John Kerry (Photo: Getty)

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry appeared at the New York Law School this afternoon as part of the Sidney Shainwald Public Interest Lecture Series and he delivered a speech "about where we find ourselves at this moment in our country." Mr. Kerry began by apologizing for Congress' dismal approval rating.

"I come to you with huge humility. I understand that we are at eight percent in the United States Congress and it is therefore miraculous that you would invite a sitting, elected member of the United States Senate to come talk to you," Mr. Kerry said. "I don't come here to be partisan, but I'm going to tell you facts."

Despite his promise to be non-partisan, the Democratic senator proceeded to slam Republicans for "ideological extremism" in Congress, the failure of the debt reduction supercommittee and a presidential primary he described as a "traveling reality gong show television show."

Mr. Kerry started his critique of the GOP by referencing the resignation of moderate Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, who announced her departure from the Senate this week due to her frustration with the lack of bipartisan compromise.

"Olympia Snowe, a terrific United States Senator was driven to the point of exhaustion with the process by a caucus and a process that demanded an orthodoxy of performance and belief that she simply was unwilling to kowtow to," Senator Kerry said. "So, we've lost another moderate."

Mr. Kerry went on to say he's "fearful for our country" because "we're mired in a moment" defined by "ideological extremism" and "our own fundamentalists."

"We spend a lot of time talking about other countries, particularly the Middle East and places where there's a lot of religious excessive demand," Mr. Kerry said. "But here in our own country, we have our own fundamentalists and we have our own excesses of demand today, and expectation with respect to toeing the line."

Because of this, Senator Kerry said the country must "think really carefully about where we're heading." He continued by citing "several exhibits" of how "we're standing in our own way" including the GOP primary and the supercommittee failure, which he blamed on failure to compromise on the part of Congressional Republicans.

"We're seeing a presidential race on the other side that is a traveling reality gong show television show, it's bizarre," Mr. Kerry said. "The leading candidate on their side has offered what for the economy of our country? A twenty percent tax cut."

Senator Kerry cited his experience as a member of the debt reduction supercommittee to explain why he doesn't believe tax cuts are the solution to the country's economic woes. He said "the three groups" that have tried to tackle the nation's debt--Simpson-Bowles Commission, the Domenici-Rivlin plan and the "bipartisan gang of six in the Senate" agree the government must come up with $2 trillion in additional revenues and mark $2 trillion in cuts. In spite of this need, Mr. Kerry said the Democrats on the supercommittee only initially sought $1.3 trillion in new tax revenue because they knew "the Republicans are in a tough place" because many of them signed Grover Norquist's pledge not to raise taxes. Senator Kerry said this offer was "rejected within hours."

"They wouldn't take $1.3 trillion, then we went down to 1 trillion. They wouldn't take $1 trillion, we went to 950, because they said, 'You've got to get that 'T word' out of there, if you get the 'T word' out of there, we might be able to do it,'" Mr. Kerry said. "Well, we took the 'T word' out of it. Well guess what? We got an 'N word,' 'No.' And so, we went to 650, 'No, too much revenue, our guys will never go for 650 in revenue.'"

When the deadline came for the supercommittee to reach an agreement, Senator Kerry said the Pennsylvania's Republican Senator, Pat Toomey, "offered up $350 billion in revenue." Mr. Kerry said he attempted to craft a compromise that would reach the minimum $1.2 trillion in budget reductions that was required to avoid the supercommittee's failure. He said this deal fell apart because the Republicans "wanted the Bush tax cuts to be made permanent" for even "the upper one percent" of Americans.

After dramatically narrating his version of the supercommittee failure, Senator Kerry summed up his remarks by blaming Republicans' desire to defeat the Democrats for governmental gridlock.

"Why are we stuck? Why is this the way it is? Why does Olympia Snowe leave? Why are we gridlocked?" he asked rhetorically. "Well, I'll tell you in very simple terms; certain people in the leadership of the United States Congress have made a decision that their primary objective is not fixing the economy, it is defeating this president. And they have decided to do everything possible to gridlock everything in order that we all look bad and then people throw everybody out and they'll come into power."

Mr. Kerry finished by making his opinion of this "obstructionist" approach painstakingly clear.

"It's the most depressingly small minded, venal unpatriotic thing I've ever seen in my life," he said.

Yesterday, the mayor had some of his choicest words to date over the committee's failure, and in particular Mr. Obama's ability to fix the deficit.

"It’s the chief executive’s job to bring people together and to provide leadership in difficult situations. I don’t see that happening," the mayor told reporters during an afternoon press conference, adding "This is a disaster for this country and an embarrassment if there ever was one.”

And then in the evening, the mayor went on CNN and reiterated the sentiment to host John King, even going so far as to accuse Mr. Obama of lacking political courage.

"And I guess I think that this is the time for the president to stand up and say I'm not going to take it anymore," Mr. Bloomberg said. " I'm going to do what's right.  I ran on a campaign of change and that's what I'm going to do.  And if the voters like it, they'll reelect me.  And if the voters don't, at least I'll be able to look myself in a mirror."

The Super Committee was created last summer after a breakdown in talks over raising the debt ceiling led Congress to create a committee which would either find ways to close the deficit or risk massive cuts in entitlement and defense spending. The bipartisan group failed to come up with an agreement, and the mayor thinks the blame falls as much on President Obama as anyone else.

Later this afternoon he again made the case to Andrea Mitchell.

It is worth noting that this approach is very different from the approach of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who earlier today refused to criticize President Obama.

All of this chatter of course has sent political observers speculating what the motivation is. Mayor Bloomberg has consistently denied any interest in running for president in 2012, but it is hard for him to keep criticizing the president without minds starting to wonder.

Governor Andrew Cuomo (Getty)

Governor Cuomo dodged repeated attempts to get him to pin responsibility for the failure of the supercommittee on President Obama this morning on Fred Dicker's radio show, "Live From the State Capitol." The governor has said the automatic cuts triggered by yesterday's collapse of the bipartisan Congressional debt reduction committee will cost New York billions, but he doesn't lay blame on his fellow Democrat in the White House.

"If you want to start pointing fingers," Governor Cuomo said, "You're going to need both hands in this case. It is a governmental failure." Governor Cuomo called the supercommittee's failure to reach an agreement a "terrible blow" that would affect the economy and the citizenry's faith in their elected officials.

"There's also a confidence deficit, and a trust deficit and this supercommittee failure reinforces all of it," Governor Cuomo said.

Governor Cuomo reiterated his belief the supercommittee failure will have a major impact on the New York state budget. The governor expects cuts triggered by the supercommittee to cost the state at least $5 billion, but with markets taking a hard hit from the news New York is also set to lose tax revenues from Wall Street.

"This was the last thing we needed," Governor Cuomo said. "This is going to continue to hurt the New York economy and hurt our collections now towards the end of the year."

Mr. Dicker spent much of the airtime he shared with Governor Cuomo trying to get the Democrat to blame President Obama for his inability to orchestrate a deal to reduce the national debt without the harsh automatic cuts caused by the supercommittee failure. He cited statements Mayor Bloomberg's made yesterday that "it's the chief executive's job to bring people together and to provide leadership in difficult situations." Governor Cuomo repeatedly said responsibility should be shared by Congress.

"It was just  failure for government writ large," Governor Cuomo said. "This was a failure for the Senate, the House, the President and the people. The government failed."

He avoided specifically criticizing the president, but Governor Cuomo was willing to point out what he sees as the flawed logic of Republican members of the supercommittee who refused deals that included higher tax rates for the wealthy.

"I would love to see a study that shows the effect of the drop in the market yesterday on those high income earners they were looking to protect," Governor Cuomo said. "It would not be unreasonable to think those high income earners lost more money in the drop yesterday than they would have paid in the taxes."

Governor Cuomo explained that he thinks trying to point fingers at this stage is counterproductive.

"There will be a grew discussion about allocation of blame and the elections may turn on that discussion," Governor Cuomo said. "Today, as we sit here, that conversation only further exacerbates the problem."

Mr. Dicker continued bating Governor Cuomo to blame the president by asking him if he, as the state's chief executive, could ultimately take credit for New York's recent budget deals. Governor Cuomo avoided that trap by being especially magnanimous toward leaders of the state Legislature--Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Republican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, for their role in budget talks.

"I didn't force a deal, you cant force a deal. Look, Sheldon Silver could have said in the last budget, 'I have a difference of opinion on taxation policy … therefore I'm going to refuse to move forward. Senator Skelos could have said, 'I disagree on marriage equality and, because I disagree, it won't come to a vote.' ... That's not the posture they adopted. They expressed their opinions, but they were reasonable," Governor Cuomo said.

Governor Cuomo said we might be able to solve the nation's economic problems if the elected officials in Washington shared the enlightened attitudes of their counterparts in Albany.

"The solution is stop the extremism and let's try some reasonableness," Governor Cuomo said.

Mayor Bloomberg described the failure of the supercommittee as "a disaster for the country."

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Governor Cuomo shows us how big his deficit is. (Getty)

Governor Cuomo gave a grim forecast for New York after his emergency powwow with financial advisors to discuss the consequences of the failed Congressional supercommittee. In a statement released after the meeting, Governor Cuomo blasted "Washington's inability to get its fiscal house in order and work in a bipartisan fashion" and said the debacle would cost New Yorkers at least $5 billion.

Earlier this evening, Congress announced that the bipartisan supercommittee failed to agree on a plan to cut $1.2 trillion from federal budgets. The supercommittee's inability to reach a deal ahead of its Wednesday deadline will trigger a series of drastic, automatic budget cuts. Governor Cuomo said those cuts will have a huge impact on New York.

"If the committee fails to reach an agreement and Congress moves forward with its so-called 'sequestered cuts,' the Budget Division estimates that New York could lose approximately $5 billion in federal funding over 10 years beginning this coming fiscal year," Governor Cuomo said.

New York currently relies on federal aid for about 30% of the total state budget. Along with decreasing federal aid, the supercommittee's failure is expected to cause woes on Wall Street, which will further impact the state's coffers.

"This does not account for additional revenue losses from jobs losses and Wall Street declines. These events, combined with a stagnant national economy and the expanding fiscal crisis in Europe that has led to a sudden and severe decline in revenues for the state, have dramatically changed the fiscal course of the state," Governor Cuomo said.

Approximately 20% of the state budget comes from personal income, business and sales taxes collected from financial industry workers. Therefore, tough times on Wall Street hit the state budget hard. Anemic Wall Street returns for the first part of this year have already caused a $400 million budget shortfall and markets began diving deeper earlier today in anticipation of the supercommittee's imminent failure.

Governor Cuomo said he's having his Council of Economic and Fiscal Advisors "draw up an expedited job creation and fiscal stabilization plan" to prepare for the economic perfect storm set to hit the city in the wake of the supercommittee's collapse.

"This proposal would be based on the reality that the best way to generate revenue for the state and revitalize our economy is to create jobs," Governor Cuomo said.

Governor Andrew Cuomo (Getty)

Governor Andrew Cuomo is reportedly gathering key advisors for emergency budget meeting to prepare for the state to lose billions of dollars in revenue when Congress' so-called "supercommittee" doesn't meet its deadline. A supercommittee failure would have a huge impact on the federal aid that makes up almost a third of the state budget. 

The bipartisan supercommittee was created in August and tasked with cutting $1.2 trillion from the federal budget. If the supercommittee is unable to agree on a plan by Wednesday, it will trigger a drastic series of automatic cuts. Though there are still a few days before the deadline, members of the committee were required to present a plan by today. They are expected to admit failure by this afternoon. New York currently gets $40 billion, approximately 30 percent of the total state budget, in federal aid, which will be slashed dramatically when the supercommittee gives up the ghost.

According to the Associated Press, Governor Cuomo is preparing to have a bite taken out of his budget by planning an emergency meeting with his top advisors and running "a series of scenarios" with the Division of Budget. Governor Cuomo is also expecting Wall Street's reaction to the supercommittee collapse will cost the city. New York gets about 20 percent of its budget in business, sales and income taxes collected from Wall Street workers and markets have already taken a dive in anticipation of the supercommittee's blown deadline.

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Senator Chuck Schumer (Getty)

Senator Chuck Schumer told the Observer today that Speaker of the House John Boehner has "frustrated" President Obama by not compromising more in debt talks, but he thinks the situation will help the President's chances of reelection. 

We talked to Senator Schumer outside the annual Legislative Breakfast hosted by Agudath Israel, one of the country's most influential organizations of ultraorthodox Jews. Senator Schumer has been outspoken with his opinion that the bipartisan Supercommittee tasked with finding a debt reduction strategy is doomed to fail because Republican lawmakers are steadfastly opposed to generating revenue through tax increases.

"I mean, the bottom line is, I think the President is frustrated because he believes he's met Speaker Boehner more than halfway and Speaker Boehner isn't meeting him even part of the way on revenues," Senator Schumer told the Observer.

If the Supercommittee is unable to agree upon a budget by November 23, it will trigger automatic, across-the-board cuts.

Senator Schumer thinks the American people are becoming just as frustrated with the Republican party as the President--and he expects this will have an effect on poll numbers.

"They're beginning to sniff that Democrats are willing to meet the Republicans part of the way, but Republicans aren't budging and that's moving the numbers more in Democratic directions and more in Obama's direction," Senator Schumer said.

We asked Senator Schumer for his opinion on the Republican Presidential candidates and he didn't seem to worried.

"The more the merrier is all I'll say," Senator Schumer said.

House Speaker John Boehner (Getty)

Members of a bipartisan "supercommittee" formed to address the national debt can't seem to agree on a plan and it doesn't look like they will any time soon. 

Details of both parties' spending plans leaked online yesterday. Democrats are pushing a plan that would save $2.5-$3 trillion through cuts to social programs and tax increases. Republicans want less tax increases and a $2 trillion savings. After both proposals leaked, insiders from both sides of the aisle bashed each other's plans.

House Speaker Boehner rejected the Democratic plan Thursday because of the tax increases.

"I don’t think it’s a reasonable number,” Speaker Boehner said.

The Democrats' proposal also faced  internal criticism. Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat told Politico the supercommittee was an "outrageous process" that was "not open and transparent."

"They don’t lay out proposals for examinations. They don’t get direct input on ideas," Rep. Waxman said.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, criticized the committee for leaving House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi out of the talks.

“It’s a mistake to not bring Leader Pelosi into meetings. ... If she’s not a stakeholder in a final product, neither is the Democratic caucus,” Rep. Connolly said.

Some rank-and-file Republican lawmakers also expressed unhappiness with their party's plan due to defense cuts.

The deficit reduction committee was formed in August in the aftermath of the debt ceiling crisis when House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama managed to reach a last minute deal that prevented America from defaulting on its creditors. There are six Democrats and six Republicans on the committee.

Though the government averted debt crisis at the buzzer in August, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's still downgraded the U.S. rating from AAA to AA+. Without drastic deficit reduction measures, America risks facing further downgrades.

Under the terms of the August budget deal, if the supercommittee is unable to agree on a plan with at least $1.2 trillion in savings by November 23, it will trigger automatic across the board budget cuts. If the committee does manage to reach an agreement, it will be given protection from amendments and filibusters and will only need a simple majority rather than a supermajority to pass.