Posted on 12/03/2012 8:24:00 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Republican Doomsday Plan: Cave on Taxes, Vote 'Present'
By Jonathan Karl | ABC OTUS News
Republicans are seriously considering a Doomsday Plan if fiscal cliff talks collapse entirely. It's quite simple: House Republicans would allow a vote on extending the Bush middle class tax cuts (the bill passed in August by the Senate) and offer the President nothing more: no extension of the debt ceiling, nothing on unemployment, nothing on closing loopholes. Congress would recess for the holidays and the president would face a big battle early in the year over the debt ceiling.
Two senior Republican elected officials tell me this doomsday plan is becoming the most likely scenario. A top GOP House leadership aide confirms the plan is under consideration, but says Speaker Boehner has made no decision on whether to pursue it.
Under one variation of this Doomsday Plan, House Republicans would allow a vote on extending only the middle class tax cuts and Republicans, to express disapproval at the failure to extend all tax cuts, would vote "present" on the bill, allowing it to pass entirely on Democratic votes.
By doing this, Republicans avoid taking blame for tax increases on 98 percent of income tax payers. As one senior Republican in Congress told me, "You don't take a hostage you aren't willing to shoot." Republicans aren't willing to kill the middle class tax cuts, even if extending them alone will make it harder to later extend tax cuts on the wealthy.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an influential conservative House Republican, is already on record supporting extending the middle class tax cuts - with or without the upper income tax cuts. On Sunday, he said Republicans should embrace the extension of the middle class tax cuts and take credit for it.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
If the Republicans will not stand up even for keeping existing tax rates, much less reducing them, I think we are better off just getting rid of Republicans altogether.
Because, hey, maybe this European Socialism thing will actually work. Maybe if the Democrats have a free hand, they can actually fashion a state-controlled economic system that will be reasonably prosperous, and we can all live happy lives.
But if the Republicans keep giving in a little bit at a time, but keep on throwing road-blocks along the way, there will be no opportunity to build a functioning Socialist state and we will wind up with no freedom and no properity.
Because if the Republicans are not willing to be the opposition, all they can do is gum up the works. If that is all they intend to do, we are better off without them.
I agree with you 100%.
Simple. Vote for what you want to do. Let the Democrats raise the taxes.
And anybody who votes "Present" on such a vital issue should be run out of town on a rail.
” Because if we cave here, there is no reason for the Democrats to think we will ever stand firm at any other point.”
And forget any chance of an (R) POTUS next time. It won’t happen......”Read my lips”.
Sounds like a plan. Before this I thought these fools couldn’t strategize their way out of a wet paper sack.
If they pull this “voting present” stunt, I look forward to hearing my Congresscritter explain to me in two years how he really is the lesser of two evils. Because if he will not stand up and be counted, he will be just as responsible.
As Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
If a Republican Congresscritter will not vote on such a clear-cut issue, it would be hard for me to include his name among the “good men”.
Nope, think debt ceiling.
Important to note - the dems think driving off the fiscal cliff is to their advantage. Question is make vote to make middle class tax cut permanent, second vote on extending the upper class tax cut until unemployment drops below 7% for 3 months in a row . . . let the spending cuts take place automatically . . . and sit back and watch the dems drive themselves over the cliff.
The Bush 2003 Business related Tax cuts go as well....
AKA, section 179 and accelerated depreciation and depreciation in general changes.
For those of you in Rio-Linda that means the small business man or women can't write off new equipment as fast, will buy less of it and further slow the economy...
As Dalereed observed in post #38, voting present is voting FOR a tax increase--pure and simple. We have a majority in the House and would essentially be giving that up to let the Dems have their way.
The main reason that Obama is pushing for tax increases (marginal rates) on the "rich" is to split and destroy the GOP. Voting present would effectively accomplish that objective.
BTW, about one-tenth of the scheduled spending cuts are cuts in defense spending.
Do it.
Let me take another crack at this:
This plan sucks, and here’s why...
If a low information voter is going to hold the Republicans responsible for anything, they will continue to hold them responsible, even if they pull this idiotic “voting Present” stunt. There is going to be some Obama giveaway that is too ridiculous for even these lily-livered Republicans to live with, and they will get the blame for turning it down. Because that’s the way it is with low-information voters. If you don’t tell them what you stand for, they will believe whatever your opponent says about you. And there is no better way to not tell them what you stand for than by refusing to even vote.
And your better informed voter who does not favor tax increases will still blame the Republicans because they had the power to stop it and did nothing.
And as for the better informed voter who does favor tax increases, the Republicans are never going to get credit with them, because they worship at the feet of Obama.
So this plan is a LOSE/LOSE/LOSE for Republicans. We give away everything, including any pretense of having a conherent philosophy that we are willing to advance. Why would anybody ever give a Republican the time of day, after we show ourselves to be such unprincipled weasels?
The debt ceiling is not a good bargaining chip. And there is no way that there will be enough Reps to vote against extending the debt ceiling. It is like holding a gun to your own head and threaten to shoot yourself.
It gets even better when the lamestream go into attack mode over it and inadvertently expose zero’s “present” votes from his past.
Oh, for crying out loud!
Why would you think for a moment they are going to take a stand on the debt ceiling if they won't take a stand here!
That is how we got into this mess, in case you forgot.
This is like the Town Rummy promising that he will go straight after one more drink. Do the right thing. Cut him off. He'll be better off in the long run.
Because all of these talks are centered on how to protect well-padded Congressional Republican posteriors, and very little is about what is good for the country.
I say we vote for the good of the country, and take the Fiscal Cliff square on the bow. This manufactured crisis is just a miniature version of the inevitable default to come. Better to tackle it now than to kick the can down the road, yet again.
It is like being a lttle bit pregnant. Once you agree that it is a matter of when not if the marginal tax rates for the "rich" can be increased, we are headed down a slippery slope.
The GOP has been saying that these increased rates will hurt small businesses and cost over 700,000 jobs. Do we really believe that or is it just meaningless rhetoric?
I think this would be a great idea, but the media is going to blame everything on the Republicans....They are/will anyway.
For the record the House has already passed legislation to extend the Bush tax cuts. Did so over the summer.
Damn straight. Might as well not have a GOP. And come 2012, we won't!
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