Michael Tomasky: Supercommittee Shows GOP Is Taking Hostages Again

[flpoljunkie]

Michael Tomasky: Supercommittee Shows GOP Is Taking Hostages Again
Nov 17, 2011 4:45 AM EST

A handful of Republicans are open to compromise on the deficit, but many more are prepared to use the supercommittee to harm the country for political gain, says Michael Tomasky.

It’s nice to see that Republican senators like Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Mike Crapo of Idaho are talking about breaking ranks on revenue. But it’s just talk. The actual Republican position as of this writing submits to $250 billion in semi-phony revenues but seeks to add $3.7 trillion to the 10-year deficit. And the supercommittee is a panel that, remember, is charged with reducing the deficit. This is more politics by hostage-taking, just like during the debt-ceiling fiasco.

So what do I mean when I say they want to add $3.7 trillion to the deficit? I mean that they want to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. The cost of the Bush tax cuts over the next 10 years comes to $3.7 trillion. They’ve said to the Democrats, in other words, that they will agree to minor revenue increases now, but only on the firm condition that the Democrats accept depleting the Treasury by 15 times as much over the next decade. What sort of idiot would take that deal? It’s not a deal at all. It’s hostage-taking, no different in spirit from the kidnapper who feeds you well for a few days but then takes the money and shoots you anyway.

This is way the Republicans play politics these days. Attach the debt-ceiling vote to completely unprecedented demands for spending cuts. Subject the debt-ceiling vote to cloture rules so that raising the limit requires 60 votes instead of 51—for the first time in the history of the Senate, since it began raising the debt limit during World War II. And now, agree to revenue increases, as long as you can force the other guys to agree to revenue cuts that you know and they know would cripple their party’s priorities and program for the country.

And about these revenues: they’re arrived at mainly by taking away deductions used by working- and middle-class taxpayers in order to pay for huge tax cuts for You Know Who. Under this plan, from Republican Senator Pat Toomey, households earning all the way up to $200,000 would actually see small tax increases, according to Joint Committee on Taxation estimates. Households from $200,000 to $500,000 would average a small cut, less than $2,000. Households from half a million to a million would enjoy an average cut of $13,301. And above a million, $31,764.

more...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/11/17/michael-tomasky-super-committee-shows-gop-is-taking-hostages-again.html

[tblue]

1. The Dems are complicit. Aiding & abetting.

You can only blame so much on the Repubs. We know what to expect from them. Who did they surprise? It's the Dems who are the shocking disgrace. But that's become pretty routine too actually.

[ThomThom]

2. Where did they get the power to run long term deficits and borrow

large amounts of money long term? Congress should have to have a budget and find ways to pay for the spending, passing it on to future taxpayers and Congresses is wrong, completely wrong.

[noiretextatique]

3. legalized theft for the wealthy

and nothing more. the political class is once again serving their own best interests and those of their masters.