What does this solve? Via ABC News:
Republicans are seriously considering a Doomsday Plan if fiscal cliff talks collapse entirely. It’s quite simple: House Republicans would allow a vote on extending the Bush middle class tax cuts (the bill passed in August by the Senate) and offer the President nothing more: no extension of the debt ceiling, nothing on unemployment, nothing on closing loopholes. Congress would recess for the holidays and the president would face a big battle early in the year over the debt ceiling.Two senior Republican elected officials tell me this doomsday plan is becoming the most likely scenario. A top GOP House leadership aide confirms the plan is under consideration, but says Speaker Boehner has made no decision on whether to pursue it.Under one variation of this Doomsday Plan, House Republicans would allow a vote on extending only the middle class tax cuts and Republicans, to express disapproval at the failure to extend all tax cuts, would vote “present” on the bill, allowing it to pass entirely on Democratic votes….Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an influential conservative House Republican, is already on record supporting extending the middle class tax cuts — with or without the upper income tax cuts. On Sunday, he said Republicans should embrace the extension of the middle class tax cuts and take credit for it.“That’s a victory, not a loss,” Cole said on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. ”And then we’re still free to try and fight over higher rates, offering revenue, which the Speaker has put on the table.”
So we get to keep people who basically pay no federal income taxes now from paying federal income taxes in the future so as to enable them to demand services and benefits for which they do not pay in a fiscal death spiral in which there just aren’t enough “wealthy” people from whom to confiscate more money?
I’m okay with extending all Bush tax rates together with a Blue State punishing limit on deductions for state income and property taxes, closing Hollywood and tax-exempt loopholes, and maybe some other “loopholes,” provided we address spending. We cannot tax our way to solvency.
News flash. The debt ceiling is not a fall back position. When the media howls about that, we will fold like a cheap suit.
I say package deal or no deal. A “Grand Bargain” is the term, I believe. Entitlements and the nanny state on the table, or there is no table.
If a deal can’t be reached by year end, the House should pass a 90 day extension of current rates to give time for the Grand Bargain to play out, send it to Harry Reid, then leave for Christmas.
Then get the message out that Harry Reid and Obama are the ones holding the “middle class tax cuts” hostage.
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