The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : If Obama Wanted a Grand Bargain...

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The Spectacle Blog

If Obama Wanted a Grand Bargain...

By Joseph Lawler on 7.11.11 @ 3:03PM

...he could have signed onto the plan created by his deficit commission.

Unfortunately, that plan, which would have raised tax revenues to historically high levels, wouldn't have raised taxes enough for President Obama.

View all comments (8) | Leave a comment

Occam's Tool| 7.11.11 @ 3:15PM

He doesn't. He wants to be an obstructionist asshole.

PattyMor| 7.11.11 @ 3:16PM

I'm convinced that the deficit commission was a grand stalling tactic and nothing more. After all he wants all this spending, because most of it flows down to his constituents: the welfare queens and the big corporations with their hands out.

bobmontgomery| 7.11.11 @ 3:37PM

Raising taxes now would not be raising taxes in a recession because....the recession started at the end of 07 and ended mid-09. Or so we are told. Except the definition of a recession changed - we actually didn't exceed two quarters of neg. gdp until end of 08. So, if the definition of a recession changed then, maybe people are changing the definition of it again - both R's and D's...R's to say you can't raise taxes and D's to say we can't be in arecession because gdp is plus. When you start changing definitions, and ignoring laws, and lying, and going along with the notion that you will be a racist if you call Obama a Socialist, then you get the chaos we are in now. This crisis is like the TARP - it was created to keep finance and industry from going completely off the reservation at the thought of a communist black liberation radical in the White House.

Oldefarte| 7.11.11 @ 3:56PM

That defecit commission was a masquerade ball from the getgo, and its recommendations were equally asinine. Unbridled Democrats will always infuse tax increases [renenue enhancers, fee increases, mandated revenues etc] into the equation, unless checked. BEWARE OF DEMOCRATS BEARING BUDGET/DEBT SOLUTIONS should be the order of the day!!!!!!

Nite| 7.11.11 @ 10:43PM

Democrats have never seen a tax that they didn't love. Obama and the current shenanigans are a prime example.

RJ| 7.11.11 @ 11:42PM

Here's a grand bargain - "Stop spending beyond our means." Government spending should not exceed 18% of GDP. And if Obama objects to the tax deductions included in his "stimulus" bill, I would be happy to accommodate him with comprehensive tax reform - eliminate all tax credits and deductions in exchange for lower rates rates (no more than 2), with every one contributing something. No more 47% of the households either paying nothing or getting tax credits.

weddingdress| 7.12.11 @ 5:19AM

Oldefarte| 7.12.11 @ 10:35AM

Corporations are private sector companies with the profit motive of capitalism. The TARP receiving major banks would have collapsed without the bailout, and have subsequently re-paid every dime of the bailout money they received, with interest [ie the government made a profit from these loans]. Correspondingly, the TARP bailouts to the car manufacturers was completely unnecessary and was a political payoff to the labor unionized employees of same [and whose failure to their competitors would have been warranted and preferred].