The Great Republican Sacred Cow

[BridgeTheGap]

Last week I wrote a post about what Alison Kilkenny at The Nation has called “the era of the one-sided compromise,” questioning whether the Republican party, both at the state and national levels, could actually compromise on a budget deal that included some sort of new tax revenue. My conclusion was no, they wouldn’t be able to. Which is exactly what played out over the weekend, as Jonathan Cohn writes at The New Republic:

As you have probably heard by now, House Speaker John Boehner on Saturday evening informed President Obama that he was no longer interested in pursuing a “grand bargain” on deficit reduction. It was a major turning point in the debate. For the past week, Obama has made clear that he hoped to use ongoing negotiations over the debt ceiling to put in place a massive, potentially historic deal to reorder the nation’s spending priorities – a deal that would reduce deficits by as much as $4 trillion cumulatively over the next decade.

This abandonment by Boehner has left Cohn, like so many of us, wondering, “Does anything matter to Republicans more than protecting tax cuts for the very wealthy?” Cohn points out that any “grand bargain” that could have been reached as a result of the current debate would “reflect Republican priorities far more than Democratic ones,” including cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. In other words, the stuff that matters to one side would be represented far more than the stuff that matters to the other. Still, the Republicans can’t stomach the idea of the Bush-era tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest expiring next year.

Cohn sees Boehner’s willingness to negotiate as genuine and writes, “For what it's worth, I’ve actually gained some respect for Boehner… was genuinely interested in negotiating a deal even if that meant agreeing to some compromises, albeit pretty modest ones from my perspective.” However, he acknowledges that Boehner’s not really in charge of the House Republican caucus. “The lunatics are,” he writes. “And it looks like they’ve won.”

Read more: http://www.utne.com/Politics/Taxes-Republican-Sacred-Cow-Budget-Compromise.aspx#ixzz1S5slRzfs

[Hawkowl]

1. The wealthy have lost control

Big business and the rich have lost control of their party. The Koch brothers have created a Frankenstein's monster which will come back to kill them! :rofl:

[Kablooie]

2. Problem is the monster will attack all of us as well.

If the economy collapses further it won't be good for any of us.

[Hawkowl]

3. That's why it is a true Horror show.

It will be a disaster, but WE WILL put the monster to rest. I've said for years, that it was going, even had to get much worse before we could solve our problems. It looks like it is just around the corner now. And yes it is scary and not the least bit funny.

[BridgeTheGap]

5. I truly hope it is an "hour is always darkest before the dawn" moment! n.t

[CartoonDiablo]

4. There are two outcomes

Either they will let Obama have a clean debt-ceiling raise or they will raise taxes and be voted out. The Republicans were recently pressured by business leaders to raise it and polls indicate Americans will blame them if suddenly 10% of our GDP is shot to hell because of the debt ceiling.

My guess is they thought Obama would be a weak leader and let them have their way but are finding out it's not the case.