In fact we know exactly how this guy's plan would play out from the FICA tax cut fiasco exactly a year ago
1) House Republicans listen to this guy and say ‘ taxes on the middle class will go up unless we get a full extension, for all that income above $250K too. We will not extend them without the others. We dont leave the job producers behind. We won the election.”
2) In January taxes go up (assuming it gets that far)
3) Obama gets on TV and Townhalls telling middle class voters that their taxes are going up because Republicans once again are putting ‘the vrich’ ahead of them.
4) MSM hounds Republicans asking them if they are happy they ‘raised taxes’ on the middle class
5) House Republicans get flooded in a tidal wave of angry emails and phone calls from those who voted for them.
They try to go home for a visit and there are angly mobs around their house with signs
“I am sorry I voted for you. You raised my taxes you lying #%%$$”, many are white and 50 + obviously not ACORN.
6) The stock Market tanks
7) House Republicans even the most ‘conservative’ go to Bohner and say “WE made a big mistake. We need to cut those taxes (under$250K income) and put this behind us. My voters want to kill me” just as they did with last years FICA.
8) The House quietly passes the extension in secret just as they did FICA last February.
9) Obama signs it declaring that the Rs finally saw reason
10) The stock market recovers some just because the panic is over sand no one knows that the resulting Obama tax increases hurt the stock market because they think house Rs crashed it and O saved it.
11) Obama gets credit for saving the economy. AGAIN.
12) House Republicans dont challenge O again for the next two years. So the Republican party melts down in civil war. Dems bayonette the R wounded.
13) In 2014 election Reid and Pelosi get back the same numbers they got in 2009.
14) January 2015 Congess passes a bill making Obama King. (no more filibuster to stop it) Republicans blame voter fraud.
Or does anyone think middle class voters will act any differently than they did a year ago on FICA with that coming tax increase?
Except for #14, that’s a pretty realistic prediction of how this plays out.
You might be right. But you are making a lot of assumptions and projections. You are assuming that things are the same as they were a year ago and that there will be no changes. Pretty big assumptions. I think that the Democrats like to raise taxes. They can say whatever they like, but their actions say that they like to raise taxes. If the Democrats say that they don’t want to raise taxes on the middle class, then by their past behavior we know they are lying. They do want to raise taxes on the middle class. So, they are doing all of this for show. Here’s the plot of the show. The really nice guy Democrats drag the mean old Republican villain out in front of the audience and give a speech to the audience about how mean the Republicans are and how they, the Democrats, really want to help the middle class audience by raising taxes on the rich. After this show comes the next show where the Democrats drag the mean old Republican villain out again and give a speech to the middle class audience about how Republicans messed everything up and now the Democrats, against their better nature, will have to raise taxes on the middle class and then have the middle class audience boo and hiss the Republicans. The Democrats control the theater, the media. So how do the Republicans change this? They can stay off the stage. They can build another theater. They can not recite their scripted lines. They can throw a smoke bomb. There’s always options. But when the Democrats say they want no tax increase on the middle class, we know they’re lying and if we follow their script, we’re going to get tomatoes thrown at us.
theres the rub aint it??? NObody is willing for their taxes to go up, regardless of what some tax sheltering billionaires might claim...
the vast majority [mid income] will bitch and moan if the rates arent extended, as you say, the pressure on the CONgress-critters would be huge, and theyd be crucified in the press...
and, the ideological battle would take a hit as well, as you cant claim that lower rates result in more *revenue* [which is demonstrable if the 'R's would bother] and simultaneously threaten millions of people with crimping their budgets, and the resulting fed *loss* as well...
pass the damn middle extension, and then keep pushing for the top % as the economy crashes...