Posted on 12/04/2012 7:08:31 AM PST by KeyLargo
The Boehner Fiscal Offer
Dec 4, 2012 | Author: Daniel Horowitz
Here are two things to keep in mind with regards to Boehner’s budget offer. First, when you begin negotiations agreeing to 60% of the demands of the other side and fail to offer a bold contrast on the other 40%, you are headed for an outcome that is 80-90% favorable to your opponent. Second, when you need to outsource your budget plan and entire view of government to Democrat Erskine Bowles, you are relegating yourself and your party to irrelevancy.
John Boehner and other House GOP leaders have offered Obama a plan to raise $800 billion in revenue through “tax reform.” I’m not sure how you raise revenue in a static framework without raising taxes, but let’s put that aside for a moment. The $1.4 trillion in savings from the spending side is the real problem. Once again, they fail to offer a bold contrast concerning their view of the role of government.
When you cut through the illusory narrative generated by the media reports of “trillion in cuts,” you’ll realize that not a single program or agency is eliminated, at least not without the creation of a new one in its place. They have not put on the table a plan to eliminate even a few of the 2,184 assistance programs. They certainly have not demanded repeal of Obamacare as a condition of raising taxes.
And speaking of Obamacare, why are Republicans not demanding that the Obamacare tax hikes, the worst part of the fiscal cliff, be terminated as a part of the compromise? While all the focus is on which tax cuts are slated to expire, Republicans have largely failed to communicate to the public that 5 of the 18 Obamacare tax hikes are expected to go into effect at the beginning of 2013. The new taxes include a cap on the Medical Itemized Deduction, a cap on private flexible savings accounts, a 2.3% excise tax on medical devices, a 3.8% surtax on investment income for those earning more than 200k, and a .9% increase in the Medicare payroll tax for the rich. Any willingness of Republicans to deal with Democrats without demanding repeal of the Obamacare taxes is suicidal.
The entire premise behind the negotiations thus far has been 180 degrees antithetical to reality. Instead of putting Democrats on defense for the impending Obamacare tax hikes and for the lack of spending cuts, they have backed themselves into a corner by agreeing to tax increases. Moreover, if they are hell-bent on raising taxes on the top 2%, who already pay almost half the income taxes, why not demand something transformational in return, such as Obamacare repeal or Cut, Cap, and Balance. There are some vague references to a federalist approach to Medicaid reform in Boehner’s plan, as well as a nameless reference to Medicare premium support, there is nothing transformational in this deal that would justify the cave on taxes.
Bonehead needs to go. No. He HAS to go.
Someone needs to remind him that the house controls the checkbook and the credit card. Obama can demand all he wants but in the end, the house controls the money.
Bonehead has forgotten this.
GOP needs a campaign...not that they’re very good at any of them...but anyhow:
Dear man/woman on the street, “How does XXX in government help you specifically? Yet it is costing this $XX Billion/Million” This needs to be done with a long list of micro focused items rather than jumping to the macro. John/Jane Q Public needs to see things within context of their own lives.
"John I have some engraved hankies for you from Nancy."
Boehner is a capitulating SOB.
The quintessential reason the GOP has no balls.
I’d love to play poker with bonehead. His idea of hole cards in politics is to show his so you know when to raise or fold.
He does not care to use the fact the HOUSE is where tax law is supposed to begin...not the white house, the HOR (soon to be known as the whore). Not the Senate either. Put a bill together, vote it out and then go home. Let his excellency’s stooge in the Senate contort himself into the dog position for his excellency and present their counter offer. Then go to the conference and have it on cspan so the public can get an indication of what is going on and whom is playing games. Put the spot light on and the roaches go for cover, quickly. Then perhaps a bill can go to his excellency for his defacto approval. If not, over the edge. This all beats the political masterbation going on every day in DC and which makes me and the public crazy. I hate it when someone tosses in a winning hand.
On a really good day, with a solid tailwind, Bonehead’s IQ might-—just might-—reach a level where one doesn’t need a millismart meter to measure it.
Go away and die, Bonehead.
Now.
Oh, invite the Pelosiwench and Whorehouse Harry to join you.
Bonehead is about to push the GOP off a cliff they will never recover from.
Conservatives have had enough of this DC hack. I predict the 2014 elections
Will be a throw the bums out election. FU Bonehead.
GOP leaders remove 4 from plum House committees
By By KEVIN FREKING | Associated Press – 13 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to take plum committee assignments away from four conservative Republican lawmakers after they bucked party leaders on key votes isn’t going over well with advocacy groups that viewed them as role models.
Reps. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Justin Amash of Michigan will lose their seats on the House Budget Committee chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan next year. And Reps. Walter Jones of North Carolina and David Schweikert of Arizona are losing their seats on the House Financial Services Committee.
The move is underscoring a divide in the Republican Party between tea party-supported conservatives and the House GOP leadership.
http://news.yahoo.com/gop-leaders-remove-4-plum-house-committees-195415482—finance.html
They never seem to punish liberal Republicans for “bucking” party leaders.
That is right, only scandals get you kicked off committee’s.... until now.
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