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A Further Perspective
Feeding Obama’s Government Class
Tax increases are its lifeblood, which is why Republican must just say no.
Here’s why Republicans must resist tax increases: Increased tax revenue gives Obama and liberal Democrats more government money to grow their government class, the same class they hope will keep Republicans out of the White House for generations to come. If Republicans submit to Obama’s push for tax increases, and thus further feed the beast — that is, subsidize the growing government class — then they will be purchasing their own noose, paying for their own political destruction.
Recently at The American Spectator, I wrote about this new government class. It is being nurtured by the vision and policies and programs of President Obama and his fellow “progressives”/liberals. The current class — the one that re-elected Obama — is comprised of federal employees; of state, county, and municipal workers; of dues-payers in public-sector unions like SEIU and AFSCME; of the teachers’ class and its ringleaders at the NEA and AFT; of Americans collecting food stamps, welfare, and unemployment; of those looking to government for healthcare; and much more. Unbelievably, there is even the surreal spectacle of a rising group of easily agitated young women demanding that Uncle Sam (i.e., taxpayers) pay for their contraception and abortions.
This new breed of American constitutes a huge segment of the population (and voters) who are becoming not merely dependent upon government but dependent upon Democrats. The more dependent they become, the more their dependency redounds to the political enshrinement of liberal politicians.
Worse, this class of progressive citizens — basically, Democrat constituencies — is accelerating at breakneck speed. They were already clipping along under the last 100 years of progressivism/liberalism — a symptom of what Ronald Reagan called “creeping socialism.” Under Barack Obama, however, they are exploding. There are an unprecedented 48 million Americans on food stamps, up from 32 million at the start of Obama’s presidency. Welfare rolls are bursting. Real unemployment is 15% and rising, and will get far worse as Obamacare kicks in.
The only genuine job growth is in government, where one in seven Americans is now employed, and with extraordinary benefits. A staggering 73% of all job growth in the last five months occurred in government, and Obama is adding 103 new federal employees per day. They are paid by your tax dollars. The Democrats need more of those tax dollars to maintain these voters.
Thus, the hidden, trillion-dollar question facing America right now is whether Republicans will give Democrats the tax increases they need to sustain this devoutly growing base of dependents and voters.
For Republicans, that question is a matter of political life and death. Consider: How long do we have before this growing government class out-votes the rest of America? We may be too late already. By 2016, the number of Americans employed and unionized by government or dependent or looking to Washington for food stamps, welfare, unemployment, contraception, and, most dramatic of all, healthcare, could be overwhelming. Democratic Party demagogues will easily dupe them into believing that these benefits are their Obama-given natural right — the new “natural rights” of the new government class — and that any politician (i.e., conservative Republican) arguing otherwise is a gargoyle, favoring everything from a war on women to a war on the poor.
For Democrats, this is a political coup not only for their overall popular vote every four years but Electoral College votes. For example, these new additions to the government class will particularly populate Northern Virginia, potentially turning Virginia (politically) into another Maryland, a state which gratefully pulls the lever for Democrat caretakers every four years. In fact, with the current rate of growth of the new government class, Republicans might never win Virginia again.
But back to the central point: What feeds this beast? Where does Obama’s Leviathan get its sustenance? The answer: it lives off the very tax revenues that Barack Obama and his fellow band of “progressives,” liberals, and servile Democrats now demand from John Boehner and Republicans. If Republicans give in, then they are dupes — Obama’s useful idiots.
Yes, yes, I know. The pressure inside the Beltway is immense. The liberal media is screaming at Boehner and the GOP. But most liberals in the media are themselves dupes to this fundamental transformation — to the long march of the extreme left. They’re not thoughtful, and don’t really think about this stuff hard enough to understand it; they’re ignorant of the underlying currents and deeper forces at work. They simply like Obama, for various assorted reasons, and basically blithely go along with what he and his fellow travelers want.
Granted, Republicans are in a difficult spot — I suppose. (They need what Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had: thick skin and a willingness to shrug off the leftist mob.) But they’ll be in a really difficult spot four years from now, and forty years from now. Politically, they’ll be dead — if they permit liberals to keep feeding the beast.
Republicans are worried about losing future elections by losing their base if they cave on taxes. Actually, it’s much worse than that. Not only would they lose their base but they would dramatically strengthen their opposition by subsidizing its growth and its power.
Tax increases are the lifeblood of Barack Obama’s new government class. If Republicans provide them, they will be buying their own self-destruction. Obama and his “progressive” pals will laugh all the way to the White House for years to come.
About the Author
Paul Kengor is professor of political science and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. He is author of the new book The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor. His other books include The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism and Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (94) | Leave a comment
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spike59| 12.14.12 @ 6:28AM
i hear that ObaMao's latest 'compromise' is: for every $1 of tax increases, he'll offset with $5 in increased spending
Al Brooks, bleedingheartlib | 12.15.12 @ 5:01PM
You can't do anything, because you don't have Reagan to guide you; you don't have the Cold War to unite you.
You are as lost sheep.
Robbins Mitchell| 12.14.12 @ 6:31AM
Let us not forget that this gaggle of government pissants is in truth the only true "servant class" that the US has....its public employees....and we should treat them accordingly
Al Brooks, bleedingheartlib | 12.15.12 @ 6:58PM
Without Reagan, you are NOTHING.
KennesawJack| 12.14.12 @ 6:53AM
Why is there even a question as to whether Boehnor and the Republicans will cave?
Joellen| 12.14.12 @ 7:00AM
Kennesaw, call me an innocent, but during this season of Advent, I can HOPE that the Republicans will have the courage and wisdom to do the right thing.
I have called my Congressman and Boehner this week and I did ask them to walk away from whatever Obama "dictates" to them. Once again I clearly stated to them "NO COMPROMISE".
So, again call me naive, but also allow me that one iota of hope.
TLP| 12.14.12 @ 9:26AM
Contest at Tuesday's Story: More Pants Than Fire.
Look for Pinnochio.
GobBluthe| 12.14.12 @ 7:17AM
What does cave mean??? Taxes are going up period. You delusional conservatives actually think the GOP house can force Obama and the senate after they just won that spending cuts only will occur????? Conservatives are living in an alternative universe if they think that in losing they can dictate the outcome. Taxes are going up, period.
Part of bring conservative is being realistic. Part of today's conservatives problem us they have all read Atlas Shrugged and they believe it.
OP4| 12.14.12 @ 8:21AM
Caving = Only raising taxes on the wealthy in return for unspecified cuts in the future (never) and no entitlement reform.
At least the sequestration raises taxes on everyone (they asked for it), and contains real spending cuts.
GobBluthe| 12.14.12 @ 7:12AM
Another pontificating piece from a conservative. Of course no where in the article does the author acknowledge that taxes ate you g up automatically. Exactly how the GOP is suppose to stop tax increase, the author doesn't say. If we follow the authors's position that more tax revenues result in more big govt, then passing a bill raising the top rate is better than going over the cliff and having rates go up for everyone. Yet the is indeed whs do many so called conservatives want to do. Conservatives are unable to bring themselves to accept that they cannot stop tax increEs. Their choices are bad and worse. This piece is simply more evidence that conservatism is in complete disarray and denial.
KennesawJack| 12.14.12 @ 7:31AM
Huh? Gob, get your head out of Obamarx's ass fora minute. That was totally incomprehensible. (not surprised, though)
GobBluthe| 12.14.12 @ 7:38AM
So how is the GOP suppose to stop any and all tax increases?
TLP| 12.14.12 @ 9:44AM
They shouldn't stop him. Let him run his course. All this will do is make us Stronger.
Wisconsin. Michigan. The first two Dominoes to fall. The world that Gobbledygook Dreams of is all around him. He just refuses to acknowledge it.
Detroit is a Workers Paradise. California, Flynt, Oakland, and Baltimore. All of them, Workers Paradises.
So too, Cleveland, Camden, Gary, Newark. Milwaukee, and Philadelphia.
All of them: Union Strongholds.
All of them: Crumbling to the ground, soon to Collapse.
The world has seen all of this Play out a Hundred Times. Something for Nothing. Pay your Fair Share. Power to the People. SIEG HEIL!
It always ends the same, with people like Purp and Gobbledygook crying over the body of a dead Loved one, amid the rubble that used to be their homes.
"Why? Why did we ever let it get this far? Why didn't we see this coming?"
Why, indeed.
Occam's Tool| 12.14.12 @ 2:39PM
The House Republicans, as I have stated before, should pass a bill extending the Bush tax rates plus the payroll 4% tax permanently to the Senate and then GO HOME. Take about a page. The permanency should allow for good business planning and would start a boom.
Then GO HOME. That will make the Democrats responsible for any tax raises or going over the cliff. they should do this yesterday. Forget about negotiating. Obama is not a man of his word.
Taxguy| 12.15.12 @ 9:06AM
well put, TLP
retired military bear| 12.16.12 @ 8:06AM
You are being stupid, as Union member ship increased wages in America went up, as Union membership has gone down, wages have stagnated!
Non Union workers benefited from Unions when they were growing in wages, benefits, and worker's rights laws!
loulou| 12.14.12 @ 11:03AM
You're right, KennesawJack. I read GobBluthe's gibberish and thought for a moment it was me. Pure gibberish. He's suffering from lack of oxygen what with his ass placed where it is.
TLP| 12.14.12 @ 1:39PM
Contest at Tuesday's Story: More Pants Than Fire.
Look for Pinnochio.
Warrior| 12.14.12 @ 5:46PM
You have a direct line to Tyrrell (I don't care if the name is spelled wrong). You have to get AS to take Dumbass's response and place it in the AS Hall of Fame. I can think of no comment on this blog that can represent the liberal mind (oxymoron?) better.
“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”
Warrior| 12.14.12 @ 5:47PM
Sorry, I mean this for the following post:
Purp| 12.14.12 @ 9:33AM
benny havens| 12.14.12 @ 7:34AM
From 2011
$2,170,000,000,000 -U.S. Tax revenue
$3,820,000,000,000 - Federal Spending
$1,650,000,000,000 – Overspent
$14,271,000,000,000 - National debt
$38,500,000,000 – What Congress actually cut
$80,000,000,000 2013 Increased revenue from Obama’s Tax the rich.
Remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
$21,700 - Annual family income
$38,200 - Money the family spent
$16,500 - New debt on the credit card
$142,710 - Outstanding balance on the credit card
$385 – Family Budget cuts
$800 - Help from uncle Barrack
So now this family will be looking for social justice.
CJW| 12.14.12 @ 8:18AM
good analysis.
In the real world this family would have filed for bankruptcy, had credit cards cancelled, and house foreclosed.
But Obama will be working hard on this problem while he vacations in Hawaii on the taxpayer's dime, or about a million dollars worth of dimes.
Von Mises Jr| 12.14.12 @ 8:51AM
But instead, Obama wants to be able to tell American Express and Chase Bank that he has no credit limit.
If he wants to charge a vacation and buy a new wardrobe, AE cannot reject his credit card purchases. If his wife wants a house in the mountains, Chase cannot reject his mortgage application. This is what he is demanding in an unlimited debt limit. The problem is that it is the market and the bankers that set the limits, not the GOP.
Paul Kengor's article is excellent, but the thing that must be understood is that the Federal Government cannot even nearly afford the employees and debt burden they already accumulated. One-third ($250B) of the $787B Porkulus Bill went not to hire more teachers and cops, but to plug a hole in their hemorrhaging pension plans and benefit costs. This means that the existing government employees and retirees are SOL unless Barry figures out how to fill the $2.5 trillion in unfunded liabilities already on the books.
We cannot afford the government we have and the whole house of cards is close to toppling.
Purp| 12.14.12 @ 9:33AM
A nation's government is NOT like a household budget ... that's just a stupid analogy for stupid people.
But it does show you why you need to have more revenue as well as cuts, doesn't it?
Double the tax revenue and the problem is gone.
Let all the Bush Tax Cuts Expire permanently! Then the deficit will be slashed by 72%. And we can then fix the insurance programs, etc. for the longer term
TLP| 12.14.12 @ 9:56AM
Which Fortune 100 Company did you say you worked for?
Von Mises Jr| 12.14.12 @ 10:02AM
He was the guy on the Trojan man commercial. He co-starred with Sandra Fluke.
Stan Redmond| 12.14.12 @ 5:50PM
Fortune 10! He's so damned good he's in the top ten.
loulou| 12.14.12 @ 11:05AM
Perp: You know that you're the stupid one, right?
You can fix nothing you parasitic moron.
Von Mises Jr| 12.14.12 @ 11:54AM
Perp was Jefferson and now Scott W. I don't know why anyone even bothers to read his crap.
retired military bear| 12.16.12 @ 8:10AM
Calling someone a name for voicing their opinion makes you what you call them!
Occam's Tool| 12.14.12 @ 2:41PM
Increased taxes do NOT result in a static increase in taxes. Tax receipt percentages maximums remain fairly constant regardless of rates. The only difference is how much money will go to non-productive economic activity to avoid exorbitatnt taxes.
benny havens| 12.15.12 @ 7:35AM
“Double the tax revenue and the problem is gone.” Now that is something that is stupid.
When Reagan entered the White House the revenue to the Fed was $600 billion. When he left the revenue doubled, (for a stupid person that means it increased to $1.2 trillion). And we still had a deficit. Why? Because Tip O’neill and the democratic majority spent $1.25 for every dollar they took in.
We have a spending problem, like the illustration shows. You are just too senseless to understand it.
Scott W.| 12.14.12 @ 7:44AM
We are not having a debt crisis.
It’s important to make this point, because I keep seeing articles about the “fiscal cliff” that do, in fact, describe it — often in the headline — as a debt crisis. But it isn’t. The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit. In fact, its borrowing costs are near historic lows. And even the confrontation over the debt ceiling that looms a few months from now if we do somehow manage to avoid going over the fiscal cliff isn’t really about debt.
No, what we’re having is a political crisis, born of the fact that one of our two great political parties has reached the end of a 30-year road. The modern Republican Party’s grand, radical agenda lies in ruins — but the party doesn’t know how to deal with that failure, and it retains enough power to do immense damage as it strikes out in frustration.
Before I talk about that reality, a word about the current state of budget “negotiations.”
Why the scare quotes? Because these aren’t normal negotiations in which each side presents specific proposals, and horse-trading proceeds until the two sides converge. By all accounts, Republicans have, so far, offered almost no specifics.
GobBluthe| 12.14.12 @ 7:49AM
There is no fiscal crisis and the US give has no trouble borrowing because the USA is monitizing it's debt. The Fed Res Bank is buying nearly all the debt being issued.
FBX1999| 12.14.12 @ 3:25PM
Germany monetized it's debt in the early '20's. How did that work out?
Taxguy| 12.15.12 @ 9:20AM
And what is the consequence of that, genius?
GobBluthe| 12.14.12 @ 7:56AM
You total lack of understand of the budget and how the federal reserve is distorting the bond market aside, your middle paragraph is 100% correct in its historical assement of what is happening. Conservatism is on its deathbed but still represents enough people to make a lot of noise. Expect its final death to be quite ugly.
TLP| 12.14.12 @ 3:48PM
Actually, FBX1999 is absolutely right.
You're Punkass Response only give his words, that much more credence.
OP4| 12.14.12 @ 8:28AM
We have a spending problem - whether they spend tax-dollars, borrowed money, or freshly printed new money makes only a little difference. The sheer size of the federal government and the degree of intervention in the economy is crowding out and crushing private enterprises.
Only lower spending will restore economic growth - everything else is a deck-chair on the Titanic debate.
Scott W.| 12.14.12 @ 9:32AM
I'm all for slashing the military budget by about 70-80%. That would save us about 400-600 billion a year, and still leave us with the world's largest military. Then I would eliminate agricultural and oil subsidies, and end about 90% of all tax deductions, especially for the wealthy. And then cut payments of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by about 5-10% each.
Raise taxes to about 80% on those making over 5 million a year.
Debt problem solved.
Occam's Tool| 12.14.12 @ 2:42PM
Raise those taxes and the millionaires leave, fool.
retired military bear| 12.16.12 @ 8:14AM
And where they gonna go, can't take their money out of the country without getting taxed, there's a reason the rich want to bring their money made the last 10 years outside of country back here, its because our banks are the only safe place to keep their billions!
jcm5| 12.18.12 @ 9:01PM
sure they can leave. Let them go. I don't want them. Of late all they've done is cause financial melt-downs.
Except one problem. Where are they going to go? One of the many other countries with higher tax rates than the US? Or one of the other countries with lower tax rates than the US? Here's a hint - they'll want to go to a first world rather than a third world country.
Scott W.| 12.14.12 @ 7:45AM
They claim that they’re willing to raise $800 billion in revenue by closing loopholes, but they refuse to specify which loopholes they would close; they are demanding large cuts in spending, but the specific cuts they have been willing to lay out wouldn’t come close to delivering the savings they demand.
It’s a very peculiar situation. In effect, Republicans are saying to President Obama, “Come up with something that will make us happy.” He is, understandably, not willing to play that game. And so the talks are stuck.
Why won’t the Republicans get specific? Because they don’t know how. The truth is that, when it comes to spending, they’ve been faking it all along — not just in this election, but for decades. Which brings me to the nature of the current G.O.P. crisis.
Since the 1970s, the Republican Party has fallen increasingly under the influence of radical ideologues, whose goal is nothing less than the elimination of the welfare state — that is, the whole legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society. From the beginning, however, these ideologues have had a big problem: The programs they want to kill are very popular. Americans may nod their heads when you attack big government in the abstract, but they strongly support Social Security, Medicare, and even Medicaid. So what’s a radical to do?
OP4| 12.14.12 @ 8:30AM
The one thing both parties agree on is a huge federal government. Spain, Greece, Portugal - they all had thought big-spending governments were great too.
Taxguy| 12.15.12 @ 9:27AM
Nonesense. Soc Sec can be privatized. If government gets out of the insurance business and allows the free market in, private insurance will become so inexpensive that most can replace Medicare and Medicaid with private insurance.
I know of no conservative who believes the country should abandon Soc Sec, Medicare and Medicaid, just scale them down considerably.
retired military bear| 12.16.12 @ 8:19AM
Privatizing Social Security ends it, and that ain't ever gonna happen!
The only reason costs haven't gone up even faster on medical is because of Government limitations!
Privatizing our health care system would end health care for the middle class!
Scott W.| 12.14.12 @ 7:46AM
The answer, for a long time, has involved two strategies. One is “starve the beast,” the idea of using tax cuts to reduce government revenue, then using the resulting lack of funds to force cuts in popular social programs. Whenever you see some Republican politician piously denouncing federal red ink, always remember that, for decades, the G.O.P. has seen budget deficits as a feature, not a bug.
Arguably more important in conservative thinking, however, was the notion that the G.O.P. could exploit other sources of strength — white resentment, working-class dislike of social change, tough talk on national security — to build overwhelming political dominance, at which point the dismantling of the welfare state could proceed freely. Just eight years ago, Grover Norquist, the antitax activist, looked forward cheerfully to the days when Democrats would be politically neutered: “Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate.”
O.K., you see the problem: Democrats didn’t go along with the program, and refused to give up. Worse, from the Republican point of view, all of their party’s sources of strength have turned into weaknesses. Democratic dominance among Hispanics has overshadowed Republican dominance among southern whites; women’s rights have trumped the politics of abortion and antigay sentiment; and guess who finally did get Osama bin Laden.
Scott W.| 12.14.12 @ 7:46AM
And look at where we are now in terms of the welfare state: far from killing it, Republicans now have to watch as Mr. Obama implements the biggest expansion of social insurance since the creation of Medicare.
So Republicans have suffered more than an election defeat, they’ve seen the collapse of a decades-long project. And with their grandiose goals now out of reach, they literally have no idea what they want — hence their inability to make specific demands.
It’s a dangerous situation. The G.O.P. is lost and rudderless, bitter and angry, but it still controls the House and, therefore, retains the ability to do a lot of harm, as it lashes out in the death throes of the conservative dream.
Our best hope is that business interests will use their influence to limit the damage. But the odds are that the next few years will be very, very ugly.
----- Paul Krugman
Pecos Pete| 12.14.12 @ 8:42AM
SW: "Our best hope is that business interests will use their influence to limit the damage." Sounds like fascism to me. My guess is that you would prefer a one party solution to governance with an elite Ruling Class (Royalty?) providing subsistence living conditions (Earth friendly).
Scott W.| 12.14.12 @ 8:54AM
No, actually what I want is the Republican party return to the sensible, pragmatic, moderate party it used to be. Like Eisenhower who could balance budgets by having huge tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.
The current crop of Republicans are basically the John Birch society; crazy, stupid, and full of conspiracy theories.
GobBluthe| 12.14.12 @ 9:40AM
Ike's 91% top rate did t raise any revenue. In the 195os tax revenue as a pct of GDP was only 15-17% and that was with full employment. With a 39.6% rate in 2000, we had revenues at 22% of GDP and full employment. Fun thing for conservatives is the Ike tax rates were so high that we couldn't fund the welfare state with them today.
Btw is see Canada's top rate is now 29%. They have no mortgage duduction however.
Scott W.| 12.14.12 @ 9:53AM
GobBluthe, true about Canadian federal rates, although the rates are higher on ALL people at lower levels of income. And Canada also has high rates at the province level. So in fact, Canada is willing to tax it's richest at around 40-50%. The U.S. rich on average do not pay that much.
Occam's Tool| 12.14.12 @ 2:44PM
Scott: at $340,000 gross/yr, my post deduction/tax pay is 55% of my income.
The super rich have their money out of the country. The merely good earners have their stuff here and that is what they pay. You know Jack.
Scott W.| 12.15.12 @ 7:39AM
I was writing strictly about income taxes. And personally, if only your income taxes are that high, your accountant sucks. I guess you are talking about all taxes taken together. So what?? We all pay taxes Jack.
And if you don't the super rich to take their money and leave, why don't you lobby the Republican party to pass some enforcement mechanisms to prevent that? I know that last sentence sounds a bit ridiculous knowing them....
Occam's Tool| 12.14.12 @ 2:45PM
Reagan had a better economy than Ike.
TLP| 12.14.12 @ 3:55PM
Occam is exactly right.
These Tax Increase won't hurt the Uber Rich. They have long since prepared for such a Situation. Just ask GOOGLE.
This will hit Small Business the hardest, and that's the Plan.
They, unlike the GE's of the world, have not the Resources that Obama's buddies have to Shelter their assets, in return for Contributions for their Democrat antagonists.
This is all about CONTROL.
It's always been about CONTROL.
Since the beginning of time.
Scott W.| 12.15.12 @ 7:43AM
Barely....Jack. But unemployment was lower under Ike. And Ike did have better budgets, didn't he? So what do you want, slightly better GDP figures.....or mountains of debt?
retired military bear| 12.16.12 @ 8:22AM
Of course you know that 90% or welfare today is given to Corporations!
Pecos Pete| 12.14.12 @ 7:48AM
Taxes are going UP. Spending is going UP.
And so it will continue until bankruptcy and hyper-inflation bury the USA. The Republican Party is on its death bed. There will be a third party consisting of fiscal conservatives, not that it will do much good. 4 more years of King O is the cancer that kills.
JAWilson| 12.14.12 @ 7:49AM
IMO, the only realistic approach to fighting the growth of government is to get inside and clean up the waste, corruption, and duplication of services. If you can reduce the cost of providing the same services, you might have a small chance of reducing the growth of the beast. And that's a long shot.
Mike G| 12.14.12 @ 8:10AM
When the long term budget plan is to grow at a steady rate I don't care how much fraud and waste you can find, it won't be enough to reduce spending--unless you consider all spending not authorized by the Constitution as wasteful. That would eliminate SS & Medicare, the Depts. of Education, Energy, Housing, and more. It's time to start cutting these wasteful projects.
Seapuss| 12.14.12 @ 8:39AM
"If Republicans submit to Obama’s push for tax increases...." "[I]f they cave on taxes."
This is nonsense talk. That taxes are going up is already baked in the cake. By signing onto that idiot budget deal in the summer of 2011, the GOP guaranteed that taxes would go up IF Obama won reelection in 2012.
Now that Obama has been reelected, taxes are going up for AT LEAST SOMEONE on January 1st, whether the GOP "fights" or not. If the GOP "fights", we go over the fiscal cliff on 1/1/13, and everyone's taxes go up (and the GOP will get blamed for raising middle class taxes). If the GOP cuts a "deal", Obama will insist that it include tax hikes on the top 2% (and the GOP's base will be angry).
The only palatable result is for the GOP House to pass two bills, the first extending the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% and the second extending the Bush tax cuts for everyone else. The Democratic Senate will kill the first bill but will have to pass the second bill--and Obama will also have to sign the second bill into law.
Results: (1) taxes go up on the top 2% (this was inevitable, given the 2011 budget deal and the 2012 election); (2) no Republican will have voted for any tax increase; (3) the GOP cannot get blamed for any tax hikes on the middle class come 1/1/13; and (4) Obama will "own" the result of having raised taxes on the nation's small businesses and other job creators.
Pass those two bills and go home for Christmas already.
Occam's Tool| 12.14.12 @ 3:40PM
No, pass one bill extending the tax cuts for everyone and let the Dems take the blame.
Aristocat| 12.15.12 @ 1:43AM
Seapuss has it exactly right....
Pass two bills, let the Senate kill tax cuts for the 2%. The worst possible thing the House could do would be to refuse the extend the Bush tax cuts to the middle class because the top 2% are not included. That would be political suicide.
And remember, the House has the purse strings...Nothing gets spent that they don't vote for...including funding for Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, etc. etc., but they do not have the courage to use this power..
retired military bear| 12.16.12 @ 8:27AM
Tax increases on small businesses, and job creators?
WOW, you have swallowed the poison pill of the rich!
Bob K| 12.14.12 @ 9:15AM
The Republican Party's natural base is the Middle Class. If the leadership doesn't start doing something for them the party will end up on the dust heap of American History.
The Middle Class pays the brunt of the state, municipal, local and school taxes which make the Republic work.
The Democrats have weakened the Middle Class with their divide and conquer strategy of playing one group off against another using tools like federal regulations involving matters of education, conservation and health and pitting these groups against each other with governmental policies centered on diversity, affirmative action, and open borders to divide them.
The Republican party has to concentrate on bringing more power back to the states from the Federal government.
Scott W.| 12.14.12 @ 9:35AM
Bob, with all due respect. The Republican party for most of the last 20-30 years has had Wall Street and corporate boards as their base. The Democrats have had a far better track record with the middle class than the Republicans have. Eisenhower was the last true middle class Republican president.
fmm| 12.14.12 @ 10:30AM
No political party has had the middle class interest at heart for a very long time. They both play to the special interests, with the dems being much more successful at this than the repubs. The dems have had the corner on Wall Street for about two decades. Just look up the amounts contributed to the two parties from financial leaders in recent elections: dems outdo the repubs by about a 3 to 1 margin.
Matt4wildcats| 12.14.12 @ 10:38AM
fmm, I won't totally disagree with you, but if you factor in private equity (the capital gains guys) on the side of Republicans, then it's about equal. But the Dems have done more otherwise with the middle class with a general safety net, where the Republicans have completely failed.
retired military bear| 12.16.12 @ 8:31AM
Middle class, power to the states?
Obama had over 4 millions donators to his campaign, Romney got 50% of his donations from 50 rich people! Republicans have been loosing the middle class voter for a while now!
Power to the States allows powerful rich men to more easily control the rest of us, not the best idea!!
jcm5| 12.18.12 @ 8:52PM
"The Democrats have weakened the Middle Class with their divide and conquer strategy of playing one group off against another"
Just something to think about: in 2004 I seem to recall gay marriage suddenly showing up on the ballot in a lot of states. Pushed by Rove. Why? Because by playing one group off against another, more Bush voters showed up.
So don't suggest it's just the Democrats trying to divide. What you see is things you oppose, and you assume that therefore someone is trying to divide you from the rest of America. It's hypocritical to pretend it started with Obama. That's simply you trying to be divisive.
fmm| 12.14.12 @ 10:25AM
True power resides in knowing the right thing to do, then doing it, no matter what the temporary results. The GOP can gain permanent respect and power by sticking to their offten stated, but misapplied, principles. If the GOP does not force the issue to eliminate all the baseline budget money associated with the 4 year "stimulus", which is the main reason for the gigantic Obama deficits, they have lost all the way around. Their base will desert them and the dems will absolutely know that the GOP has no interest in serving the needs of the entire country.
Jardino| 12.14.12 @ 10:43AM
I'm strangely fascinated by "conservative" opinions like a fly is attracted to a pile of steaming sh_t. I believe that I can learn something good from everyone, but I rarely learn anything from people who feel morally superior, whine, and see conspiracies.
It's time for the strident reactionaries to take a deep breath and look at reality. Obama won the election. The aging population, Social Security and Medicare are the main reasons the federal debt is growing at unsustainable rates. Something will be done and it will be done in many baby steps. Whining about liberals and demonizing them is futile. Taxes are going to raise more revenues and costs will be cut.
retired military bear| 12.16.12 @ 8:37AM
You also forgot to mention that 60% of Seniors voted for Republicans in this election, and all the posters have forgotten it was GW Bush who pushed through an unfunded Medicare Prescription Plan!
And it was Romney and Ryan who campaigned against Obama on his cutting benefits in the Medicare/Medicaid programs!
Kwan| 12.14.12 @ 11:25AM
Organized crime or the Mafia call it a bust-out, wherein a business' assets and lines of credit are exploited and exhausted to the point of bankruptcy. Obama and the left call it "Winning the Future" and "social justice", but whatever you call it the result is the same: Bankruptcy.
TLP| 12.14.12 @ 3:56PM
Contest at Tuesday's Story: More Pants Than Fire.
Look for Pinnochio.
Hello?
pigdog| 12.14.12 @ 12:52PM
re "If Republicans submit to Obama’s push for tax increases, and thus further feed the beast — that is, subsidize the growing government class — then they will be purchasing their own noose, paying for their own political destruction."
Obama's tax [rate] increases will not feed the beast, because they will not result in revenue increases.
There are two marginal tax rates that will not generate marginal revenue: 0% and 100%. Increasing the current top rates will most likely result in diminishing returns from the top, and diminishing opportunities for those in the middle and the bottom--sort of like Ed Asner pissing from his lofty perch.
Mike in N.C.| 12.14.12 @ 1:50PM
Time for all of you Second Amendment clowns to join that POS Wayne LaPierre, president of the NRA, in putting out your usual BS and making threatening calls to your elected officials. After all, what is a mere 27 lives when compared to your sacred right to own automatic weapons
Louis Jenkins| 12.14.12 @ 4:47PM
Dear Mike in NC:
A knife welding man in China today slashed 30 students. With a knife mind you. Go to any report and query it. Are you calling for knife control as well. I don't know if it was an automatic or semi-automatic knife, but if a man is derranged or crazy, or whatever, he will do some bad deeds. Obviously you think all weapons are automatic, which, surprise, they are not. I'm sorry, I am not a member of the NRA as I believe the organization gets in bed too often with which ever political interest of the day, and I have never called a publicly elected offical on gun control. Do I own arms, yes. But I have enough sense to control my anger like most people. It is tragic that 28 children and adults were killed. It is never a good thing to see or read about people, particularly children, dying. I will pray tonight for the departed, even the bad guy who did the shooting.
Eagle Creek| 12.15.12 @ 12:06AM
Hey piss off, Mikey.. Wayne LaPierre is not the president of the NRA... And would it be ok with you if I kept my bow and arrow ?
JmsA| 12.15.12 @ 2:24AM
So the NRA is responsible for the terrible loss of life in New Town, but Eric Holder had nothing to do with Fast & Furious? Got it.
FBX1999| 12.14.12 @ 3:32PM
Threatening calls, you mean like Jimmy Hoffa Jr. and union scum thugs in Michigan?
Automatic weapons? The only ones who have them are the US military and the US armed Mexican drug cartels.
JmsA| 12.15.12 @ 2:26AM
Please, don't bring too many details to his attention; you might just confuse him.
topcat52| 12.14.12 @ 11:19PM
Likely true, but not helpful. With regard to the "Bush" tax rates, the Republicans are in a lose-lose. If they don't give in on taxes for the "rich", the Dems will let us go over the cliff, we will be blamed, and then they will propose a tax reduction for everyone but the "rich" and we will either have to vote against it or be seen as against tax cuts for the middle class. I read the best solution somewhere - we pass two bills, one keeping the rates for all but the rich and the other for only the rich. The first should pass, or they'll be the ones raising taxes on the middle class. The second won't, but we will have retained our integrity.
JmsA| 12.16.12 @ 1:26AM
Republicans would do well to remember that the taxes that Bush Sr. raised, after promising he would not raise them, the democrats campaigned on to defeat him.
Martin kzovich| 12.16.12 @ 8:02AM
A headline on a blog is Boehner Caves. Well not quite until Obama says yes--and so far Obama has said no. If Boehner goes further to the point of licking Obama's ass and Obama gladly accepts then
he Caved and that is his end. Boehner's 0nly hope is Obama's refusal of any offer short of surrender and then Boehner should walk away with ammunition to show that Obama was negotiating in bad faith.
retired military bear| 12.16.12 @ 8:48AM
This column is a joke! Its delusional !
It was Republican GW Bush backed by a Republican Senate, and Republican House who put us into 2 wars on money borrowed from Commie China, and who signed into law the unfunded Medicare Prescription Plan!
Now Republicans argue that we are spending money on Americans as we are ending these 2 wars and the debt 'they' spent overseas, that we still owe!
Do you forget how they used no bid contracts with cost over runs to fund these 2 wars on Chinese Credit!!
And how are we to pay off these debts, today's Republicans say cut programs the poorest, weakest, and unhealthiest in our country need to survive so the Rich can keep their tax cuts and keep all the money they made during this corruption!
Wonder why the Republicans are loosing members, and are loosing National elections!!
Stan Redmond| 12.16.12 @ 5:16PM
GEESH. What is with you libs. Bush spending bad but Obama's speding 4 times what Bush could have ever hoped for is good.
If it was bad under Bush it's bad under Obama.
Belianis | 12.16.12 @ 12:10PM
The USA of Reagan--I arrived in FL on 03/VI/1980--was a wonderful place; Reagan gave off positive vibes that resulted in the country being happy and harmonious.
The USA of Obastard is an evil place; Obscene gives off negative vibes that make Americans hate and loathe each other.
I pray that my PUERTO RICO may realize the folly of continuing its association with a country that is not even a shadow of its glory days of FDR, Truman, Eisenhower and JFK, and opt instead for full and sovereign INDEPENDENCE.
ralfy| 12.17.12 @ 7:04AM
The main drivers of the budget deficit were tax cuts and war costs starting from the Bush administration.
Total debt (government, households, corporations) started to grow significantly in 1981.
Jan.H| 12.18.12 @ 7:31PM
Mitt was right with his 47% comment, the truth ALWAYS hurts.
jcm5| 12.18.12 @ 8:44PM
Practically every time I visit a website dealing with retirement investment, it has a big warning: "taxes are at historic lows and will almost certainly have to go up in the future."
Why not go back to the tax rates of Eisenhower's time? When our government employees created a best-in-the-world infrastructure, which laid the foundation for historic economic growth...
Or we can ignore our infrastructure and hope that at some point Microsoft or Google gets so fed up that they pay for some up to date infrastructure. But maybe they'll just go to another country.