My recommendations to the Democratic Party

[tcaudilllg]

First of all, I'd like to say that I am flummoxed by the behavior of the party leadership with respect to the debt question. It is particularly ironic that although large segments of the Tea Party are concerned about the debt, there has been little effort by Congress to cover for it. It is quite probable that if the debt were to vanish as an issue (like say, by reducing the deficit to nil) then probably at least a quarter of the party would lose its fire. Certainly all the fiscal conservatives on both the Right and the Left would be satisfied. And all it would take, is jacking up the highest tax bracket (>$1m) to fill the debt. It was done in the Great Depression... why not now? Tie the wind down of this tax increase on the rich (which polls have shown the American people as a whole have little compunction for) to rise of income tax revenues towards pre-recession levels. (leaving an extra $500 billion to take care of our war deficit). Hold their feet to the fire: if the rich say that trickle down economics works, now is the perfect time for them to demonstrate it in fully transparent terms.

As far as I can see, this would be an excellent way for Democrats to both divide the Tea Party; restore the party base (while fracturing the Republican base); and prevent future generations from having to pick up the tab for our mistakes today while maintaining the spending levels that people need in these difficult times.

So, what are they waiting for?