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 ...
Darn tootin'!
How about we target the negotiations at below 6% black youth unemployment?
That would put some itching powder into the landscape.
The NappyOne
Excellent and apparently what the American voters wanted - stalemate.
Until they’re offered something better.
I believe that is Private Hudson :-)
I stand corrected.
3 problems with this master plan:
-The Dems OWN Obamacare for the same reasons
-It is wildly unpopular
-Yet it did not seem to hurt them at the ballot box last month.
For one major reason: The Republican campaign couldn't make Obamacare an issue...because our candidate was the sponsor of Romneycare.
Any other GOP cnadidate could've credibly campaigned on repealing Obamacare and enlisted the popular resistance to the scheme in their favor.
Oh, THAT “we”. (Eloquent riposte; better than I deserved.) Count me as one of the “we”, then.
If this plan by the Congressional Republicans to duck their responsibility goes through, 2014 is going to be a disaster.
Sure, we will primary a few of these guys out, and replace them with solid conservatives willing to hold the line. But for every squish we squash, there will be a half dozen who make it to the general election, and in November, the Democrats will hand them their heads.
Who is going to cross the street to vote for a Republican who failed so pathetically when the chips were down? Who is going to be enthusiastic about flipping that lever?
The "lesser of two evils" argument falls apart when one is just as evil as the other. If the Congressional Republicans do this, they will lose the House. And, furthermore, they will deserve to lose the House.
Agreed, I feel the same way. The single argument that the Dems ultimately make is that “the Bush tax cuts created the deficit” (especially for the rich). Obama is posturing for keeping them in place except for the top 2%, that somehow that will take care of things. For the sake of destroying this myth, I say fine, let the top 2% rate go up - but let them OWN it.
As for the top 2%, sorry guys, but it’s the only way to kill this whole class warfare bs. The people voted, maybe they should see what they asked for (unfortunately). I just fear that in 4 more years, along with Obamacare being fully implemented, our country will be in shambles. I suppose I just ask myself this, is that what it’ll take for people to wake up? It’ll be quite difficult to blame Republicans.
The Dems were clever in how Obamacare was implemented. The carrots came first and the pain comes after the 2012 elections. Wait until the various penalties and taxes come into play in 2013 and 2014. Then the public will feel the real pain of Obamacare, which heretofore has allowed people with preexisting conditions to be covered, offered free physcials, and allowed "children" under 26 to remain on their parents' insurance plan. Obamacare will become an albatross around the Dems necks and the Reps should not permit them to fix it, i.e., alleviate the pain.
And why should a voter think that the Republican party will do anything better when they nominate the father of Obamacare (Romneycare)?
The Republican party lost because it is so concerned with appealing to everyone that it satisfies no-one.
If they vote “Present”,
Then I vote “Democrat”.
The Devil I Know.
If the Republicans hold together, they can prevent the passage of higher tax rates.
If the Republicans fracture, we will get the higher tax rates, but at least we will know who we cannot trust when it comes time to pick candidates in 2014.
The purpose of this plan is to conceal from the voters which members of the Republican caucus cannot be trusted on taxes. To my mind, anybody who goes along to keep this information from Republican primary voters is not to be trusted, so anybody who votes “Present” should get a primary challenge.
Our Republican Congresscritters have to know that the only way to prove they are worthy of re-election is to vote “Nay” on any and all tax increases. Any other vote put’s them in the “To Be Primaried” pile.
Haiku Guy has it right.
If they vote “Present”
I will vote “Democrat”
The Devil I Know
If the Republicans hold together, they can prevent the passage of higher tax rates.
If the Republicans fracture, we will get the higher tax rates, but at least we will know who we cannot trust when it comes time to pick candidates in 2014.
The purpose of this plan is to conceal from the voters which members of the Republican caucus cannot be trusted on taxes. To my mind, anybody who goes along to keep this information from Republican primary voters is not to be trusted, so anybody who votes “Present” should get a primary challenge.
Our Republican Congresscritters have to know that the only way to prove they are worthy of re-election is to vote “Nay” on any and all tax increases. Any other vote put’s them in the “To Be Primaried” pile.
Haiku Guy has it right.
If they vote “Present”
I will vote “Democrat”
The Devil I Know
We need higher tax-rates; but let me explain -- there is a huge segment that pays no income tax, the top 20% of earners pay ~50% of the total income-tax revenue (IIRC).
Now, the ultra-wealthy can hire people [and indeed whole firms] whose job is to find tax-shelters and loopholes so that they don't have to pay [much] taxes. (On a corporate level, that's what happened w/ GE a while back.)
So then we have a situation where two groups have significantly less tax-burdens than the "average working man" -- a simple and just solution would be considered raising taxes, but is far more just than our current progressive scale: flat-rate, no exemptions, no credits.
But the reason the political caste won't go for something like that is because it strips them of the power to dole out favors in the form of adding (or destroying) loopholes the corporations want.
I’m with you on that plan.
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