That’s my impression of the “drama” unfolding in the budget talks. Obama now is the one purporting to demand bigger cuts, a more long term agreement, and so on and so on, provided there also are commensurate tax increases.
It’s an interesting ploy, and tied solely to Obama’s 2012 campaign. Obama, who just months ago proposed a budget with runaway deficits, now wants to grab the title of deficit hawk.
It’s all a game. Obama knows that Democrats in the Senate would block any bill which actually addressed the structural problem of entitlements. So Republicans will agree to tax increases, entitlements will not be touched, and Republicans will be blamed when the whole deal craters.
This is all very Clintonian.
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… and the Republican “leadership” will jump at the chance to make this deal.
right on the money prof. I enjoy your comments very much, but
who in the world picks your “music” selections ?
Um, I do. I’m always open to suggestions.
How about Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” in honor of the Republicans tendency to get rolled in any ” negotiations” they take part in.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it’s a trap! It is a dangerous game, to trap the Republicans. Whichever metaphor you use – playing chicken, or a staring contest – whoever gives first will pay. Flinch or blink, you lose.
The Democrats just are DROOLING with the possibility that the Republicans will agree to ANY tax increase, however small. Here is a fantastic video on why this is so ridiculous.
In this video, Sen. Rubio and Sen. Ayotte make more sense than almost anyone in Washington, period. They get it. They are telling the truth. Marco Rubio in particular is amazing.
The Democrats did this to Bush I, after his famous “read my lips: no new taxes!” and then he agreed to a deal and raised taxes; they made a deal like this under Clinton, while Gingrich was Speaker, allowing Dems to claim that these tax increases “helped” the economy, and gave the Dems ammo to attack Republicans as big spenders, no different from tax-and-spend Dems, blah blah blah.
This Republican House signed a Pledge to America which said, among many other things, that they would not raise taxes. If they break that pledge, it’s over. That will be the albatross or anchor hung around the necks of EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN in the next 2 election cycles. Bye-bye House majority; bye-bye 2012 hopes to unseat the incumbent in the White House; bye-bye hopes to re-take the Senate which seemed almost certain after Nov. 2010.
Will they ever learn? Will they have the cojones and steel spine to stand against this obvious ploy? They MUST, or it is the end of the Republican Party.
Remember “Only Nixon could go to China?”
Only Obama could cut Social Security. That’s why he was picked for the job.
I don’t see any signs of the GOP leadership biting on any of the tax increases … they can and should holdout on this and let Obama continue to demand tax increases …
Obama will fold on this … he is a coward and a liar and will never negotiate in good faith …
I can’t get myself to have faith in the Republican leadership, despite the stinging lessons DINO sets out above. I remember the awful feeling of betrayal when the news came out about Bush’s agreeing to tax increases after his pledge, and a Republican sell-out at this point would be much worse.
If they give in to this South Side State Street Hustler, then they deserve the name ‘The Stupid Party’.
And I for one will never vote for an establishment Republican ever again. No matter if they’re the ‘lesser of two evils’.
We’ve known these a$$clowns couldn’t stand up to the Democrats. They never have so why would they now? I’ve always suspected they’ll posture and swagger and O will play his part and threaten and bluster and then just when it seems that there’ll be an actual confrontation, a group of Republicans will emerge from some back room proclaiming they’ve saved America by coming to a deal that gives the Dems everything they want while providing some kind of talking-points cover to the Republicans.
They could’ve gotten away with that in the days prior to the TEA party but now they’ll pay dearly for that kind of political shenanigans cause they just don’t understand the mood of the People.
Styx as a music selection – in honor of the Styx/Yes concert in Canandaigua tonight?
No, but would have been a good idea.
During the Reagan administration, a deal was struck to increase taxes by $1 for every $3 of spending cuts. The tax increases went into effect, but the promised spending cuts never materialized. Something similar happened with “read my lips, no new taxes” G.H.W. Bush.
If the Republicans once again agree to raise taxes for phantom spending cuts some time in the future, they are schmucks (regardless of how many columns David Brooks and David Frum write proclaiming how radical and unreasonable the Tea Party Republicans are for not accepting a deal).
The administration is not as clever as it thinks here.
The sole mantra of 2012 for the Democrats was going to be “Paul Ryan wants to throw grandma off the cliff” with deep cuts to entitlements. By offering this “proposal”, I think Obama has immensely weakened this hand:
All the Republicans have to do now is counter that they already have the Ryan Plan, which has $2 Trillion more in necessary cuts to address the debt problem than Obama’s (still unspecific, likely heavily backloaded) plan, and has the extra advantage in that it doesn’t raise taxes during a time of a deeply sluggish economy with massive unemployment. Obama can’t demagogue away now about the “draconian” cuts of Ryan’s “granny-killing” plan, and he has nothing to offer to counter the positives of Ryan’s plan. I think the Republicans should go back on the offensive now.
(And a side note: Republicans can’t lose focus of why low taxes are necessary. The Democrats want to change the focus of the debate and argue that higher taxes are necessary in order to tackle the debt problem (that they, along with moderate Republicans, caused). Republicans need to shift the battle back to the short-term: low taxes are crucial to spurring economic growth to get millions of struggling Americans back to work- and once people are working again, revenues will increase to address the debt problem. We have tried every manner of failed Keynesian throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks stimulus gimmicks the past two years. It’s time to get back to what really works. We want Morning in America again- not Mourning in America).
What about the guys and gal who are running? Haven’t they made any comments? I’m surprised Palin hasn’t come forth with her opinion.
If the Republican’s fall for the recalculated COLAs, my support will be withdrawn. First it will eventually push us all in to higher tax brackets. I always knew that this would fall on the shoulders of the middle class, that is why I support cutting spending. It is only a left wing illusion that our fiscal insanity can be financed by corporate jet owners. If we don’t cut spending, we as in the middle class will pay for it severely. We are struggling enough these days, we don’t need to be pushed into higher tax brackets. We are not stupid, we can read between the lines.
Secondly, thoug I am no fan of SS to begin with, if I have to pay into SS, it is not fair that the new COLAs will lead future generations to smaller payments than current generations. The older generations got us into this mess, the younger generations should not have to shoulder the larger burden with higher taxes AND reduced benefits. I want the choice to opt out of SS and don’t you dare raise my taxes through the backdoor Obama. The Republicans better not fall for this. I will go third party.
The Republican “leadership” has not yet figured out that Obama will say/do anything to be re-elected then deny either that he said/did it or that what he said/did was misunderstood.
Boehner and McConnell are the wrong people in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong ideas.
Obama and the rest of the progressives will use the msm to show that the Republicans, once again, are the tools of the rich and the corporate interests.
Keep showing the video clip of Obama and Immelt chuckling when Obama says that the shovel ready jobs were not as shovel ready as we thought. Then show how much taxpayer money was spent on the phantom shovel ready jobs.