Beware the tax deal
Most Americans are ingrained with the principle that we are entitled to reap the benefits of success and that guaranteeing equal opportunity, not equal results, is the key to fairness. The Democrat Party thinks otherwise and will again prove it by 2012.
Yesterday's tax vote in the Senate provided Americans with the spectacle of a broad bipartisan majority voting 83 to 15 in favor. However, as the B2J has often opined, bipartisanship is not all it is cracked up to be. To many observers, this latest joint foray has the odiousness of business as usual.
In addition to extending the Bush-era tax rates for two years, the Senate proposal is festooned with an eclectic melange of "green subsidies" as well as jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, a one-year estate tax reduction, and a one-year cut in Social Security taxes. Although Obama, most Senate Democrats, and moderate Republican leaders are self-congratulatory over their collegial craftsmanship, all is not balmy within the Beltway's chummy confines. House and heartland storm clouds threaten.
Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders and a few usual suspects of the uber-leftist Democrat Senate persuasion voted against the compromise. Why? Because the thought of the filthy stinking rich getting filthier, stinkier, and richer offends them. However, five conservative Republican Senators also voted nay: DeMint (SC), Ensign (NV), Voinovich (OH), Coburn (OK), and Sessions (AL). Why? Because the smell of bacon offends them - especially after the November 2 wake-up.
Careful what you wish for
As John Fund observed, "Republicans who vote for the tax bill using business-as-usual rules are flirting with disaster. Haste can make for more than waste and lead to populist outrage that often takes on a life of its own."Obama: This proves that both parties can, in fact, work together to grow our economy." The same tea party activists who helped the GOP win a House majority can be filled with righteous outrage if they perceive Congress not learning lessons from the excesses of the past."
This assessment is in conflict with that of Obama, who disingenuously said, "This proves that both parties can, in fact, work together to grow our economy." In the House, Democrats are livid. They initially rejected the tax compromise but now are scrambling to renegotiate the deal. Democrats now demand an increase in the death tax rate and other costly provisions. An earmark by any other name is still an earmark.
Ultimately, it is in the House where Democrats will bear the brunt of the blame should the flawed deal cobbled together by Obama and the Republicans fail. However, its passage may bring about unforeseen consequences for Republicans as well.
Reversal of fortune?
There are no tax cuts involved in extending the existing tax rate, and as a stand-alone item it will have no appreciable bearing on reducing the debt or the deficit. Nine years at the same tax rate amply serve to illustrate its lack of stimulus potential. One must then ask why Obama, the Democrat Congress, and a loyal state-run media tout their noble accommodation of Republicans and incessantly refer to the deal as "tax cuts?"
After all, based upon the regime's continuing economic policy failures, it is within the realm of reason to assume that America's economy is not going to magically jump-start within the next eighteen months. Which is why we may be witnessing a carefully-crafted ploy designed to paint the GOP "tax cuts" as"What if there is no appreciable recovery? Can't you just hear Obama, Reid, and Pelosi now?" a blunder and an impediment to economic recovery. It is not coincidental that Obama declared "This measure will help bolster recovery from recession." He casually dropped that gem after he whined just a few days earlier that Republicans were "holding America hostage."
What if there is no appreciable recovery? Can't you just hear Obama, Reid, and Pelosi now? "Against our better judgment we worked with them, we made concessions, and look what they did to us! The rich got richer, children are suffering, and we're no better off thanks to the greedy GOP!" Hello tax increases, more central planning, and more ridiculous spending.
Principles and promises matter
Yet waiting and watching are the American people, the American majority who declared "Enough!" in November. In a column entitled Kill the Deal, Hugh Hewitt"Does America need a deal contrived in secret and awash in additional obscene spending over something for which they already voted?" says John Boehner has a fundamental choice to make even before he becomes speaker. "He can in good conscience declare that the deal he agreed to has been buried under a mountain of pork and that, upon further reflection, he ought not to have gone along with it in the first place."
Do Americans really need or desire a deal contrived in secret and awash in additional obscene spending over something for which they already voted? Obviously, the answer is no. Even if lame duck Democrats kill this ill-advised compromise, what will be lost that cannot be re-found in the 112th Congress without selling off principles and promises of transparency and accountability? The argument to allay uncertainties over 2011 taxes does not hold water when compared to the loss of voter trust and the resulting backlash that is sure to follow.
Apparently what is obvious to most is lost on the ruling class.
America Held Hostage: 767 Days to Freedom.