Comments about ‘Sen. Mike Lee: President Obama playing 'political games' during fiscal cliff negotiations’

Hmmmm .... and refusing to even talk of ending the tax cuts on the rich is considered negotiating? Wow, the pot is calling the kettle black.

@Redshirt - your comments are belly rollers in light of McConnell filibustering his own bill just 2 weeks ago. You take on this it is the Democrats fault for accepting his bill, allowing it to come to the floor, then McConnell himself filibustering it. Or perhaps it is the Democrats that are responsible for the good speaker of the houses own plan "B" was pulled from the docket because he couldn't get enough support from his own side.... yes..... it's all the democrats fault. Perhaps a little objectivity in your recollection would help. These all happened in the last 2 weeks.

Then there is the silly quote that Obama never compromises. When ever someone refers to something as "never", you pretty much can discredit those comments, because in the real world, no one ever acts the same way every time. You might be able to say using "never" is never accurate.

Just like now one is all good, and now one is always evil. But it would be so nice if the world were organized into two nicely defined camps. Sure makes it easy.... just not accurate.

The senate has been in charge of the Democrats a rather long sorry time. Taxes on the rich won't help anyone,, but I would compromise at $500,000. It would be better if we could give a benefit to small business. The big problem is spending has to be at least slowed down a little. This can't go on. Regulations and red tape are also piling up.

Both parties are playing chicken and the American people are like the girl holding the flag to start the race but too stupid to move out of the way...

Until Obama seriously addresses his spending woes, no tax increase is going to solve the problem. Lee is dead on. Obama is simply content on continuing to kick the can down the road.

What in Tucket?,

"....The big problem is spending has to be at least slowed down a little....."
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Conservatives justifiably argue that government must be as small as it can be. Liberals justifiably argue that government must be as large as it needs to be. These two different emphases that make common ground so elusive drive a test of wills that make the fiscal cliff more difficult and less unthinkable to steer clear of. Congress created this hazard and the need to placate their bases needs to be brought under control.

Senator Lee your proposal is????????? let me guess kick the president...shift the blame.

It would be nice to see someone who is elected to step up and lead, seems Utah has elected another jackal.

We elected these people to stop and solve issues like this...too bad we cannot stop their checks until they fix it and do their job instead of running from microphone to microphone.

At the end of the day I do not care who or what party fixes the problem, the problem has been identified and you have been elected so do what it takes to do your job and at the end of the day you can reflect back and see what you could have done differently.

get involved in the fray, lead out, we will elect you again if you distinguish yourself rather than play party politics til the bitter end.

you can be right but you need not be dead right

Mr. Lee if and when you ever decide to be an actual representative of the people rather than a puppet of the far right wing of your party and actually participate in the legislative process please just keep quiet. Better to be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

mcdugall:
"Will the increased tax revenue reduce the deficit by any substantial amount?"

The tax increase on the wealthy will cover the equivalent of about 8 days of government spending. And it will not be used to pay down the national debt. It will be used to grow the government.

Furthermore, as others on this thread have pointed out, the tax on the wealthy will have the net effect of killing jobs. The wealthy create the jobs. No one has ever gotten a job from the poor in our economy.

The problem is, the uninformed voter (meaning basically the Democrat voter) doesn't know how our economy functions. They hear 'tax the rich' and they say 'yeah, do it, we need more tax money so we can stay home drawing unemployment and getting more food stamps.'

Our national debt is beyond repair. It will continue to grow until we can borrow no more, at which point this country is doomed. It may take a few years but we'll get there.

Thanks Democrats, you've killed us.

Senator Lee- provide details on what you would like to cut. Did you vote to continue the agriculture subsidy? How would your constituents feel if they had to pay $7.00 for a gallon of milk? Let's get serious we don't need milk subsidies or a military that spends more than all other countries in the world combined. You all have your sacred cows but Americans are the ones that are getting slaughterd by politicans like you.

Senator Mike Lee has no business accusing somebody of playing games. That is all he knows how to do! He doesn't legistlate; nor does he lead. He plays games. And we pay for his games.

mcdugall:
"Will the increased tax revenue reduce the deficit by any substantial amount?"

The tax increase on the wealthy will cover the equivalent of about 8 days of government spending. And it will not be used to pay down the national debt. It will be used, instead, to grow the government.

Furthermore, as others on this thread have pointed out, the tax on the wealthy will have the net effect of killing jobs. The wealthy create the jobs. No one has ever obtained a job from the poor in our economy.

The problem is, the uninformed voter (meaning basically the Democrat voter) doesn't know how our economy functions. They hear 'tax the rich' and they say 'yeah, do it, we need more tax money so we can stay home drawing unemployment and getting more food stamps.'

Our national debt is beyond repair. It will continue to grow until we can borrow no more, at which point this country is doomed. It may take a few years but we'll get there.

Thanks Democrats, you've killed us.

I believe Mike Lee did a "short sale" on his house this year and walked away from some $400,000 in loans. I'm not convinced that someone who can't manage his own finances without repudiating debt should be pointing fingers at others who are struggling to solve problems that people like our junior Senator helped create.

There is no leadership for our country. We are in a sorry condition. Our hopes are in giving the states the power to govern. The Federal system is mired down without leadershsip and we as a nation are going down the tube, plus, we are broke.

Obama's finger pointing at the Republicans is his effort to pass the buck instead of take responsibility. Is anyone in this country aware that the Republican controlled House of Representatives passed a proposal that actually allowed the tax hikes on the wealthy but asked for spending cuts? But because President "I want no debt ceiling" Obama didn't want that the bill has stalled in the Senate which is controlled by Democrats. Now most middle class families will have to pay an additional $2400 in income taxes this year. I also think that Obama really doesn't understand how the wealthy do provide jobs and what effect tax increases may have on business. Several companies my husband has worked for have been owned and financed by someone who is wealthy. His current employer is self made and has put his money into several high tech enterprises. The company my husband works for was purchased by this man when it was in trouble. Now he is guaranteeing people get paid, have benefits, and generally running things so they have been able to keep going and develop new products which helps the economy.

All Senator Lee has done since he was elected is play political games. I am so tired of the Congress we as lazy Americans have elected. It's time we start new and get rid of who we have "serving" us, because they are only serving their own political grandstanding.

Meckofahess,

You are absolutely right. Every one in Cuba, Greece, Spain, etc, have excess to healthcare.

In Cuba, the government runs the businesses, because the people really didn't build it.

It's thinking like yours that's transforming the country. Thanks for your patriotism.

The vast majority of Americans agree with Obama. Get over it.

Here is the blarney of most of these comments...... no one aspect, tax increase or spending cut, will mount to more than a fractional percentage of the problem. Anyone who thinks they cut there way to a booming economy seriously hasn't studied up enough - with the government amounting to 34 percent of the economy, even a decrease in economic activity will send us back into rescission.

Likewise, we can't increase taxes enough to cancel out the over spending of the past. There is no silver bullet. It will be a long, and patience testing task to hold back spending, restraint on borrowing, and growth of income through increased income to get thins into balance.

any comment in the extreme shows a complete misunderstanding of the global economic factors in play here.

Lets step back and look at what happened. Taxes for everyone making under $100,000 will go up by 2% (FICA tax holiday ending). The person making a million dollars a year will see his FICA tax go up by .2%. It is true that his income tax will increase by 3.6%. If we let the Bush tax cuts become permanent for everyone, and allow the FICA holiday to expire, then the majority of Americans will see their taxes increase by 2% while the richest 1% of Americans would see their taxes increase by .2% or less.

The republicans want everyone to have skin in the game, well guess what in this proposal they do. Some of you may want to differentiate FICA from Income tax, but for me a tax is a tax, I don't care what you call it. The millionaires will be paying 3.62% more and the middle class will be paying 2% more. That makes more sense than the middle class paying 2% more and millionaires .2%.

I am not sure why republicans didn't embrace this concept from the beginning.