Posted on 12/22/2012 1:58:48 PM PST by Jim Robinson
If President Obama and Senator Reid were actually negotiating in good faith, then one could argue that Speaker Boehner's Plan B was an acceptable, if unpalatable, compromise. After all, it permanently extended the current tax rates for very nearly all Americans, eliminating the annual game of chicken in Congress over whether our taxes will automatically increase.
But the President and Senator Reid made very clear that they are not interested in compromise, and that Boehner's offer was dead on arrival in the Senate because it did not raise taxes on enough people. This is not a negotiation on President Obama's part - it is holding all Americans' incomes hostage and demanding higher income earners as the ransom.
The choice being laid out by the President is a false choice between raising taxes on everyone or just on a few. There is another choice, which FreedomWorks has endorsed all along: extend the current tax rates for everybody. Once we've backed away from the fiscal cliff, we can have a real debate about how to collect revenue and curb spending through real reforms.
The fiscal conservatives in the House agreed. Led by a younger core of freshmen, they lobbied Speaker Boehner to stand his ground, to negotiate from a position of strength. Instead, the Republican leadership did not even allow any votes on amendments to Plan B, and subjected dissenters to intense pressure to just follow the party line.
They did not.
(Excerpt) Read more at freedomworks.org ...
Obama isn’t even remotely interested in negotiating and he doesn’t have to, because all the Dems in the Senate will support him no matter what.
Boehner’ s biggest mistake was to believe hat Obama was serious about any negotiations. Even if the House had passed plan B, Obama would just shrug and say it didn’t matter.
I actually wish the GOP had voted for it, because this might have made it clearer that with Bambi, it’s my way or the highway. On the other hand, nobody but us seems to care what Obama does about anything, and that’s the real reason we have no negotiating power.
BTTT!!
Boehner was negotiating with himself. He hasn't learned anything in all his years in Congress.
Time to go.
It's patently obvious to the most casual observer they are not negotiating in good faith. I hope the people can see that, but I fear they do not.
The bottom line is spending cuts..forget this talk on taxing the 1%, 2%, whatever. If the cuts do not far exceed the revenue collections, it does NOTHING to reduce the deficit. Nothing. If that side won’t budge, then cliff-jump.
Ironically, I believe something that drastically reduces spending like the sequestration will actually keep us from getting yet another credit downgrade. If they dance around it and do essentially nothing, I expect a 2nd downgrade..could be as soon as inaugruation day. Might as well get all the bad news out in January. I can’t take much more.
This is a good post. It points out some problems with the Repub party as it engages in negotiations with the Dems over financing.
1. These tax rates should not have been temporary. It was apparent when originated that they created future uncertainty and that such uncertainty might end in their expiration.
2. Repubs seem to think that winning an election is like winning or losing some kind of contest or sporting event. This isn’t sports. Until the Dem party earns your seat, you vote your way. The Repubs dominate the House. They should vote like Repubs and not grant the Dems their agenda because they won the Presidency. Almost half of the electorate voted for the Repubs—there is no reason to abandon those millions of Americans.
3. The Repubs seem to have a perpetual misunderstanding of the Dems. The Repubs represent every American, or so they say. The Dems represent an ideology. They don’t claim to represent everybody and at the national level they actively attack those who don’t vote for them. They operate very differently from the Repubs. The Repubs don’t seem to recognize this.
4. The Repubs seem terrified of the media. It doesn’t help being scared. The media serves roughly the same ideology as the Dems. The Repubs are the enemy of the media which includes the old alphabet networks, the NYT and LAT, but also the HuffPo, much of Facebook, and an international cast of politicians and media. If the Repubs don’t make a storng move to create supportive media, nothing the Repubs do will matter, only what is disseminated by the opposition media.
5. Average Joe and Jane don’t understand economics. If you make wild claims of catastrophe that only the Repubs can save people from, you might start to get their attention. You must get their attention. Trying to explain economics in rational, logical terms is a waste of effort. Being mild and reasonable ensures you will not be noticed. Being nice will only result in the Dems having to make up insanely dishonest lies about you—which they do without qualm.
6. The Dem’s desire to loot the nation and replace its government with a bureaucratic, Marxist-oriented system is why they attack the Tea Party with such viciousness. You have seen the Dem’s attack the Tea Party, the Repubs, white males, Christians, the NRA, and others. This is because they are the political opposition. They want to destroy their opposition. The Repubs don’t operate this way. If they did, the Repubs would attack the union system of forced wage extraction from workers, PBS funding, P Parenthood, etc. But the party doesn’t act against these groups—only state and local politicians. The Dems are winning this battle because the Repubs don’t seem to understand what they are up against.
Just my opinions.
Over 50% of the population are only concerned with four things:
1. Where's my government check?
2. Where's my Obama phone?
3. Is my EBT card fully charged?
4. Are the rich guys paying their "fair share"?
And many on FR still blame Boehner for that...
Nobody is even saying that. Our leaders act as if Obama and Reid are acting reasonably. I have had it with the incompetence of our party. I am less sure it is my party at this point, because it is poor at representing anythi g close to my principles. We are on defense constantly. We negotiate with ourselves. We are not selling our ideas. It is pathetic.
We have to call out the other side and say, they need to consider plan B in he senate and Obama needs to respond or counter with a compromise bill. No more forcing our members to vote on bills against our position unless he other side has signed off.
I’ve made sure I will be okay whatever happens and that gives me comfort. Even my 5 lb. Yorkie knows something is up as she saw large bags of her Blue Buffalo doggie food being stored a few days ago.
And my side of the 50% say, where the fluck did 50% of my paycheck go ?
“These are the very people that we expect to invest in the economy and to begin creating jobs.”
— John Boehner on the debate on whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts / September 15, 2010
I wish they had voted on Plan B too. I wanted to see the saps who voted
yes to increase taxes. Have you noticed none of these probable yes voters
have gone on local media in their districts saying they would have voted
yes to increasing taxes on the rich? I wonder why.
This is what I see as obamski's strategy...
He will reject every deal that Boehner puts on the table regardless of what it contains regarding taxes and spending. He wants the car to fly off the "cliff" and hit hard.
He doesn't care one bit about the pain that it will likely cause the middle and working class. In fact, he wants them to get hurt.
Like it or not we have lost the battle for public opinion. Better said, we got creamed.
He knows this. He is counting on the MSM staying in his corner for the rest of his term. So far that has been a very safe bet.
Public opinion may swing back but not soon and very likely not before November 2014...which is what this is really all about.
November, 2014...obama will let the economy crash so that he can point to the "obstructionist" GOP that cares only for the rich and who caused the crash of 2013 by thwarting his efforts to protect the middle and working class.
It will not matter what the truth is then anymore than it mattered six weeks ago.
He will tell the great unwashed that he needs a Democrat House to help him finally save America..."I only have two years left...give me a team I can work with"
This is their strategic game plan while we barely have a tactical game.
A lot of unforeseens await between now and then but this strategy could easily work and give obama a liberal Senate, House and SCOTUS (remember, he will have at least ine more pick by then).
With nobody to say "no", obama's last two years will make his first two years feel like Palin was in charge.
That is the game.
I like and agree with your opinions.
Hold the line tea party conservatives!!
***********************************************
Hell yes!
Good points. SUpportive media is very important moving forward...that, and an all out war mentality. It’s long past time to stop playing nice.
Noble sentiment but the harsh reality is that the 70 or so members of the Tea Party in the House cannot enact or repeal any law by themselves. By doing absolutely nothing, Obama and Reid achieve their ultimate goal: higher rates on all persons paying taxes and substantial defense spending cuts. The GOP lost when they failed to win the Presidency and Senate last month. The Tea Party conservatives should go down swinging for their principles, but they will surely go down. Pray for our nation.
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