Wednesday's meeting was the most tense meeting of the week, a GOP aide told CBS News. In fact, the president ended the meeting by abruptly leaving the room.
A White House official, however, told reporters that President Obama did not actually storm out of the room.
Instead, Obama reportedly gave an impassioned statement to the congressional leaders at the end of the meeting, saying "enough's enough" with respect to delay and refusal to compromise.
The president reportedly told the group, "I've been very patient" and that he wants agreement now. The official said the president ended his statement, stood up and headed back to his office.
Obama's speech was reportedly in response to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's repeated insistence that only a short-term, smaller deal on debt savings was possible. Following the meeting, Cantor told reporters that after the GOP rep.'s third time insisting that his party wouldn't budge, the president reportedly said: "Eric, don't call my bluff. I'm going to the American people with this."
During the meeting, Speaker of the House John Boehner reportedly challenged the President to offer real spending cuts. He said the gimmicks and accounting tricks that Washington has used for decades are not applicable here, according to a GOP aide.
Ah, the wingnuts are SO hoping that there will be a default and that SOMEHOW the American people will not have seen that the President was trying to negotiate and that the Republicans were only playing their usual politics of "Whatever Obama is for, we are against."
Don't think that one is going to work, Eric!
Popcorn, or Nero Cantor fiddling while it all burns? You decide.
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"I know nothing!" - Sergeant Rupert Shultz
Murdochs summoned to testify in phone hack inquiry
British lawmakers say News International chief Rebekah Brooks has agreed to testify before a parliamentary committee investigating phone hacking. Rupert and James Murdoch have been issued a summons after they declined to appear.
Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Committee will hold hearings next week about the scandal that has destroyed one Murdoch newspaper and wrecked the mogul's bid to buy broadcaster BSkyB.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that if the Murdochs had "any shred of sense of responsibility or accountability" they would appear.
It is unclear whether they can be forced to appear.
Brooks is chief executive of News International, the News Corp. unit that controls British newspapers.
Maybe a little parliamentary introduction of laws banning any company from owning more than 10% of any country wide media conglomerate might help those feet to start moving? Nah!
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Oh HELL NO, this ain't gonna go over well. You don't fuck with Miller Time.....
Doh! Minnesota shutdown could claim beer next
If you're a fan of Miller beer and heading to Minnesota any time soon, you might want to stock up.
The MillerCoors brewing company will soon be forced to pull 39 brands of beers from every restaurant, bar and liquor store in the state of Minnesota.
It's all because the state says the company didn't renew its brand label registration far enough in advance before the state's government shutdown.
"What that means is they're not able to either distribute or sell their product in this state," said Doug Neville, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Neville said the bare-bones staff of the state Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement department reached out to MillerCoors for a removal plan, adding that products will likely begin being pulled this week.
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The banksters are getting nervous....
Moody's to review US triple-A debt rating
How long before Boner's corporate overlords tell him to stop the fucking grandstanding and get this deal done, pronto?
Ratings agency Moody's has said it may cut the US AAA debt rating, citing the "rising possibility" the US could default on its debt obligations.
The agency warned the likelihood the US would fail to raise its statutory debt limit in time to avert default was low but not insignificant.
It came as a fourth day of cross-party talks in Washington on the debt limit were said to have ended stormily.
US Fed chief Ben Bernanke said a default would cause a "major crisis".
Speaking before Congress on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve chairman warned it "would send shockwaves through the entire financial system".
As tough negotiations continue at the White House about raising the debt limit, President Barack Obama reportedly told a top Republican: "Enough is enough."
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What he said.
E.J. Dionne:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The wounded are especially dangerous fighters. President Obama now occupies the high ground in the debt-ceiling debate, having called the Republicans' bluff on the debt. He showed that deficit reduction is not now, and never has been, the GOP's priority. He dare not get overconfident.
After thwarting the deal that House Speaker John Boehner was cooking up with Obama, Rep. Eric Cantor, the majority leader and Boehner's rival, needs to show he knew what he was doing and recoup political ground. Cantor is likely to present Obama with spending cuts that the president once seemed to endorse as part of a large deal but will have to reject now that the big agreement is dead. There is still a lot of danger out there.
But it's already clear that history will show that Boehner, the old war horse, was a better political calculator than Cantor, the self-styled "young gun." Boehner saw an opportunity to make huge cuts in entitlement programs, shake off the severe damage done his party by Rep. Paul Ryan's budget and ignite a war between Obama and the Democratic base.
Boehner made what, in the larger scheme of things, were modest concessions on tax increases, getting three times as much in spending cuts. Only House Republicans can think that three steps forward and one step back constitutes retreat. Boehner lives in the real world. Most members of his caucus live in Foxland or Rushville, where talk shows define the truth.
Obama thought that solving a big problem would outweigh any political difficulties his deal with Boehner might cause him. But Cantor saved Obama a lot of trouble. He protected him from a bitter intra-party fight and made crystal-clear that preserving low taxes for the wealthy and for corporations is the GOP's driving objective. Even the most resolutely centrist and cautious have been forced to concede this essential truth of American politics. |
