@McConnellPress and @SpeakerBoehner — STOP
In one final, futile act of desperation, tweet the Republican leadership
Byron York today sums up where the “negotiations” over the “fiscal cliff” are heading (emphasis mine):
So a deal will most likely be done. But the bottom line is that the fiscal cliff fight will not end happily for Republicans. They will have given in on what was an article of faith — that taxes should not be raised on anybody, poor or rich — in return for essentially nothing. All they will have is a plan to fight again, soon.
We must capitulate by December 31, we are told.
That is wrong. There is an alternative, a short-term extention of everything including current tax rates, a delay of sequester budget cuts, everything that allegedly constitutes the “fiscal cliff” pending further negotiations.
It’s what I called the Christmas Plan, which preserves the status quo pending further negotation:
Let Harry Reid refuse to bring it to a vote, and Obama refuse to sign it. Their inaction will be the reason for taxes rising for everyone.
Sure a temporary extention of everything is not going to make anyone happy — and creates its own mess of uncertainty and complexity next year. But it is explanable to the public:
We’ve made progress, we just need a little more time to make sure we tackle the nation’s national debt and budget deficits, not just taxes.
It keeps everything on the table for negotiation. Otherwise, with the artificial deadline of December 31, Obama gets the tax rate increase he wants while allowing him to evade indefinitely the spending cuts and entitlement reforms he fears.
And please don’t tell me that we’ll give in on taxes now and make our stand on spending and entitlements over the national debt limit — ain’t gonna happen.
What’s the rush to reach a horrible deal by December 31?
The media will be mad? Obama will be angry? Is a tongue lashing so worrisome that we will make a horrible deal?
Oh, but we’ll lose in 2014, you say. No, if we raise taxes without fixing spending and entitlements, we lose right now. What worse could happen in 2014, that Democrats will regain control of the House and vote to raise taxes without fixing spending and entitlements?
Punting is better than fumbling. We are about to fumble. Punt into next year.
(The Broadcast Altert now is closed, but if you click this link it should generate a tweet).
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Drop ten and punt.
Because a punt can be a heckuvan offensive weapon. Speaker Boehner, imagine you are Ray Guy. An orange Ray Guy.
Send a bill to Obama to sign or refuse..that makes all the Bush Tax cuts permanent. Then he can explain to Gregory on Meet The Press why he wants to sacrifice everyone’s tax cuts to punish the wealthy…during tough economic times.
Your “Broadcast Alert” system is so great and should be everywhere on conservative blogs! Love it…and thanks.
“There is an alternative,…”
No, I’m afraid there isn’t and never was — not in the shriveled and fearful conceptions of the GOP. They can’t imagine it, and so certainly can’t make it real. This outcome was determined a long time ago. “Character is fate” — and sadly our fate is tied to these lost souls. Nothing changes until they are either removed, or compelled into the right action by the force of stronger character (e.g., another Reagan).
This reminds me of a murder-suicide pact, but with a twist: the Republicans commit suicide, in order to murder the economy. Sigh… When people are running scared, afraid of losing their careers in politics, they are lost to reason.
Democrats = crooked pols
Republicans = spineless wimps
Is anyone surprised?
I am not surprised that everyone is compromised.
The federal government has been operating without a budget for the last four years. Why is there suddenly a concern for account deficits? There is no evidence that either Obama (or Reid) cares at all for the progressive devaluation of both capital and labor, in America and around the world. He seems to be perfectly sanguine to enjoy his privileged position and beachfront property in Hawaii.
The repubs will cave and that will be that… Another “victory” for the campaigner-in-chief.
Just how much worse things are going to get is anyone’s guess but mine looks for it to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Now we must pin hour hopes on 2014 and how much is achievable at that time is up for grabs.
Sorry to be so negative but the squealing coming out of DC heralds no encouragement…
“So negative”??? I think you are a flaming optimist.
There is nothing to indicate that it is ever going to get better.
And given the amount of election fraud that is unremarked upon and accepted by the Institutional Republicans
http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/rnc-v-dnc.pdf in a consent decreee; it is Pollyanna-ish to think that there will be any final election results that could improve the situation. 2014 is a distraction.
Subotai Bahadur
I concur.
[…] Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has up a terrific post on “@McConnellPress and @SpeakerBoehner — STOP”. Go read […]
Correct me if I have this wrong.
Last year, the republicans made a deal to raise the debt limit in exchange for $1.2T in spending cuts.
The democrats agreed, with the minor exception that the cuts me made by a “Super Committee” later in the year. To guarantee action by the “Super Committee”, draconian cuts would automatically be triggered, ohterwise known as “sequestration”, fondly referred to today as “the fiscal cliff”.
Now, a deal is being proposed to avoid the fiscal cliff that will raise taxes, and add additional unemployment benefits.
So,…..
Washington is going to fulfill it’s obligation to cut spending by increasing spending?
This is just exactly what I was afraid Boehner and McConnell were going to do. They caved in like spineless wimps. This makes me so angry I’ll be taking Tums all night.
This is why I left the Republican party. I have voted in every election since I was eligible to vote. I just don’t see why I should bother any more. Election fraud insures that the worst president we’ve ever had is re-elected and the republicans make out as if that never happened.
There is no conservative party. Libertarians are just as likely to be liberal as they are conservative leaning.
We get offered a choice between marxist or marxist lite, and we can’t trust our elections any more than any third world nation can.
Watch them bend over regarding guns too.
Boehner is as much a traitor to this country as is Obama.
So can we cut to the chase, and begin the movement to vote Boehner out of the Speaker position, Cantor out of the majority whip, and Princess Prebuss out of the GOP chairmanship — or do we have to keep going in this complaint-circle from hell?
Replace them with who?
Ever hear the one about “the only way to fix Detroit is to oust the current mayor”?
1- How about Peter King? How about any of the boatload of new Congressmen that were swept into office in 2010? How about ANYONE? The mere dumping of Boehner would re-energize the party, and heal the fatal wound Boehner opened — and inflicted upon himself — by turning on the Tea Party Congressmen whose vote was instrumental in electing this bozo Speaker. Boehner is done — there’s no going back to having an ounce of trust of confidence in this guy.
2-Congress is not Detroit. When that day comes, we’ll all probably be long dead, or have long emigrated.
3-There is no other way out of the cul de sac of GOP failure without dumping the GOP failures leading the GOP failure. NONE. This includes Cantor and Princess Rebuss (or whatever the @#$% that guy’s name is).
Ok.
I’ll play along.
How would your scenario play?
Tell me if this rings a bell….
“The Republican Party have, again, lurched to the extreme right, forcing Obama to find ways around Congress”
How about any of the boatload of new Congressmen that were swept into office in 2010?
That, in and of itself, should answer any lingering questions you have about the state of our government.
That Boatload is being kept muffled other than Rand Paul and the Senator from Alabama. Its time to take the geratric ward out of both houses … its time to clean house every election. I am sick and tired of watching US, yes we the American People vote them election after election back into office then bytch about them. It’s nearly too late to change but it can be done if we that man who ppl call POTUS is contained. He is spending us into bankruptcy and depression.
This our fault folks, you can scream about them all you want but WE put them there for how many years??
First, WHO CARES if the democrat media starts screaming about the “new extreme right??” The whole point is, that the new Speaker will push back — this won’t be someone with a George W. Bush/John Boehner victim mentality. Screw them. WE take the narrative, and start vetting Obama’s reasons for his actions. That’ll keep ’em all busy for a while.
The “boatload of new Congressmen that were swept into office in 2010” were Tea Party people, military officers and the like — that should encourage you about the ‘state of our government.’
Buying into the absolute power of the democrat media as a fait accompli. The GOP problem (not the problem of us bloggers) has been to do just that. THAT is why they lose, and will continue to lose. The INTERNET activists elected the GOP Congress in 2010, NOT the GOP. In other words, we overcame the democrat media. The GOP immediately went into failure mode by elected a talentless hack as Speaker, simply because he was there longest.
Well for starters how about Palin for RNC Chair? That alone would send fractures thru the current GOP power structure.
Palin, loveable as she is, is best as a cheerleader.
In our State, she was a spendthrift.
I would consider Allen West as being best fit for the task.
Governance has long left the building.
But you knew that. DC is just lurching from crises to crises under the umbrella of the most fortituous leader ever.
There are no precedents In history.
Obama does not even have to put Michelle in the Senate like Caligula.
Obama is a house of cards waiting to tumble down.
His greatest “power” is the cowardice of the GOP to take on the democrat media. Not much power, there.
Just as Obama not playing Boehner’s pathetic ‘old boy’ game COMPLETELY pulled the rug from under the GOP, a new Speaker not playing Obama’s game would expose Obama as the man-child he is, and COMPLETELY pull the run under him.
But it takes work — something the GOP doesn’t like doing any more than Obama.
This government is separate, and stands apart, from it’s citizens.
The Establishment is taking longer to die then the fat lady at an opera…but the’re just as dead anyway
[…] Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: @McConnellPress and @SpeakerBoehner — STOP […]
We can deal with the budget later. Taxes can be made retroactive to the beginning of the fiscal year, so that can wait.
In fact, it can all wait, if we held the line with zero debt limit increase through the February war and just flat played hardball…we’d be ahead.
To heck with it. Go fish.
Lettum get a little taste of Obama.
Let taxes go up.
It’s the only way Obamatons will understand why voting for Democrats is a bad idea.