NY Times Editorial - "The House Makes an ‘Offer’"

[TomCADem]

I guess we should not be surprised. Republicans are proposing to soak the middle class to save tax cuts for the very rich. Yet, most media outlets are calling Boehner's two page list of talking points a "counter-proposal."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/opinion/speaker-john-boehner-makes-an-offer.html?_r=0

Since last month’s election, Republican leaders in Congress have been demanding that President Obama come up with a detailed plan to cut the deficit and solve the upcoming fiscal deadlines without feeling any need to prepare a plan of their own. On Monday, under pressure from the White House, Republicans finally released their opening position in the negotiations — a remarkably shallow one that demonstrated a lack of seriousness in negotiations, or farsightedness in policy.

* * *
The proposal, which Mr. Bowles quickly disavowed on Monday, purports to raise $800 billion in revenue over a decade by ending deductions and loopholes, while allowing the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich to continue. It would cut $1.2 trillion in spending, half of which would come from Medicare, Medicaid, and other health programs, including an increase in the Medicare eligibility age to 67. Another $600 billion would be cut from other unspecified spending.

Which programs would be cut? The letter doesn’t say, and Republicans don’t seem to care, as long as they blindly achieve their goal of cutting a big chunk out of government. The offer was a transparent attempt to appear responsive to Mr. Obama’s detailed proposal from last week, without doing any actual math or hard work.

If Mr. Boehner had used a calculator, for example, he would have discovered it is impossible to produce $800 billion in revenue from eliminating deductions without severely curtailing the deduction for charitable donations, which is vital to the nonprofit sector. Doing so without limiting the charitable deduction would inevitably raise taxes on the middle class, as nonpartisan analysts have concluded, and would have a much greater effect on the upper middle class than on the very rich.

[thelordofhell]

1. They wrote Ryan's old budget on a cocktail napkin, blew their nose on it, and presented it as a plan

What a bunch of disgusting pricks these republicans are.............

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. After they whiped their collective asses with it.

[TomCADem]

3. And the Corporate Media Praised Them For Their Honesty and Boldness!

Ryan proposes to cut benefits to seniors and the poor to pay for tax cuts to the rich and the corporate media praises him for his courage and boldness! I bet Grover Norquist thinks that if he tortures a puppy and posts it on youtube, Fox News will wet itself and throw him a parade in this up is down world.