I sort of see what Boehner was trying to do but he needs to watch Pawn Stars and learn how to negotiate. Maybe take Simpson/Bowles, increase spending, reduce taxes and use that as a starting place if he wants to play that game.
whatever they do they need to shift the focus away from taxes towards spending. Obama and Dem Senate WILL win on taxes. The best the pubs can get is to extend the Bush cuts for the 98%. That’s the best case. The dems are using this as a distraction to split the pubs and avoid talking about their problem - their out of control spending.
The pubs need to start with a significant reduction in spending - not this namby/pamby stuff being thrown out now. Obama said he would balance the budget in 4 years. Let’s give him 8 years (that’s twice as long as Obama promised & no way he could say that is not reasonable).
$10T in add’l debt over 10 years (at current rate using rough numbers). allow 4 years of ramp-down to get to balanced budget. This means we have to cut at least $6T to get to balance. There will be $1T or so in increased taxes on the 2%. However we should not count any of it because it will not be achieved because the 2% will adapt, hide, make changes and the increased taxes will reduce economic growth and reduce overall revenues anyway. so we make the case that NONE of the increased taxes can be counted towards the deficit.
So Pubs need to propose $6T in spending cuts. But since I watch Pawn Stars - perhaps start with $8T and negotiate down to $6T.
watch more Pawn Stars...
They have told people the real value of something and paid more than asking. (being honest but still)
They have also bought junk.
I would not send them in to work out a deal for me.
One idea might be to give them what they want - we will go back to Clinton era tax rates. The Dems have to go back to Clinton era expenditures.
I could live with that.