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Republicans pulled the fiscal emergency brake

#1 Jan 02 2013 at 8:46 PM Rating: Default
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LockeColeMA wrote:
So... they wanted "no taxes at all," got tax increases, and it's their victory? Well, as long as it makes you happy, keep saying that.


They want taxes to be as low as possible. You need to look at this from a larger historical perspective to understand what I'm talking about.

Back in 2001, the GOP was able to get the Bush tax cuts in place, but could only get it past a Dem filibuster by including a sunset provision. Which is what brought us to this point in the first place. Yesterday, the Dems basically allowed 99+% of the Bush tax cuts to become permanent (no more sunset). That's a massive victory. If the cost of getting that is to allow taxes to go up a tiny amount on income over $400k, that's an acceptable price to pay.

The point of holding the line is about negotiation. If the GOP told the Dems that they were willing to give that $400k concession 2 months ago, the Dems would have held out for something better. You always start with the absolute and then negotiate.

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I would think a better analogy would be the GOP saying "We want free pizza!" and then being forced to pay for a salad and calling it a victory.


Only if you completely fail to grasp the fiscal objectives of the Right. And yes, there are a lot of stupid conservative pundits (radio talking heads really) who fail to grasp them as well. The broad objective is to minimize the tax burden on the people. That's the goal. The whole "rich vs poor" thing is really a Liberal issue. Obviously, in a perfect world, sanity would have won out and we would have made the Bush tax rates permanent for all income brackets, but in the big picture context, this was about the best win the GOP could have hoped for. And by making the whole thing about ********* over "taxes on the rich", the Left managed to become so obsessed over it that they failed to see that bigger picture. They fought so hard for those incredibly tiny tax increases that they were willing to basically give the GOP every thing else they wanted to get them. And "everything else" is stuff the Dems steadfastly opposed just a decade ago.

This was never about "taxes for the 98% versus taxes for the 2%" from the conservative perspective. But if letting the Left think that got us what we wanted, that's just peachy.

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Not that I care. Stocks soared today Smiley: grin


Yes. Because most of the people making decisions which affect those stock prices are fiscally conservative and they liked the deal. What part of "stocks plummet when Obama wins re-election" makes you think that markets respond favorably when liberals win?
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