That's what a Washington Post headline says and it's dead on. So that's the first thing you notice about the President's proposals. The second thing is I really, really like his plan.
The GOP claims his offer is a joke. However, I think the joke may be on them. This is a really, really good budget. You see how much I like it by the fact that I wrote really twice: it's that good.
It's no surprise that they don't like it as it offers only $400 billion in cuts and $1.6 trillion in revenue. They think this is unfair. Yet is it more unfair than Mitt Romney who during the campaign had said he wouldn't accept a deal with a ratio of 9 to 1 in spending cuts to tax increases?
Yet the GOP continues to offer the Romney budget-no tax increases for the rich just "closing loopholes." Making the code "flatter and fairer" is an oxymoron, of course. Flat means more regressive which is less fair.
What they lose sight of is that Obama has already given them over $1 trillion in budget cuts. What's actually ironic is that the GOP is saying he's not serious for not proposing more spending cuts yet they themselves refuse to propose anything in terms of entitlement "reform" instead saying that since he has the mandate he can go first. So who is it that needs to get serious?
Obama as he campaigned on-and nothing in this budget by the President is new, so the GOP shouldn't be so surprised-calls for the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire. He also raises both the capital gains and dividends rate-booyah! Sorry, but I love this so much.
He also calls for a return either of the payroll tax cut or the Making Work Pay credit in the 2009 stimulus. His Medicare cuts are all on the provider side and sound very promising. There is no mention of raising the retirement age. I still insist he played the GOP in the Summer of 2011. He never said he would raise the retirement age-it was just speculation that he allowed as part of negotiations. Yet all the Firedoglakers took that and ran with it screaming from the Heavens that he wanted to gut Medicare-as if what he wants to do and Paul Ryan are one and the same.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/gop-rejects-white-house-opening-budget-bid.php?ref=fpa
For good measure he calls for an end to the debt ceiling altogether. I mean c'mon! This is a great budget. The GOP is disgusted. It also calls for $200 billion in new stimulus-did I not say this is a great budget? As Ezra Klein says, the real trouble is not that he won't get serious, but that he finally has. Remember how hard he used to try to get GOP support-all to no avail? He had insisted that the stimulus got a certain level of GOP support that he didn't want a straight party line vote. Where did it get him? The GOP tried to claim that it was he who refused to compromise, ignoring that from the start they had vowed to not support anything he proposed.
Now they miss the old Obama:
“How did it take them three weeks (and two days) to offer nothing but President Obama’s budget?” A GOP leadership aide asked me rhetorically."
"We’re seeing two things here. One is that the negotiations aren’t going well. When one side begins leaking the other side’s proposals, that’s typically a bad sign. The other is that Republicans are frustrated at the new Obama they’re facing: The Obama who refuses to negotiate with himself.
That’s what you’re really seeing in this “proposal.” Previously, Obama’s pattern had been to offer plans that roughly tracked where he thought the compromise should end up. The White House’s belief was that by being solicitous in their policy proposals, they would win goodwill on the other side, and even if they didn’t, the media would side with them, realizing they’d sought compromise and been rebuffed. They don’t believe that anymore."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/29/obama-to-gop-i-wont-negotiate-with-myself/?hpid=z1
As Klein says, the obvious question now is: what's the GOP's proposal? Notice how for all their talk about Obama not being serious, he's now offered a comprehensive plan whereas they've offered us nothing. Even the Medicare cuts they wanted, they refused to name. They wanted him to name them-so then he's got blood on his hands and Jane Hamsher and her little brood can inveigh against him to the Heavens.
He's not falling for it this time. If they want to cut Medicare, let them come out and say so and where and how much. If they want to close deductions, which ones? Is it the mortgage rate interest deduction? Of course they don't want to say that as it would upset the middle class. Their strategy was always to let the President negotiate with himself and so he'd take all the hits for compromises he'd make-before they even opened their mouth.
Yeah, they're disgusted. They're shocked in fact. They seemed to be no more ready for this than they were for November 6. It was such a great strategy and it's over.
"Although the White House offer seemed to startle Republicans, it contains little that would be unfamiliar to anyone following the president’s recent public statements. The exception was his proposal on the federal debt limit. GOP aides said Obama is seeking to permanently enact procedures that were temporarily adopted in the summer of 2011 that allow the White House to unilaterally increase the debt ceiling unless two-thirds of lawmakers disapprove."
It was startling becasue they honestly thought this was still the Obama of 2009. As much as they sneered during campaign season that the old 'Yes We Can" Obama was gone, on some level they actually thought he hadn't changed, he hadn't learned anything.
Now it's the GOP's turn to shine:
"Democratic leaders, meanwhile, were triumphant after receiving similar briefings from Geithner and White House legislative liaison Rob Nabors. Top Democrats have for months insisted that an Obama victory would entitle them to demand far more in new taxes than Republicans have been willing to consider, to seek new measures to boost economic growth, and to avoid major cuts to entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare."
“Democrats are on the same page,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). “The president has made his proposal; we need a proposal from them.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fiscal-cliff-talks-bogged-down-by-dispute-over-cost-of-retirement-programs/2012/11/29/99022ac0-3a2e-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html
No comments:
Post a Comment