unfortunately, we’ve just witnessed The Regime’s model legislative process with the “cliff” legislation. Anti-gun legislation and comprehensive immigration can easily pass with the Democrats in the House voting in bloc and normally only about 17 Republicans siding in. Boehner has split with conservatives and now we’ll just wait and see just how progressive the Speaker is.
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