{"id":11577,"date":"2012-07-16T06:56:15","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T11:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=11577"},"modified":"2012-07-16T06:59:46","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T11:59:46","slug":"the-democrats-play-hardball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2012\/07\/16\/the-democrats-play-hardball\/","title":{"rendered":"The Democrats play hardball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Politico<\/em> has the article <a title=\"Politico article\" href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0712\/78528.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The Democrats play hardball<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Obama told Democratic leaders he would refuse to entertain any talk about separating $550 billion in defense cuts from the overall $1.2 trillion in across-the-board spending reductions set by law to kick in next year \u2014 despite repeated demands from GOP leaders and the Pentagon to do so. The president reiterated there will be no compromising on extending Bush-era tax breaks for U.S. families that earn more than $250,000 annually.<br \/>\n.<br \/>\n.<br \/>\n.<br \/>\nOregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said Democrats should \u201cstick to our guns\u201d and not buckle on the tax issue.<\/p>\n<p>Andrews added: \u201cIf [Republicans] want to explain to their base why they permitted a $3 trillion income tax increase and a $500 billion defense cut, let them do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But with so much at stake, some Democrats think their leadership \u2014 along with Republicans \u2014 will be forced to give in ahead of the year-end fiscal cliff given the risks to the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we get closer,\u201d said Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), \u201cI think pressure is going to build.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As Democrats across the nation sing out in unison, &#8220;it&#8217;s about time.&#8221;\u00a0 Almost unison, anyway.\u00a0 Perhaps Kent Conrad can be taken to the woodshed for a special delivery of the message. Maybe if he knew that the future of the Democratic party and this country rests on his sticking to the plan, he might find the courage to keep his mouth shut when appropriate.\u00a0 When the Republicans are looking for the crack in the Democratic wall, there is no sense in holding up a red cape, and shouting &#8220;Toro, Toro.&#8221;\u00a0 Don&#8217;t you just love those mixed metaphors?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politico has the article The Democrats play hardball. Obama told Democratic leaders he would refuse to entertain any talk about separating $550 billion in defense cuts from the overall $1.2 trillion in across-the-board spending reductions set by law to kick in next year \u2014 despite repeated demands from GOP leaders and the Pentagon to do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11577"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11579,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577\/revisions\/11579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}