Boehner’s Tax Increase to Nowhere

[Draggingtree]

RedState:

 

Boehner’s Tax Increase to Nowhere

 

 

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary) | December 18th, 2012 at 11:44 AM

 

So Boehner plans to introduce a bill on the House floor that increases the top marginal tax rate on those earning more than $1 million per year. Most likely, Boehner and Obama will ultimately agree on a deal that splits the difference between $400,000 and $500,000. Many Republicans will shrug their shoulders: “Who cares about a few rich liberals?”

 

However, this rationale represents a shortsighted view of our problems with the tax system, the budget, and the role of government.

 

Obama and the Democrats have engaged in sly marketing to peddle their tax increases. After spending more than a decade fighting the Bush tax cuts

 

The sad thing is that this bill represents the right goal post headed into the final week of negotiations. The final products will be much worse and will probably include a clean debt ceiling increase.

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

Morning Bell: GOP Leaders Capitulate on Core Conservative Principles

Rob Bluey

December 18, 2012

 

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Republican leaders have done it once again. Their latest fiscal cliff proposal capitulates on core conservative principles, yielding woefully inadequate concessions from President Obama in the process. Will they ever learn?

 

The latest GOP offer essentially ignores Washington’s real problem — spending — and puts a $1 trillion tax hike on the table. It’s so bad that conservatives are now left with only one unfortunate alternative — passing a temporary measure that avoids a doomsday scenario until the end of March. It’s the best possible outcome with the days dwindling on the remainder of 2012.

 

In a city where kicking the can has become a routine course of action, it’s hardly the preferable outcome for lawmakers. But it would be better than just going over the fiscal cliff and better than the current $1 trillion tax increase offered by Boehner, which, not surprisingly, was summarily rejected by Obama, who proceeded to counteroffer with an even bigger tax hike and even fewer spending cuts. At this point, no “grand bargain” is going to result in the spending cuts that are needed to reduce the debt.

 

(Snip)

 

H/T Jeffrey Lord

[Draggingtree]

@Draggingtree

 

Morning Bell: GOP Leaders Capitulate on Core Conservative Principles

Rob Bluey

December 18, 2012

 

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Republican leaders have done it once again. Their latest fiscal cliff proposal capitulates on core conservative principles, yielding woefully inadequate concessions from President Obama in the process. Will they ever learn?

 

The latest GOP offer essentially ignores Washington's real problem spending and puts a $1 trillion tax hike on the table. It's so bad that conservatives are now left with only one unfortunate alternative passing a temporary measure that avoids a doomsday scenario until the end of March. It's the best possible outcome with the days dwindling on the remainder of 2012.

 

In a city where kicking the can has become a routine course of action, it's hardly the preferable outcome for lawmakers. But it would be better than just going over the fiscal cliff and better than the current $1 trillion tax increase offered by Boehner, which, not surprisingly, was summarily rejected by Obama, who proceeded to counteroffer with an even bigger tax hike and even fewer spending cuts. At this point, no "grand bargain" is going to result in the spending cuts that are needed to reduce the debt.

 

(Snip)

 

H/T Jeffrey Lord

I am hoping Plan B was just a ploy and knowing it will be rejected that Boehner will with draw it and say we have done we can now we will just vote on taxes and pass it all to the Senate and then it’s on the Dems

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

Someone over at CGP made the same point. I hope so, but......

I'm gonna be blunt, I just don't trust him.

[Draggingtree]

@Draggingtree

 

Someone over at CGP made the same point. I hope so, but......

I'm gonna be blunt, I just don't trust him.

Well when you say I don't trust him / I trust neither one

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

Someone over at CGP made the same point. I hope so, but......

I'm gonna be blunt, I just don't trust him.

Well when you say I don't trust him / I trust neither one

 

 

I am hoping Johnny boy surprises us, and this is just tactics.

[Valin]

[Valin]

It looks like John Boehner has lost Hugh Mr. Republican Hewitt.

 

Memo to the Speaker and the GOP Caucus

Hugh Hewitt

12/19/12

 

Many of you are preparing to break your word to your supporters and vote to raise taxes.

 

You have talked yourselves into believing that there is no choice. You fear the voters’ wrath because the MSM tells you a failure to reach a deal with the president will produce that wrath. This is the MSM we all know is so fair and disinterested on such things.

 

You are inventing more and more desperate ruses to try and cover your actions. The latest is “Plan B,” which is in your view just a small breaking of your word.

 

(Snip)

[SrWoodchuck]

Just heard JB give a short presser on FNC.......he's putting it back on BarrackyBoy, where it belongs.

[clearvision]

What tax/debt issue? Did you not get the memo? We already have a gun committee and O speech and plan in the works. No plans on anything else, but on this there is a plan coming ASAP.

[Valin]

Uh oh: Maybe Boehner doesn’t have the votes for Plan B after all

Allahpundit

December 20, 2012

 

I know you guys are bored to tears with fiscal cliff stuff by now, but after weeks of wandering in the news desert, we’ll finally have some suspense tonight. Cantor was talking tough this morning about how they supposedly have the votes. According to The Hill’s whip count, though, there are already 23 Republican defections — and Boehner can only afford 24. They may be lowballing it, too. They’ve got two reps from South Carolina listed as no’s, but there may be more to come:

 

Russell Berman @russellberman

 

Mick Mulvaney is a no on Boehner bill and suggests entire SC delegation is as well #demint

20 Dec 12

 

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SC has seven House seats so if Berman’s right then Boehner’s already short on votes with more defections possible before tonight’s vote. (Erick Erickson’s own whip count, taken this morning, pegged the number of GOP no votes at 34.) Some of his opponents are so entrenched, in fact, that they’ve taken to going on MSNBC in order to … convince hardcore liberals that we need to dramatically slash spending, I guess? Anyway. What’s a Speaker whose credibility is on the line to do? Just what you’d expect:

 

(snip)

[SrWoodchuck]

Thank the Lord for representatives that hold their promises to their constituents. Let Barack eat this one.

[Valin]

Thank the Lord for representatives that hold their promises to their constituents. Let Barack eat this one.

 

The One won't eat it. It will all be the fault of those evil Republicans.

[clearvision]

The press has been giddy all morning with the "huge" stock market crash coming when the markets opened this morning. Right now it is down a little over 100. Wow. It was up that much the past few days. The media really wants this to be a "cliff".

[SrWoodchuck]

Thank the Lord for representatives that hold their promises to their constituents. Let Barack eat this one.

 

The One won't eat it. It will all be the fault of those evil Republicans.

 

In a world where perception is everything & Oblunder & ilk, milk that for all that they can....deeds, rather than words give a certain nobility to politics. Ah.....sweet incongruity....

[SrWoodchuck]

The press has been giddy all morning with the "huge" stock market crash coming when the markets opened this morning. Right now it is down a little over 100. Wow. It was up that much the past few days. The media really wants this to be a "cliff".

 

Yes, the media would love to have a real Greek Tragedy to improve their viewer share & sell more demented rag.

[Valin]

Thank the Lord for representatives that hold their promises to their constituents. Let Barack eat this one.

 

The One won't eat it. It will all be the fault of those evil Republicans.

 

In a world where perception is everything & Oblunder & ilk, milk that for all that they can....deeds, rather than words give a certain nobility to politics. Ah.....sweet incongruity....

 

Video Newt: Republicans need a long-term strategy, because they don’t have one right now

 

 

As always Newt has IMO a good take on this. A good mix of ideology and practical politics.

[Valin]

The press has been giddy all morning with the "huge" stock market crash coming when the markets opened this morning. Right now it is down a little over 100. Wow. It was up that much the past few days. The media really wants this to be a "cliff".

 

Yes, the media would love to have a real Greek Tragedy to improve their viewer share & sell more demented rag.

 

 

Sometime in the next couple of years they will have it, if something serious isn't done.

I do find some hope in the Churchill Quote

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

[SrWoodchuck]

Thank the Lord for representatives that hold their promises to their constituents. Let Barack eat this one.

 

The One won't eat it. It will all be the fault of those evil Republicans.

 

In a world where perception is everything & Oblunder & ilk, milk that for all that they can....deeds, rather than words give a certain nobility to politics. Ah.....sweet incongruity....

 

http://=http://www.therightscoop.com/newt-republicans-need-a-long-term-strategy-because-they-dont-have-one-right-now/Video Newt: Republicans need a long-term strategy, because they don’t have one right now

 

 

As always Newt has IMO a good take on this. A good mix of ideology and practical politics.

 

Can't fix the link....but, thanks @Valin!

[Draggingtree]

A Comparison of Tax Rates {Reader Post}

 

As we near the so-called “Fiscal Cliff”, I feel it necessary to point out, again, that higher tax rates will lead to lower revenue for the federal government. Previously, I only had the words of various economists on my side, and re-iterated those words in defense of keeping the tax rates low. However, recently I worked to come up with a comparison showing how higher tax rates lead to lower revenues, and vice versa.

The results actually surprised me, as to how far they were in the favor of the lower rates, when you extrapolated out the difference to a ten year period. When you consider the tax rates under the two most recent Presidents not named Obama, the following was observed:

Given the period from 1994 to 1999, the growth period under Clinton, federal revenues increased by 1.3% for every 1% increase in GDP.

Given the period from 2003-2007, the growth period under Bush, with the lower tax rates, federal revenues increased by 1.7% for every 1% increase in GDP. http://floppingaces.net/2012/12/21/a-comparison-of-tax-rates-reader-post/

[Valin]

Thank the Lord for representatives that hold their promises to their constituents. Let Barack eat this one.

 

The One won't eat it. It will all be the fault of those evil Republicans.

 

In a world where perception is everything & Oblunder & ilk, milk that for all that they can....deeds, rather than words give a certain nobility to politics. Ah.....sweet incongruity....

 

Video Newt: Republicans need a long-term strategy, because they don’t have one right now

 

 

As always Newt has IMO a good take on this. A good mix of ideology and practical politics.

 

Can't fix the link....but, thanks @Valin!

 

Fixed...my bad.

[Draggingtree]

Why God created the GOP

By: Patrick J. Buchanan

12/21/2012 12:01 AM

“God put the Republican Party on earth to cut taxes. If they don’t do that, they have no useful function.”

Columnist Robert Novak was speaking of the party that embraced the revolution of Ronald Reagan, who had hung a portrait of Calvin Coolidge in his Cabinet Room and set about cutting income tax rates to 28 percent.

But, to be historically precise, the GOP was not put here to cut taxes. From infancy in the 1850s, its mission was to halt the spread of slavery. From 1865 to 1929, it was the party of high tariffs. Mission: Build the nation and protect U.S. industry and the wages of American workers.

And if the Deity commanded the GOP to cut taxes, the party has had an uneven record. Warren Harding and Coolidge cut Woodrow Wilson’s wartime tax rates by two-thirds, but Herbert Hoover nearly tripled the top rate.

Under Dwight Eisenhower, when the top tax rate was 91 percent, the GOP ratified the New Deal and provided the tax revenue to balance the budget at the elevated levels of spending 20 years of Democratic rule had established.

Richard Nixon followed suit. Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, aid to education, the Peace Corps, the arts and humanities endowments, all of the Great Society programs grew — with Nixon adding OSHA, EPA, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Cancer Institute.

Reagan cut tax rates to 50-year lows,

Point of this recitation: Republicans may talk of reducing the size of government, cutting taxes and balancing budgets. But the history of the last century suggests the party has been driven into what may be described as an inexorable long retreat. http://www.humanevents.com/2012/12/21/pat-buchanan-why-god-created-the-gop/

[Draggingtree]

Trace

 

Congress' Perfect is the Enemy of the Good

December 21, 2012

 

 

I liked Bohner's compromise proposal taxing millionaires.

Yes, I know it was unfair and counterproductive, but it had the potential to win the PR battle with the President. Once the Senate refused to consider it, or the president refused to sign it, it might actually sink in to some exactly how hysterical is the Democrat's position on taxes. It had the air of compromise while drastically limiting the scope of the damage. And it had the potential to weaken the President's hand.

Instead the younger, more conservative members rejected the plan and now we are nowhere.

The tax hikes will be successfully blamed on Republicans too concerned with protecting their rich donors and now it can be said they are so corrupt as to not even raise taxes on the minute number of Americans making more than $1 million. Meanwhile we careen over the cliff and very likely trigger a double-dip recession -- which again will be blamed on Republican recalcitrance.

Americans will be furious and the battle lines will be exactly the same as they are now, except that more Americans will be paying attention. The President will go on television every day begging the Republicans to stop protecting their rich friends.

It strikes me that Boehner had a very good sense of the politics of the moment, but he no longer speaks for his caucus and after this latest debacle could well be out of a job.

[Draggingtree]

After the Plan B Meltdown

December 21, 2012 - 7:36 am

by Bryan Preston

We're a fortnight away from seeing our taxes go up and our national defenses shorn to pre-World War I levels.

NRO’s Robert Costa captured what amounts to word pictures of the craters left after last night’s debacle in the US House. Everyone in the GOP caucus, including those who most stridently opposed Plan B, were shocked that the bill actually died without a vote.

Since the meeting lasted only a few minutes, several members, such as Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, missed the session. As Huelskamp, a leading “Plan B” adversary, rushed to get there, he saw a stream of his colleagues leaving. They were on their phones with aides and family members, sharing the news. They’d be coming home

Circumstances drove Boehner’s plan to push Plan B in the first place. The fiscal cliff allows President Obama and the Democrats to achieve three of their long-standing goals

The conservatives in the GOP caucus who fought Plan B chose the wrong hill to die on.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/12/21/after-the-plan-b-meltdown/

[Draggingtree]

What Now on Debt? ‘God Only Knows,’ Says Boehner

 

By JONATHAN WEISMAN

 

Published: December 21, 2012

 

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John A. Boehner, in the wake of the embarrassing defeat of his backup plan to avert a fiscal crisis in two short weeks, on Friday called on the Senate and President Obama to find a way out, but added that “God only knows” how Washington is going to get control of its finances.

With the House headed home for the holidays and the Senate soon to depart, Mr. Boehner gave no hints of a path to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” when more than a half trillion dollars in automatic spending cuts and tax increases kick in beginning next month. He said that on Monday, he had delivered his demands to the

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/us/politics/boehner-calls-on-obama-and-senate-for-fiscal-solution.html?hp&gwh=81DB4326FEABB668B76EBD4BFD8E6016