Passing the Sugar Coated Satan Sandwich Debt Limit Bill

August 2, 2011 - Following the passage of the Satan sandwich debt limit bill in the Senate, President Obama gave a short statement from the Rose Garden at the White House. During the address, President Obama thanked the American people for pressuring elected officials in order to urge them to put together a "compromise" debt limit bill for the good of the country.

The President briefly spoke about the bill stating that the guaranteed $2 trillion dollar deficit reduction was a good compromise that allowed for the initial step toward living within our means as a nation. Despite the spending cuts incorporated in the bill, the President stated that the United States would still be able to invest in things that lead to new jobs while at the same time the bill would [was designed to] prevent actions from occurring too quickly in our fragile economy.

On mentioning the second stage of the bill's two-step process, the President said that the "compromise requires that
both parties work together on a larger plan to cut the deficit," adding that this would be necessary for the country's long-term health.

The President went on to remind everyone about the importance of using a balanced approach for the second stage of completing the bill's goals and that tackling health programs such as Medicare must be included in a way that protects these programs in order to ensure their continual availability for future generations.

The President said, once again, that we need to reform the tax code in a way that calls for wealthy Americans and large corporations to pay their fair share; adding that this means
getting rid of tax loopholes for billionaires as well as removing taxpayer subsidies for oil and gas companies. Adding to this, the President noted that he was going to repeat, once again, that we cannont balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable Americans referring to them as those who bore the biggest brunt of the recession. He said that we cannot make things tougher for college students, senior citizens, or compromise scietific discoveries because we were unable to close tax shelters for the most fortunate; and that he will be fighting for this principle during the next phase of the deficit reduction process.

The President also stated that he will continue his fight for jobs deeming this as what Americans care most about. Included in his fight he mentioned not only new jobs but higher wages and faster economic growth.

In his fight for jobs the President, once again, reminded listeners of things Congress could do right now to get the process rolling. In solving the jobs problem, he said we could begin by extending tax cuts to the middle class, extending unemployment benefits, speeding up patent reforms, and by passing trade bills that would allow the United States to sell more products overseas in places such as Asia and South America. The President said that these trade deals have already been negotiated and are merely awaiting Congess to pass them, inferring that that they could then be enacted.

The President also mentioned other means by which governing bodies could help create jobs such as by re-employing construction workers by loaning funds to private companies that could employ displaced wokers to repair roads, bridges, airports, and other infrastructure, referring to this means as an infrastructure bank.

While on the topic of infrastructure, the President stated that Congress needs to break the stalemate they are holding with the aviation industry. He said Congress needs to break this impasse, hopefully before the Senate adjourns, because the stalemate has stalled construction projects at airports across the country; and that because of this, tens of thousands of jobs are currently at risk.

The President went on to add that it is not up to one party, but both parties to get the economy back on its feet and thus the Congress needs to send those jobs bills to him so that he can sign them immediately and that no reason exists why they cannot send them to him right after the August recess.

Prior to leaving the subject, the President said that he will be discussing ideas in the weeks ahead that will help companies with hiring, investing, and expanding; and that he is looking forward to working with Congress to make job creation happen.

After his short address, President Obama reentered the White House where he soon signed the Debt Limit Bill in the Oval Office.

In the Senate on August 2, 2011 --

The votes on the Debt Limit Bill in the Senate passed with 74 votes for and 26 votes against the proposition. Once all the votes were tallied and recorded, preparations began that would set the bill up for President Obama to sign it at the White House.

Shortly after the Senate passed the bill, a few Democratic leaders addressed the press at which time Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid said the bill was bipartisan as opposed to the Cut, Cap, and Balance measure the Republicans were trying to push in the House; and Chuck Schumer said we will now be able to get back to "our regularly scheduled program" which is talking about jobs.

In the House of Representatives on August 1, 2011 --

The votes on the Debt Limit Bill in the House came in with 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats in favor of the plan on the evening of August 1, 2011. Total passage consisted of 269 votes for and 161 votes against.

Prior to the vote, the country impatiently waited for results of the bill, which has been infamously named, sugar coated Satan sandwich, by Representative Emanuel Cleaver.
While Americans awaited the vote, Speaker Boehner jockeyed for votes in the House and Nancy Pelosi kept a tally on Democratic votes. Meanwhile, all the buzz was about which party or person had won the debate and who was getting more of what they pushed for than the other party or parties.

Although many were saying the President got all he could have gotten, others insisted the Republicans, or rather the Tea Party, had won the debate.

President Obama did manage to protect, in this infamous debt bill, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which were extremely important to the Democratic Party. On the other hand, however, the President also gave in to the right wing push for spending cuts without gaining any revenues in return. This is the second time the President had an opportunity to do something about stopping the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy but failed to do so. What's more is that the spending cuts the President gave in to will not do anything to help further the country's economic situation; and in fact, could make things worse - although this is not the way the loss is being framed. With that said, however, according to Valerie Jarrett, a White House Senior Advisor, during an MSNBC interview with Al Sharpton, the bill does allow for revisiting the issue of revenues down the line.

Meanwhile, Speaker Boehner bragged that the Republican Party had won the debate as he moved to convince members of the house, especially right wing members, to vote for the bill.