I have criticized John Boehner repeatedly. I have also recognized the impossibility of his task in negotiating with a President Obama who is more interested in inflicting pain on republicans and republican voters than protecting the economy or putting the country on a stable financial footing. In retrospect, it is clear that the earlier deal to create the fiscal cliff was a terrible idea, at least for republicans. They dealt the cards though, so they have to play the hand. It is easy to say that last night's failure of the Plan B tax vote was a huge disaster for Boehner, one that may end his Speakership. Democrats, smelling blood, were gleeful. To a person, they believe that Obama now holds the few remaining cards he didn't have before. Republicans' options range from abject surrender to humiliating defeat. I wonder. Boehner was faced with a frustrating yet familiar negotiating problem, an opponent who will not negotiate. Obama's position had three legs. One, insistence on tax increase for predominantly republican voters. Two, minimal reforms in discretionary spending. Three, insistence that republicans take responsibility for unpopular yet necessary reforms to the big entitlement programs. In essence, he wanted the republicans to attack their own base, while he sat back and kept saying they needed to give up more. I thought Boehner's Plan B was not a terrible idea. Raise taxes on the above $1mill a year crowd. A lot of them are corporate weasels who don't deserve the money anyway. Tellingly, Obama opposed it. Not enough pain on the rank and file republican voters I guess. Then the stunner. Plan B was pulled because of lack of support in the republican caucus. But was there really a lack of support? How hard did the Leadership try to armtwist recalcitrant members? The meeting was adjourned after 15 minutes. I'd say they didn't try very hard at all. But why? Two powerful negotiating tactics are so-called good cop/bad cop and lack of authority. Everyone knows the good cop/bad cop drill. Deal with me or my unreasonable, irrational partner, your choice. Limited authority is another win-win approach. You never actually reject things out of hand, It's just that you lack the negotiating authority to go there. Boehner, either through luck or skill, now can deploy both these tactics. Deal with him or the Tea party zealots. Your choice, Mr. President. Clearly, he lacks the votes to even get his Plan B passed. Forget anything more aggressive. Obama could just ignore it all, but there are items in the fiscal cliff that he desperately needs. He'll have to decide if tax cuts aimed at only republican voters are among them.
There are those in the House who will not vote for any tax increase on anyone. Boehner should know this. The bill was all taxes and nothing on spending. That's Obama's Game. I think everyone is afraid to name spending cuts for fear of offending the recipients of the cuts. The only way they will be able to do that is with an eventual agreement behind closed doors. Neither party is going to come out unilaterally and say we want to cut this or cut that because the other party (mainly the Democraps) will just beat them over the head with it. But, we do need someone new to negotiate. Someone stronger and unwilling to sell out to Obama. When Boehner said a couple weeks ago that we weren't going let us go over the fiscal cliff he just showed his hand. He needs to keep his mouth shut about what he would do and just beat Obama over the head with what the Democraps won't do. In short, Boehner just ticks me off with his weakness.
We don't need games from our D.C. whores. What we need is a consumption tax to replace our current tax scam.
1. Odumbo thinks he has a mandate to "tax the rich". 2. Odumbo/DemoCraps won't propose ANY spending cuts... will leave those to the Republicans so they can take the blame at the polls. 3. Odumbo is in the "no lose" catbird seat. What the Republicans SHOULD do is offer, "WE WILL RELENT TO A TOKEN TAX INCREASE BUT ONLY IF A BALANCED BUDGET... AND NO DEFICITS". In all fairness... there should be no tax increases on anybody until fraud, waste, abuse have been wrung out of spending. It's criminal to raise taxes without doing the former first. We don't have a "too little revenue" problem... ours is TOO MUCH RECKLESS, WASTEFUL, POLITICALLY MOTIVATED SPENDING... WHICH WE CANNOT AFFORD!! *When in the past has a candidate run on the platform of raising taxes? What cancer pervades our social mindset to reward this?
I don't give a shit what Odumbo thinks. That's my point. Spending cuts can only be negotiated behind closed doors. You can't say in public that we want to cut this, this and this. That is a losing negotiating tactic. You will just get beat over the head with it. Fuck him. If he is in the catbirds seat let him try and get anything passed without the House. The sooner Republicans get him to realize nothing is going to happen without their approval, the better. Fine, require a balanced budget. But don't budge in public on anything until Obama and the Senate will agree to that. If the Democraps start beating you over the head in public just do the same to them with their stupidness. The only strategy can be aggressive offense. Being defensive or showing yourself to cave on this or that is being the loser. Voters don't vote for panzie ass losers.
I think he might be finished. I read an editorial this morning suggesting that he and Cantor resign their leadership positions. I also read a *very* interesting piece on American Thinker that suggests the fiscal cliff is nonsense, that there are no congressional enforcers who will make sure the provisions of the mandate will be enacted and that congress will simply not enact the mandate just as they don't produce a budget. There is nobody to make them go off the cliff. Personally I don't care what happens. I'm pretty certain the country cannot sustain what is happening and when people realize that they paid into Social Security but aren't going to get anything in return they are going to go ballistic. We are headed for small government one way or another. Quite a few of us have figured out how to dodge the taxes, defer income and basically hunker down until it is over. Its a good time to go back for another degree or work on a few grants.