The Lessons from Plan B

FreedomWorks ^ | December 21, 2012 | By Joshua Withrow

[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.

[cableguymn]

I blame bonehead for even trying and for moving in their direction for no reason.

he should have passed a bill making the cuts the law of the land for ever and gone home.

[conservaKate]

The GOP lost when they failed to win the Presidency and Senate last month.

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This is the crux of the problem...they thought they would win the White House back in 2011 when the Republican leadership :::sigh:::: made the stupid sequester deal in the first place. And these same R idiots are the jokers who pushed Romney out there as our choice.

Standing firm is fine...but then the sequester goes into effect...including increased taxes on everyone and very ugly cuts to defense.

[prairiebreeze]

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[iacovatx]

Thank you for your comment. My studies suggest the media bias arises from young people whose ideology leads them to want to join a left-leaning profession that then socializes them further into a leftist cultural orthodoxy.

It has to be fixed with young people and at the level of education.

[okie01]

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.

Absolutely true. But with one caveat.. There was no way on God's green earth to make them permanent.

A permanent tax cut requires a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. At the time, the Senate was split 50-50 with VP Dick Cheney providing the tie-breaker. Tom Daschle and the Democrats stood against any tax cuts whatsoever.

Accordingly, the Bush tax cuts were passed as a "temporary" measure, thru the Budget Reconciliation process -- which requires only a simple majority and cannot be filibustered. However, anything passed by this process is limited to ten years, maximum.

[Personal Responsibility]

Obama does not have to negotiate. If he does nothing, Boehner will negotiate with himself to Obamas benefit.

[lavaroise]

Is the GOP-e stupid?They want the GOP to look bad, no matter what. They will throw boombs into congress itself if need be, and then blame the “infighting” on a lack of cooperation and ask for the destruction of all opposition and ask no other thing less than worship and adoration. It is what sociopathic liberals seek.