Krauthammer On Fiscal Cliff Negotiations: "Republicans Ought To Simply Walk Away"

Real Clear Politics ^ | 11/29/2012 | Charles Krauthammer

[GVnana]

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: It's not just a bad deal, this is really an insulting deal. What Geithner offered, what you showed on the screen, Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox, and he lost the Civil War. The Democrats won by 3% of the vote and they did not hold the House, Republicans won the house. So this is not exactly unconditional surrender, but that is what the administration is asking of the Republicans.

This idea -- there are not only no cuts in this, there's an increase in spending with a new stimulus. I mean, this is almost unheard of. What do they expect? They obviously expect the Republicans will cave on everything. I think the Republicans ought to simply walk away. The president is the president. He's the leader. They are demanding that the Republicans explain all the cuts that they want to make.

We had that movie a year-and-a-half ago where Paul Ryan presented a budget, a serious real budget with real cuts. Obama was supposed to gave speech where he would respond with a counter offer. And what did he do? He gave a speech where he had Ryan sitting in the front row. He called the Ryan proposal un-American, insulted him, offered nothing, and ran on Mediscare in the next 18 months.

And they expect the Republicans are going to do this again?

[Brooklyn Attitude]

Win win for the RAT party. Go over fiscal cliff, have the media blame Repubs for the next 4 years as causing a trumped up catastrophe. Repubs cave, Obama gets whatever he wants. Third alternative: Give the commie in chief what he wants with the stipulation that Repubs announce they are acting in protest as its the only way for people to see the horror of obamanomics.

[bmwcyle]

I think our enemies are both parties.

[bert]

The Speaker needs to tell the President..... According to the people, I won.

[Plumres]

Let's go of the cliff! We will at least get the cuts to kick in. It will also get rid of the “Bush tax cuts” so they don't have that to demonize any more. Make Obama OWN it! The Republicans will get bad press no matter what. I will enjoy watching all the clueless people that voted for this idiot, on Jan 15th see $100 to $200 missing out of their paycheck. That alone will be well worth the pain it will cause my family. We need something to enlighten the clueless so they vote at least a tiny bit smarter in the future.

[Graewoulf]

No Democrat wants to take responsibility for their own actions.

As then Spkr. Rep. Nancy Pelosi once said: “We have to pass Obama’care’ to see what is in it.”

And now Benghazi-Coward Obama’s Democrats are saying: ‘We have to go over Obama’s Fiscal Cliff to see how far we fall financially.’

[TADSLOS]

Let's go of the cliff! We will at least get the cuts to kick in. It will also get rid of the “Bush tax cuts” so they don't have that to demonize any more. Make Obama OWN it! The Republicans will get bad press no matter what. I will enjoy watching all the clueless people that voted for this idiot, on Jan 15th see $100 to $200 missing out of their paycheck. That alone will be well worth the pain it will cause my family. We need something to enlighten the clueless so they vote at least a tiny bit smarter in the future.

This is exactly what needs to happen. It will also go a long way of turning back the insane "immigration reform" (aka surrender) sentiment in both parties.

[Mr. Jeeves]

We had that movie a year-and-a-half ago where Paul Ryan presented a budget, a serious real budget with real cuts. Obama was supposed to gave speech where he would respond with a counter offer. And what did he do? He gave a speech where he had Ryan sitting in the front row. He called the Ryan proposal un-American, insulted him, offered nothing, and ran on Mediscare in the next 18 months.

I'm not sure when Republicans are going to learn that public opposition to an idea strengthens the idea. Democrats are smarter - they oppose ideas they consider a threat by personally attacking the politician who puts them forward. Since they don't even acknowledge the existence of the dangerous Republican plan, the plan gets zero media attention and consequently no support, even from Republicans.

Thus...

"That jug-eared fool smoked pot in college, bows to foreign dictators, and let four American diplomats die in Libya because he was afraid of getting a bad headline - you're going to listen his fiscal cliff plan? Don't make me laugh!"

...would be far more effective than what the Republicans are trying to do now.

[Oratam]

That’s exactly right. Walk away but there MUST be a steady drum beat from the speaker and the rest of GOP leadership laying blame where it belongs—at the president’s feet. Over and over and over.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” Summary : Fight like Dems, meaning fight like winners for a change,.”

Wake me when this happens.

[demshateGod]

And the Dumbos will be swept out of office in 2014. DC can’t do anything right. There’s no reason to keep conservatives there anymore. It’s like Afghanistan, they should all come home.

[Tzimisce]

We should just walk away.

No one is going to remember this in 2 years.

[Road Glide]

Krauthammer:
“It’s not just a bad deal, this is really an insulting deal. ... And they expect the Republicans are going to do this again?

Yup, that’s what the ‘rats expect.
Yup, that’s what the Republicans are going to do...

Aside: I believe the Pubbies are afraid — DEATHLY afraid — of the public beating they took back around 1996 (or so) when Gingrich tried to stand up to Clinton’s refusal to accept their budget. The House Republicans are not looking ahead to 2016 but instead to 2014 when they’ll have to face the voters again. And the ‘rats and the sycophant media will “keep the memory pot a-boilin’” ‘til then!

This is why even a bad agreement is worth more to them than being painted in the press as forcin’ the car over the cliff.

And a “bad agreement” they’ll accede to!

[DoughtyOne]

Pass the partial extension of the tax cuts through the House to disarm Obama and Dems of that club, then get on TV and make sure voters know you are not for raising taxes on the middle class.

I think this merely gives Obama what he wants.  He then gets to say he is the defender of the middle class, and he has taken it to the rich in their defense.  We can say that we defended the middle class, but it will be a hollow argument no matter what we profess.  You either oppose raising taxes or you don't.  And you don't sign on to raising them if you want to have credibility on the subject ever again.

The small businessman is going to be harmed by this.  Is he going to think we came to the rescue of the middle class?  He's going to be spitting nails in our direction, and rightfully so.

Either we believe in undoing Socialism or we don't.  It's that simple.

Why do we oppose raising taxes on the rich?  And by classification, who are we really talking about when we reference anyone making over $250,000 dollars per year?  Only the rich?

I believe we have to explain our position much better than we have.  And if it requires infomericals to get the point across, then so be it.  Break out the charts.  Explain it to folks in terms they can understand.

The one thing I have come to believe about what is considered 'the Right' in the United States, is it's timidity about explaining what it's true ideology is.  We don't explain our position.  We lose the argument.  We then extrapolate what that means in a vacuum.

We understand the problems with labeling everyone pulling in over $250,000 dollars per year as rich.  What we fail to understand is that not everyone understands.  We simply assume that because we do, everyone does or should.  That's not enough.

Then you can walk away from Obama’s?Geitners list of demands.  Alternatively play the same strategy as a year ago (on FICA) and the outcome will be the same.

No matter what we cave on, the part we don't cave on will still be fodder for the Left to blame us.  Looking back over the sixty years, what has caving on issue after issue after issue gained us?  Here we are living in a Socialist paradise, and we're still being demagogued on the issue of us being unreasonable.  Then the operative plan is to give one more time, so we'll look reasoned.  I'm sorry, at some point in time we need to take a stand, explain why, and start moving the yard marker back toward the other end zone.

Man, if we can't take a stand on creeping Socialism now, then we should fold up our camp and register as Democrats and be done with it.

We really do have to start a massive education effort against the Left.

1. What is Socialism?
2. What has happened other places it has been tried?
3. What is Capitalism?
4. What has happened places it has been tried?
5. Why has China prospered in recent times vs it's period from 1955 to 1992?
6. Has the Republican party bent over backwards to try to be reasoned with the Left?  (Is the U. S. a Socialist state today or not?)
7. Has the Left bent over backwards to try to be reasoned with the right? (Do we still support our Constitution? Who suggests we should and who doesn't?  How does this relate to the amendments?)

...and much much more.

This isn't being taught in schools.  Someone has to do it.  It's about time we did, or at least tried.

And create a video commercial of all the Dems who have been lining up calling to go over the cliff to use as a club to beat Dems with next January when the heat really goes up.

We can't do that after telling the other side hell no to ANY tax increases?

Summary : Fight like Dems, meaning fight like winners for a change,.

Agreeing to raise taxes on 'the rich', is exactly that, fighting like Dems.  No, scratch that, it's fighting for them.  I want no part of that.  I can't for the life of me see how that is anything other than fighting like losers.

Are we where we are today, because we stood firm and explained our reasoning?  I would submit we are where we are today because we didn't stand firm, and failed all too often to explain sound principles to the people we seek to lead.

Stand firm.  Explain yourself in detail.  Win!

[rcrngroup]

Thus...

"That jug-eared fool smoked pot in college, bows to foreign dictators, and let four American diplomats die in Libya because he was afraid of getting a bad headline - you're going to listen his fiscal cliff plan? Don't make me laugh!"

...would be far more effective than what the Republicans are trying to do now.

.
Great strategy! Now if only the ball-less Repukes would do it and stick with it. Which they won't unfortunately! Because that's not "nice" or "respectful" to 0dumb0shit or the demoRATs. And after all, Mitt Romney declared that 0dumb0 was a "nice" guy. And Boehner would cry & wet his panties at the same time, if he were ever to proclaim this in public, in front of the news cameras.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” I believe we have to explain our position much better than we have”

We haven’t explained it at all. Every time Obama says Republicans are for protecting the rich, Boehner, McConnell, and all of their little followers go into hiding for 6 weeks.
Not once did any of them gather the media to explain why small businessmen need that money to keep and hire employees.
They never explain anything. I’m surprised we still have the House.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m surprised we still have the House.

It's quite surprising to me the difference in the Obama vote from the local votes.

We took over more state houses with super majorities. We took over more with just simple majorities. We gained more governors.

Sounds to me like people at the local level have a voice.

I will say this again though, Romney came very close to pulling it off. Three or four states, a few hundred thousand votes in the right areas, we've got a Romney presidency.

The Republicans are reading far too much into this election's losses, and far too little into this election's wins for our side.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”They never explain anything. I’m surprised we still have the House.”

The one that ps me off to no end is entitlements.
Rs are so scared to admit they both are broke right NOW and generating debt NOW that they let Dems get away with saying they are fully funded, and wonder why no one believes them about needing reform.

In fact a Dem on CSPAN called in this morning and he said that SS should not be touched because ‘ SS takes in more money than it spends”

The mod asked “How about the payroll tax cut ? Should that be extended?” (didnt mention FICA or SS and how they relate to above.

He replies :”Sure”

If Republicans are not going to bother to explain why they want to do what they propose, then screw them . Hell, I did more than them by creating that video on SS and posting it to youtube

Not every rich guy >$250K is a small business owner yet if you listen to the Rs everys single one of them is a small business owner who hires employees because thats all they ever say in response to tax increase talk.
Most people know this is non-sense. Come up with something that sounds real.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” The one that ps me off to no end is entitlements.
Rs are so scared to admit they both are broke right NOW and generating debt NOW that they let Dems get away with saying they are fully funded, and wonder why no one believes them about needing reform.”

Correct.

” Not every rich guy >$250K is a small business owner yet if you listen to the Rs everys single one of them is a small business owner who hires employees because thats all they ever say in response to tax increase talk.
Most people know this is non-sense.”

The proportion is higher than you might know. In California it is hundreds of thousands. Forgetting this, there are a dozen ways tax increases hurt the economy, and you are correct that none of it is ever explained by Republicans. They are stuck on COWARD, and stuck on STUPID.

[CPT Clay]

Buy time on TV, amen brother, Amen.

[riri]

It's quite surprising to me the difference in the Obama vote from the local votes.

Interesting, isn't it? I believe there was massive fraud in this election.