The President uses the bully pulpit to apply PRESSURE (Representatives, how much, cost)
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First it is $200K (single people) and $250K for married people. He will veto a bill if it includes these people and if he veto's the bill the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone.
Compromise my ass, I didn't see a compromise. It's political drama and a power play. Enjoy your tax hike Obama voters
He is simply saying that he will not allow Congress to kick the can down the road anymore. Lots of pressure on the Republicans.
The question is whether Republicans will really allow taxes to go up on everyone just to save the ultra-rich from paying a few more dollars in taxes?
And a question made all the more sharp by the President's statement today, offering the House GOP and the nation an alternative which the Senate has already passed and he's ready to sign, which would extend the Bush tax rates for all but the wealthy.
So if the Republicans refuse to deal, they'll have raised taxes on everyone, even though all they had to do was give the nod to a bill which would save almost everyone. In chess, this is called "check".
And of course, if the Republicans dig in and refuse, it'll give Democrats the ability to go into the 2014 midterm elections campaigning as the party of lower taxes, against the Republicans who just raised everyone's taxes by sticking to their now-familiar and odious obstinacy. And who probably also shattered the economy. Again.
And a question made all the more sharp by the President's statement today, offering the House GOP and the nation an alternative which the Senate has already passed and he's ready to sign, which would extend the Bush tax rates for all but the wealthy.
So if the Republicans refuse to deal, they'll have raised taxes on everyone, even though all they had to do was give the nod to a bill which would save almost everyone. In chess, this is called "check".
Republicans and Democrats are being pinned against the wall. No more kicking the can. The Bush tax cuts for the top 2% are ending. The question is what will take its place and when?
I don't think the Republicans can give in so easily. Their whole brand, their pledge to Norquist, rests on no increases on tax rates for anyone. The face saving approach would be to close loopholes and or put a cap on deductions (both of these approaches I believe to be better approaches). However, I don't think this can be done before Dec. 31. That is the crux of the problem. Will they kick the can down the road again? I don't think Obama will allow it. It looks like he will veto any attempt to extend the Bush tax cuts for the upper 2%. Hence we go off the fiscal cliff.
I think you are wrong for one very important reason. Even as stupid and totally unreasonable the GOP has become they know full well that pushing the country over this cliff would be the ultimate political suicide. The results would be so bad and so far reaching I believe it reduce the GOP to the rump status they truely deserve anyway. However dispite my elation at seeing the end of this American Taliban I Do not relish the thought of our economies collapsing because of their stupidity. The Canadian Finance minister said yesterday that going off the cliff would even put our Canadian economy into recession. In the USA the effects would be near catastrophic and the GOP would own that completely.
The presidents proposals in his speech MUST BE FOUGHT against for the sake of the country. He will ruin prosperity as we know it. Taxes against the rich is not the answer. Mass cut offs of welfare, SSI and other government handout checks to strictly minorities is the answer that will free up massive amounts of money to stimulate the economy.
I am not tracking this. Are you suggesting cutting off only minorities?
Republicans and Democrats are being pinned against the wall. No more kicking the can. The Bush tax cuts for the top 2% are ending. The question is what will take its place and when?
Yes - what and when. That's up to Boehner, and to some degree the weak sisters in the Senate. All Obama has to do now is stick to the position he's just laid out. If Boehner refuses to give in, or if he can't control his mob, he might well be gambling his majority and his speakership.
I think you are wrong for one very important reason. Even as stupid and totally unreasonable the GOP has become they know full well that pushing the country over this cliff would be the ultimate political suicide. The results would be so bad and so far reaching I believe it reduce the GOP to the rump status they truely deserve anyway. However dispite my elation at seeing the end of this American Taliban I Do not relish the thought of our economies collapsing because of their stupidity. The Canadian Finance minister said yesterday that going off the cliff would even put our Canadian economy into recession. In the USA the effects would be near catastrophic and the GOP would own that completely.
I agree with your analysis and also the implications for Canada - and probably Europe as well. But in a dark kind of way, that's a fortunate sign - does John Boehner really want to be the man who caused the second Great Depression? I very much doubt it.
I think you are wrong for one very important reason. Even as stupid and totally unreasonable the GOP has become they know full well that pushing the country over this cliff would be the ultimate political suicide. The results would be so bad and so far reaching I believe it reduce the GOP to the rump status they truely deserve anyway. However dispite my elation at seeing the end of this American Taliban I Do not relish the thought of our economies collapsing because of their stupidity. The Canadian Finance minister said yesterday that going off the cliff would even put our Canadian economy into recession. In the USA the effects would be near catastrophic and the GOP would own that completely.
The tough issue that we face as a country is that our economy is on life (debt) support. The $1 trillion annual deficit is 6% of our GNP. How do we start cutting back without destroying the economy? But if we don't cut back then the middle class will continue too be destroyed by the effects of continuous debt (e.g. lower wages, fewer jobs, more part-time/temp jobs, zero interest on savings, etc.). There has to be pain. How it is apportioned out will be interesting. But I think the American people for the most part are ready for some pain, if we can get out from under this continuous increase in debt.
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