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Krugman: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Barack Obama
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Barack Obama
These days, political events occur, as it were, twice — the first time as near-tragedy, the second time as farce*.
In 2011, President Obama very nearly did immense damage to both the social safety net and the future of his party by offering a disastrous budget deal — a deal...Fortunately, he was saved from himself by what Gail Collins calls the rabid ferrets — the Republican back-benchers who wouldn’t accept any rise in taxes on the rich whatsoever, and effectively scuttled the deal.
This time around, Obama holds a much stronger position, yet for a couple of days there he seemed once again to be negotiating with himself. The offer he made earlier this week wasn’t nearly as bad as in 2011, and some reasonable progressives believe that the benefits — extended unemployment benefits, infrastructure, and extension of some other tax breaks that benefit the poor and middle class — are worth giving up a full return to pre-Bush taxes on the wealthy and the cuts in Social Security that would result from changing the price index. But it was an offer, not a deal — and there was good reason to fear that Obama, having arguably already given away too much, was getting ready to give away substantially more.
Rabid ferrets to the rescue!
It’s still not clear what Boehner thought he was doing In floating his “Plan B” — a ludicrous measure that would largely let the affluent, and even the wealthy, off the hook. Was it an attempt to somehow strengthen his bargaining position? Was he just covering his, um, assets with the GOP base? I don’t know. But he’s definitely disabused the Obama people of any notion that they’re finally having a serious, good-faith negotiation.
Furthermore, it’s now clear that he’s having trouble getting his party unified even for a tiny tax rise on the wealthy — which means that he would suffer massive defections in any deal that even a wimpy Obama (if that’s what we have again, which I hope we don’t) might agree to. And that in turn means that any deal would have to have overwhelming Democratic support — which gives progressives in the House, who already feel that Obama has given away too much, a lot of veto power despite their minority status...And the capitulation we all feared seems a lot less likely than it did two days ago. Thanks, ferrets!
<...>
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/the-eighteenth-brumaire-of-barack-obama/
These days, political events occur, as it were, twice — the first time as near-tragedy, the second time as farce*.
In 2011, President Obama very nearly did immense damage to both the social safety net and the future of his party by offering a disastrous budget deal — a deal...Fortunately, he was saved from himself by what Gail Collins calls the rabid ferrets — the Republican back-benchers who wouldn’t accept any rise in taxes on the rich whatsoever, and effectively scuttled the deal.
This time around, Obama holds a much stronger position, yet for a couple of days there he seemed once again to be negotiating with himself. The offer he made earlier this week wasn’t nearly as bad as in 2011, and some reasonable progressives believe that the benefits — extended unemployment benefits, infrastructure, and extension of some other tax breaks that benefit the poor and middle class — are worth giving up a full return to pre-Bush taxes on the wealthy and the cuts in Social Security that would result from changing the price index. But it was an offer, not a deal — and there was good reason to fear that Obama, having arguably already given away too much, was getting ready to give away substantially more.
Rabid ferrets to the rescue!
It’s still not clear what Boehner thought he was doing In floating his “Plan B” — a ludicrous measure that would largely let the affluent, and even the wealthy, off the hook. Was it an attempt to somehow strengthen his bargaining position? Was he just covering his, um, assets with the GOP base? I don’t know. But he’s definitely disabused the Obama people of any notion that they’re finally having a serious, good-faith negotiation.
Furthermore, it’s now clear that he’s having trouble getting his party unified even for a tiny tax rise on the wealthy — which means that he would suffer massive defections in any deal that even a wimpy Obama (if that’s what we have again, which I hope we don’t) might agree to. And that in turn means that any deal would have to have overwhelming Democratic support — which gives progressives in the House, who already feel that Obama has given away too much, a lot of veto power despite their minority status...And the capitulation we all feared seems a lot less likely than it did two days ago. Thanks, ferrets!
<...>
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/the-eighteenth-brumaire-of-barack-obama/
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