Hello, and welcome to the Political Jungle. Today, we begin with the fiscal cliff, House leadership, and the Georgia Senate primary, or lack thereof.
We begin with fiscal cliff. With only thirty-one days remaining until the quake strikes, the House and President Obama do not yet have a deal. Speaker Boehner is saying that no real progress has been made. The big argument is over taxes and welfare reform. Republicans say they have taken enough risk by just going for more revenue, and Democrats must compromise on welfare. However, Democrats claim they have a mandate from “We the People” to raise taxes on the top two percent.
Negotiations will be continuing until the holiday break, and if there is no deal then President Obama can call Congress back. Experts say that if there is no deal by a week before the break, then negotiations will switch to a short-term deal until after the break, and even after the new Congress. The new House of Representatives is still Republican-controlled, but has a few less Tea Party members that may make any compromise by the two parties a lot more difficult. Whether or not it is cliff-pushing difficult remains to be seen.
Earlier, there was a report pushed by Democrats that emphasized that all the chairman of the House committees were just that, men. The Republican Party is the majority party in the House, and gets to choose the chairs. The information was pushed by Democratic groups because Republicans are currently in a debate about how to appeal to more demographics. Chair assignments like these do not help the Republicans with their image of the “War on Women.” Now, Republicans have seen the controversy and stepped in. Speaker Boehner, who has the power to determine the chairs of two committees, named Rep. Candice Miller of Michigan to chair the Committee on House Administration.
In Georgia, Sen. Saxby Chambliss may be avoiding a primary challenge. RedState.com editor and CNN contributor Erick Erickson has decided that he will not challenge the Republican Senator. Erickson said he was considering a run when Sen. Chambliss said that the anti-tax pledge should be disavowed.
When we come back, Head Scratcher!
There are many people that say that the New York Times has a liberal, even progressive, agenda. However, the New York Times is taking progressive to a whole new sense, by meaning the future. If you look at their bestsellers list, you can look at the top sellers for the week of December 9. Not 2011, but 2012. Yes, we are not even in December, but the Times knows what you are going to buy. I realize they have Nate Silver, but do they really know what you’re going to buy. Stephen Colbert just launched his “Operation Killing ‘Killing Kennedy'” attack to take the top spot, and you know even thought there are numbers, you have variables. In this case, a very large variable named the Colbert Nation. Before we go, can I just say that isn’t it strange that you can’t look at the overall bestseller list? You must sort. But, why? Just saying.
Well, thank you for joining us on Political Jungle, join us again on Sunday.