Fiscal cliff Plan C: Let Democrats find compromise. Huh?
Fiscal cliff Plan B is dead. But allowing Senate Democrats and President Obama to negotiate a deal is hardly a step forward in finding bipartisan compromise.
Fiscal cliff Plan B is dead. But allowing Senate Democrats and President Obama to negotiate a deal is hardly a step forward in finding bipartisan compromise.
All over an unwillingness to convince his colleagues to let tax rates come back up (as scheduled) on (even) the very richest,聽any 鈥渄eal鈥� between Boehner and Obama is off聽鈥� at least until after Christmas:
The Post article goes on to quote from Boehner鈥檚 issued statement:
But how will it help to leave the Senate聽Democrats聽to work with the President on a plan?聽 The whole problem has been the lack of bipartisanship and the willful disregard for 鈥渃ommon ground鈥� policies that both sides could not exactly 鈥渓ove鈥� but at least come to tolerate.
Maybe over the Christmas break the politicians can sit back and ponder what their own personal roles in this impasse have been and the choices they鈥檝e made about the battles they鈥檝e fought. There鈥檚 been much ado about the tax rates on the rich 鈥� should the top two brackets (affecting only those with incomes over about $250,000) be allowed to go back to pre-2001 levels, or only the top bracket (affecting those over about $400,000), or only the top rate for millionaires?聽
All those options would produce only a fraction of the deficit reduction required to get us back on an economically sustainable path 鈥� at best, a 鈥渄ownpayment鈥� on what will have to be a grander bargain eventually (but soon).聽 The real money and the real (more) common ground lies in looking at the ways in which the federal government spends money (and 鈥渟ubsidizes鈥� certain privileged activities) through the tax code.聽
In this week鈥檚 installment of his always excellent New York Times column,聽Bruce Bartlett reiterates the point聽that tax expenditures聽grow聽government (so that Republicans should be in favor of cutting tax expenditures just like they favor cutting direct spending), while he also reminds readers that extending tax cuts and deficit financing them is not cutting taxes at all 鈥� it鈥檚 raising future taxes.
As if as a society we have not been neglecting our kids鈥� well being enough already. All over what seems a silly, way overblown debate over the top income tax rates going from 30-some to 30-some percent.