White House Sends Its Own Civics Lesson Letter To Senate GOP

Posted by | March 16, 2015 18:00 | Filed under: Contributors Opinion Politics Tommy Christopher


Following a week dominated by deadly headlines for Senate Republicans over their “Dear Mullahs” letter, the White House delivered a flying elbow to the so-called “47 traitors” over the weekend by sending them a letter of their own. On Saturday night, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough sent a letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) warning of the harm that could come of legislation that’s been introduced in the Senate to give Congress final say over any deal (emphasis mine):

(T)he legislation you have introduced in the Senate goes well beyond ensuring that Congress has a role to play in any deal with Iran. Instead, the legislation would potentially prevent any deal from succeeding by suggesting that Congress must vote to “approve” any deal, and by removing existing sanctions waiver authorities that have already been granted to the President. We believe that the legislation would likely have a profoundly negative impact on the ongoing negotiations — emboldening Iranian hard-liners, inviting a counter-productive response from the Iranian majiles; differentiating the U.S. position from our allies in the negotiations; and once again calling into question our ability to negotiate this deal. This would therefore complicate the possibility of achieving a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue if legislative action is taken before a deal is completed. Moreover, if congressional action is perceived as preventing us from reaching a deal, it will create divisions within the international community, putting at risk the very international cooperation that has been essential to our ability to pressure Iran. Put simply, it would potentially make it impossible to secure international cooperation for additional sanctions, while putting at risk the existing multilateral sanctions regime.

In addition to its impact on the negotiations, this legislation would also set a potentially damaging precedent for constraining future Presidents of either party from pursuing the conduct of essential diplomatic negotiations, making it much harder for future Presidents to negotiate similar political commitments.

McDonough’s letter is ostensibly a response to a letter sent from Sen. Corker on Thursday, but its release on Saturday night guaranteed that it would dominate discussion on a raft of Sunday news shows that figured to also feature heavy criticism of the 47 senators’ letter. The urgency of a response to Corker is belied by the fact that Senate Democrats have already said that they will block any such legislation until at least the March 24 deadline for the P5+1 talks to produce the framework for a deal.

The real point of the letter is…READ MORE

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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Tommy Christopher

Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

14 responses to White House Sends Its Own Civics Lesson Letter To Senate GOP

  1. William March 16th, 2015 at 18:03

    I love this President. Not only multi lingual, but, he’s not afraid to dive right in and be a special ed teacher.

    • tracey marie March 16th, 2015 at 18:31

      Beautiful

      • William March 16th, 2015 at 22:09

        Yeah I’m waiting for the fair and balanced people to weigh in on this.

        • tracey marie March 16th, 2015 at 22:56

          They will find a way to make it ugly

          • whatthe46 March 16th, 2015 at 23:16

            All while spewing stupid.

          • fahvel March 17th, 2015 at 05:43

            they are ugly which adds to my ? above – what are these mean mouthednasty folks trying to do?

    • John Tarter March 16th, 2015 at 22:22

      It’s great that he knows sign language, but he still is a prolific liar.

      • William March 16th, 2015 at 22:24

        Still a racist, butthurt crybaby, huh Skippy?

        • SteveD March 17th, 2015 at 18:21

          “the debt slashed,” Um, no. Last year’s deficit, yes.

          (Deficits occur when federal spending exceeds taxes collected over a single fiscal year period.) Federal debt is the total of Treasury Security deposits at the Federal Reserve Bank. Who ever worries about how much money a bank has on deposit in savings accounts accounts? Only those who do not understand that federal debt is completely DIFFERENT than all other kinds of (private) debt.

          GDP = federal spending + non-federal spending + net exports.

          To maintain GDP, if federal spending is reduced (federal deficit cuts), then private spending (bank leveraged credit deficits) must increase at least to the same level. Federal deficit spending is sustainable at least to the point of an uncontrollable inflation. (An inflation which could easily be reduced and controlled via interest rate adjustment by the Federal Reserve Bank.) However, private debt level increases can become entirely unsustainable. Remember 2007/8?

          Federal debt levels per year:

          2016–$19.3 t (projected)

          2015–$18.6 t

          2014–$17.8 t

          2013–$16.7 t

          2012–$16.1 t

          2011–$14.8 t

          2010–$13.5 t

          2009–$11.9 t

          http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_debt_chart.html

      • whatthe46 March 16th, 2015 at 23:22

        It just bites you in your sorry, ignorant ass
        that’s he’s such a GREAT MAN doesn’t it.
        Yours and the other ignorant racist don’t seem to get that, no matter
        what b.s. you throw out there, you CANNOT tear this man down. The more you fk with him, the stronger he
        becomes.

      • rg9rts March 17th, 2015 at 06:53

        What didn’t Bush lie about??? WMD???? Booming economy…think about it 6 years later and he still keeps a low profile

  2. fahvel March 17th, 2015 at 05:41

    aside from the obvious, is there any rationale to the moves being made by the extreme right in the usa. From afar it seems as if they are intentionally undermining their own country and its potential to be a force toward settlement of shit around the world.

  3. Warman1138 March 17th, 2015 at 08:35

    It’s like a kindergarten class with over 400 students and one teacher.

  4. jasperjava March 17th, 2015 at 16:19

    If America fails, the President fails. If the President fails, the Republicans can possibly help people forget the massive failures that occurred when THEIR guy was “president”.

    It’s in the Republicans’ interest that America fails. That’s why they’re acting like traitors, terrorists and saboteurs.

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