Anyone remember the Simpsons episode where Lisa's president and Bart is Secretary of Keepin' It Real, in which role he buys the country more time to pay its debts by reminding China they used to be cool?

Boehner, Cruz, Paul, et al were never cool.

lol at republicans upset at democrats for 'adding' sequester putbacks. WHY ARE YOU ASKING FOR EXTRA THINGS INSTEAD OF A CLEAN CR?!??! HOW DARE YOU!

i cant believe the democrats are playing hardball, using their own tactics against them by starting at one end to get in the supposed middle. who knew they had balls?

it continues to amaze me i am looked at as someone who is incredibly pro-obama. i'm just a realist in how government actually works. he's the leader of the serious party that is fairly centrist that has slowly put forth some incremental changes to improve people's lives, or try to slow down the ridiculous ideas that have somehow grabbed hold. being part of a third party is stupid. it just is. if you want to influence nothing, be part of a third party.

I don't think you screw around with this if you're the Ds. Take the clean CR and debt ceiling increase, point out that you're the responsible party, and get back to doing nothing.

That said, it's still all too easy to see how they foul this thing up: either Cruz objects to normal order, pushing the vote to Friday, or Boehner refuses to waive the Hastert Rule and bring the clean thing to the floor.

Maybe the wealth wing of Team R can communicate that anyone who fucks this up can expect to face a tidal wave of opposing money in every future race s/he runs. I hope so.

a clean CR will most likely happen. i think they are just reminding the DC bubble that the sequester was the compromise and it isnt a good idea.

td11 wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Glad to see even on something Ezra Klein is willing to crush the administration for, you all are happy to spin, ignore and deflect any and all blame.

The buck stops somewhere else.

i posted the NYT thing last night.

it's predictably a mess given how ambitious it is in scale but it's not like what pacino posted is "spin," they're realities. and also it's day 14. moreover, the states that set up their own exchanges have been reporting pretty problem-free implementation so far.

it's fair to bring up that it's been a shitshow so far, but you should acknowledge that it would have been a lot smoother without the continued stonewalling attempts by GOP whether at the state level or on the hill

really.

SK790 wrote:

td11 wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Glad to see even on something Ezra Klein is willing to crush the administration for, you all are happy to spin, ignore and deflect any and all blame.

The buck stops somewhere else.

i posted the NYT thing last night.

it's predictably a mess given how ambitious it is in scale but it's not like what pacino posted is "spin," they're realities. and also it's day 14. moreover, the states that set up their own exchanges have been reporting pretty problem-free implementation so far.

it's fair to bring up that it's been a #$!&@ so far, but you should acknowledge that it would have been a lot smoother without the continued stonewalling attempts by GOP whether at the state level or on the hill

really.

PAs setup for the transfers between Medicaid failures and FFE applications is double-work and makes no sense.

Malala Yousafzai meets w Obama, discusses education and drones:

Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani student who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen for speaking out in support of the right of girls to go to school, met Friday with Obama and his wife, Michelle. A photograph issued by the White House shows the Obamas' 15-year-old daughter, Malia, also present during the visit.
The Obamas welcomed Yousafzai to the Oval Office "to thank her for her inspiring and passionate work on behalf of girls education in Pakistan," according to a statement issued by the White House.
The statement added, "The United States joins with the Pakistani people and so many around the world to celebrate Malala's courage and her determination to promote the right of all girls to attend school and realize their dreams."
Yousafzai said she was honored to meet Obama and that she raised concerns with him about the administration's use of drones, saying they are "fueling terrorism."
"I thanked President Obama for the United States' work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees," Yousafzai said in a statement published by the Associated Press. "I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact."

she is my hero. seriously.

Person who failed to win a Nobel peace prize telling a Nobel peace winner to stop drone strikes that kill civilians.

On a serious note, she really is an inspiration. The courage and steadfastness she displays is remarkable. I get goosebumps listening to her talk.

That prize was a joke, it was essentially a European ploy to try to influence Obama. #conspiracy #isthisaconspiracy?

SK790 wrote:

td11 wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Glad to see even on something Ezra Klein is willing to crush the administration for, you all are happy to spin, ignore and deflect any and all blame.

The buck stops somewhere else.

i posted the NYT thing last night.

it's predictably a mess given how ambitious it is in scale but it's not like what pacino posted is "spin," they're realities. and also it's day 14. moreover, the states that set up their own exchanges have been reporting pretty problem-free implementation so far.

it's fair to bring up that it's been a shitshow so far, but you should acknowledge that it would have been a lot smoother without the continued stonewalling attempts by GOP whether at the state level or on the hill

really.

But not really. The states that set up their own exchanges haven't been reporting pretty problem-free implementation so far. Maryland, Oregon, California among others have experienced serious problems.

It was clear there was always going to be a need for a federal exchange, and blaming more states for not doing their own exchanges is irrelevant to most of the problems the federal exchange is having. The decision making process was a disaster from start to finish. The Administration has been doing its best Kevin Bacon 'remain calm, all is well' through the whole thing. They've clearly been lying through their teeth, and while the program isn't doomed yet, if they don't get their act together very soon, there'll be big problems.

dajafi wrote:I don't think you screw around with this if you're the Ds. Take the clean CR and debt ceiling increase, point out that you're the responsible party, and get back to doing nothing.

I agree, but this could be a defense against Tea Party demands. Now the members who aren't complete lunatics can go back after a clean CR is passed and say "Hey! I didn't let them get X!"

The Nightman Cometh wrote:

dajafi wrote:I don't think you screw around with this if you're the Ds. Take the clean CR and debt ceiling increase, point out that you're the responsible party, and get back to doing nothing.

I agree, but this could be a defense against Tea Party demands. Now the members who aren't complete lunatics can go back after a clean CR is passed and say "Hey! I didn't let them get X!"

True. I think my boy Chait was writing about this yesterday--that it's actually the moderates on both sides who are pushing this storyline, maybe for the reason you suggest.

jerseyhoya wrote:

SK790 wrote:

td11 wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Glad to see even on something Ezra Klein is willing to crush the administration for, you all are happy to spin, ignore and deflect any and all blame.

The buck stops somewhere else.

i posted the NYT thing last night.

it's predictably a mess given how ambitious it is in scale but it's not like what pacino posted is "spin," they're realities. and also it's day 14. moreover, the states that set up their own exchanges have been reporting pretty problem-free implementation so far.

it's fair to bring up that it's been a #$!&@ so far, but you should acknowledge that it would have been a lot smoother without the continued stonewalling attempts by GOP whether at the state level or on the hill

really.

But not really. The states that set up their own exchanges haven't been reporting pretty problem-free implementation so far. Maryland, Oregon, California among others have experienced serious problems.

It was clear there was always going to be a need for a federal exchange, and blaming more states for not doing their own exchanges is irrelevant to most of the problems the federal exchange is having. The decision making process was a disaster from start to finish. The Administration has been doing its best Kevin Bacon 'remain calm, all is well' through the whole thing. They've clearly been lying through their teeth, and while the program isn't doomed yet, if they don't get their act together very soon, there'll be big problems.

the article you linked regarding Maryland talks about computer issues, programming and glitches, which are slowly being fixed. i'm not sure what that has to do with the program itself. the latter one is a lot of ifs regarding young people not signing up. perhaps you should get your buddies to help sign them up, then, instead of trying to purposely dissuade them from doing so? i'm not trying to be mean, but there's this idea that realizing computer issues are to blame is somehow being an obama apologist. the first day of hte rollout we couldn't do anything. the next day, we could do about 50%. now we're up to about 90%, with the last thing yet to be done the interplay of info between FFE/Medicaid and pulling in IRS/SSA/DHS info. this is the last big hurdle, and then everything should be bugs after that. the obama administration was slow in implementation. boy, i wonder why they would be hesitant. as your klein article suggested, democrats worked to help fix medicare part D when its rollout was horrendous. they still work on it. i'm not sure how effective implementation of a program can be when there is an active element within the government itself trying to make it fail.

it's here to stay, like it or not. may as well get on board and work to fix issues. people make fun of the 'we have to see what the issues are after we start it' but it's true.

they need to open the government by tomorrow or else my son's field trip to DC gets cancelled


#priorities

Pretty sure robert costa is gonna get murked for his shutdown reporting the last few weeks. Wonder where he'll end up next

If I was trying to ensure the success of a centralized healthcare exchange, I would prefer that consumers were using 1 site -- and make sure that site works works -- instead of up to 51 different sites managed and created by different organizations. It's only a problem that 36 states chose to use the federal exchange because the federal exchange is not very functional. I don't see how this is seen as sabotage by the 36 states, unless you think that states are always more efficient than the federal government (an outlook probably not shared by folks making this criticism).

The Crimson Cyclone wrote:they need to open the government by tomorrow or else my son's field trip to DC gets cancelled


#priorities

Do they have alternative plans for a trip? Rain date?

Werthless wrote:

The Crimson Cyclone wrote:they need to open the government by tomorrow or else my son's field trip to DC gets cancelled


#priorities

Do they have alternative plans for a trip? Rain date?

only alternative to go in the spring "maybe"

surprised with all of the "plans" being bandied about that none of you are in a tizzy