Compromise. It's not a dirty word to Republicans: it's a battle strategy that can be used against the Democrats. That's how the GOP sees the so-called fiscal cliff -- a battle. The only side guaranteed to lose are the American people… they could have a big win, but the GOP refuses to do what's best for the country. Instead, the GOP will do what's best for its politicians.
Case in point: we could solve some economic woes by allowing Bush tax cuts on the 2% to expire and return to Clinton-era levels, which would create immediate revenue. Instead, the GOP wants to raise Medicare eligibility age to 67. The Dems will probably agree because they know how to compromise. They'll take the bone of raising the top marginal tax rate to 37% in exchange for selling out two years of your Medicare. And they'll get blamed when the people are not happy, and the people won't be happy because neither thing is good.
The idea of the GOP's battle plan aside for a moment, let's ask: why do we have to compromise on this? The 1% largely doesn't care if their taxes are raised a minute percentage. Letting the tax cuts expire in a way that won't cause a recession is a no-brainer. Many of the uber wealthy have said publicly that they want the tax cuts to expire. The American people just voted for the man who said he'd let the tax cuts expire. 70% of polled Americans want the tax cuts to expire. The only people who don't want tax cuts to expire are a handful of Congresspeople with a 9% approval rating.
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Why? Ask your Congressman. They're talking all kinds of crap about raising taxes causing a recession, but that is just not true when applied to the sector whose taxes are returning to Clinton-era rates. (And by the way, if you're hearing about the so-called fiscal cliff from Fox or other Murdoch-owned news sources or economists, you're hearing plenty of other things that are not true as well, because the GOP is playing the usual political games [with your future]. Here's what Rand Paul said Friday: "I will work with Harry Reid to let him pass his big old tax hike with a simple majority if that's what Harry Reid wants, because then (Democrats) will become the party of high taxes and they can own it." And you can bet the GOP will join in the credit when the plan works, just like GOP Congressmen -- like Paul Ryan -- decried the stimulus but lined up at the trough to take the money and then take the credit when the money helped their districts, all the while saying the stimulus failed.)
Oops, digressed.
So whose taxes are being raised? Well, mine will be eventually. I'm great with that. I didn't want the wars bought on a credit card, but I'm an American citizen and I need to pay for what my elected officials bought. (That's called responsibility, although the GOP appears to believe it's socialism.) The GOP hasn't asked me, though. Okay, who else? Well, Lloyd Blankfein's taxes will be raised. He's the CEO of Goldman Sachs. Goldman received the most taxpayer money of any bank during the 2008 bailout and from 2008-2011, Goldman gave executives $44 billion. That would be avarice from men who helped cause the recession with their unmitigated greed. Blankfein must not have been a Boy Scout, because that was not being a very good citizen. So, let's guess that Blankfein probably doesn't want his taxes returned to where they were before Bush cut them. We can conclude that the GOP would seriously rather listen to him than me (fine, he did give them a lot of money in their campaigns and I, um, didn't).
Raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67 is stupid. It's throwing pennies into the gaping maw of a huge debt.
It does, however, directly impact lots of people, who will blame the Democrats for it. And when the economy doesn't improve as fast as it could because we did that instead of allowing tax cuts on the 2% to expire, lots of people will blame Obama.
Really, it's very clever of the GOP. Good battle plan.
And if the Democrats go along, it will be because they are willing to compromise to get at least some growth going with just a tiny tax hike to the top 2% of Americans. That would be serving the people -- compromising for the sake of at least helping stimulate growth a little.
When the options and outcomes are weighed, the GOP gets everything they want, including blaming Obama for the economy not growing fast enough and we the people having our Medicare eligibility age raised, while making themselves look like the party of fiscal responsibility ... when in fact they're the ones who spent us into this mess (and Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton and W deregulated us into this mess).
And the average Republican Joes' blind party allegiance is going to further the GOP's battle plan to destroy Obama/Democrat credibility via the Dems' willingness to compromise. If you're on of those Republicans, take a hard look at what's actually being proposed. Take a hard look at what's actually going to happen if the Dems don't save the people from what the GOP are saying they want (no taxes; continue whacking spending -- we'd get another recession) and understand what the top leaders of the GOP are really doing:
They're setting their party up to look good for the next election while impeding our recovery. That's the battle plan of the Republicans.
The tea party junior Congressmen really think they did the right thing with their pledge to serve Grover Norquist instead of the American people because they don't get economic reality and haven't studied economic history. Their leaders, however, know perfectly well what they're doing: playing battle games with out economic recovery and our Medicare and future health.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/07/the-fiscal-cliff-deal-comes-clearer-a-37-top-tax-rate-and-a-higher-medicare-eligibility-age/
