a gentle reminder…

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another lost saturday….

President Obama meets with House Speaker John Boehner in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Saturday, July 23

White House statement: The President and Vice President met with Speaker Boehner, Leader Pelosi, Leader Reid and Leader McConnell in the Cabinet Room to discuss options for ensuring that the debt ceiling is raised and the United States does not default on its obligations for the first time in its history.

The President restated his opposition to a short-term extension of the debt ceiling, explaining that a short-term extension could cause our country’s credit rating to be downgraded, causing harm to our economy and causing every American to pay higher credit cards rates and more for home and car loans.

As the current situation makes clear, it would be irresponsible to put our country and economy at risk again in just a few short months with another battle over raising the debt ceiling. Congress should refrain from playing reckless political games with our economy. Instead, it should be responsible and do its job, avoiding default and cutting the deficit. The meeting lasted approximately one hour. The leaders agreed to return to Capitol Hill to talk to their members and discuss a way forward, and conversations will continue throughout the day.

‘if you want to be a leader, then you got to lead’

Text of the President’s remarks from yesterday here (full video a couple of posts below) – every word is worth listening to over and over again, but as StR suggested, the closing few minutes were especially powerful.

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Some people get it:

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria with author and historian David McCullough

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Some people don’t get it – see Tally’s message to Senator Sanders:

Why aren’t you calling for anyone who signed the King Norquist pledge to RESIGN or be forced from office for sedition??? A pledge they hold higher than their oath of office and the US Constitution! If YOU, or any Dem senator had EVER signed such a pledge, the GOP would scream bloody murder and that person would be out of office within 24 hours of doing so. And yet… you are silent.

Why aren’t you calling out GOP members in Congress that the 14th Amendment clearly states “CONGRESS SHALL ENFORCE” [America to pay her bills]??? THERE IS NO CHOICE ON RAISING THE DEBT CEILING! Why aren’t you calling for removal from office those in the House who refuse to raise it for DERELICTION OF DUTY???? And yet… you are silent.

No, instead, you attack the POTUS, even when YOU KNOW VERY WELL – he has been up against RECORD filibustering, RECORD opposition, and a bunch of WELL FUNDED traitors who have held this country hostage and hate their own government and fellow countrymen so much they are WILLFULLY trying to crash the US ECONOMY.

HOW DARE YOU? YOU OF ALL PEOPLE!!!

I would never have believed it of you, but I heard it with my own ears. You are suggesting someone primary Obama.

Obama has NEVER been the problem. It’s the DEMS, who have NEVER, COLLECTIVELY, had his BACK. It’s the DEMS who have no spine, and should have been calling out the weak Congressional Members who have been bought by lobbyists, but remain silent.

If all of you HAD stood with THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR HIM, we would have gotten so much more done, and he never would have had to so much as entertain giving up the Public Option in HCR, but he KNEW he didn’t have the votes, and because of that, he was forced into negotiating with these damn terrorists in the GOP.

I get that we never had 60 votes in the Senate. But when you had the opportunity THIS SESSION to change the filibuster rules, it was OUR SIDE that was weak, and failed to do so.

It was OUR SIDE that never gave Obama the Progressive Army he needed.

TO DATE – he has NEVER stated he would put cuts to SS/Medicare/Medicade BENEFITS on the table. NOT ONCE. If I can listen and understand the words that come out of President Obama’s mouth, WHY CAN’T YOU??? He has talked about cutting other parts, like to providers (which worked before.)

Why aren’t YOU calling for the removal of the Contribution Cap on earnings so that EVERYONE pays the same percentage, including those who make over $106k a year?? WHY DON’T YOU DO THAT, INSTEAD OF ATTACKING YOUR PRESIDENT.

Let me be honest Senator, it doesn’t make Obama look weak when you say things like that. It makes YOU and the REST of the Dems look weak. And you want to know the saddest thing of all? Many of us are not surprised in the least.

My disappointment in you Senator, has shaken me to my core. I never thought YOU, of ALL PEOPLE would do anything remotely like this, ESPECIALLY at a time, IF THERE EVER WAS ONE, to have your PRESIDENT’S BACK.

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NYT Editorial: For days, the White House has infuriated its Democratic allies in Congress by offering House Republicans more and more in exchange for a deal to raise the debt ceiling and prevent default. But it was never enough, and, on Friday evening, it became clear that it may never be enough. Speaker John Boehner again walked away from the “grand bargain” he had been negotiating with President Obama, leaving the country teetering on the brink of another economic collapse.

At the White House podium a few minutes later, the president radiated a righteous fury he rarely displays in public, finally placing the blame for this wholly unnecessary crisis squarely where it belongs: on Republicans who will do anything to upend his presidency and dismantle every social program they can find. “Can they say yes to anything?” he asked, noting the paradox of Republicans, who claim that financial responsibility and debt reduction are their biggest priorities, rejecting yet another deal that would have cut that debt by at least $3 trillion.

… on the eve of economic calamity, the Republicans killed an overly generous deal largely over a paltry $400 billion in deductions. Mr. Obama was willing to take considerable heat from his liberal critics over the deal, and the Republicans were not willing to do a thing to anger their Tea Party base. As the president forcefully said, there is no evidence that House Republicans are capable of making those tough decisions. If last-ditch talks beginning Saturday fail, they will have to take responsibility if the unimaginable — a government default — happens in 10 days and the checks stop going out.

More here

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