Patty Murray isn't Afraid of any Fiscal Cliff

     Which is a good thing as she has a very important role in negotiations as she's the fourth ranking Democrat in the Senate-she's the incoming chairman of the powerful Senate Budget Committee. She also gets a fair amount of credit for her part in achieving the big night by the Senate Democrats in the recently held election.

    What you have to like is that she's not afraid to go off the cliff is need be:

     "And so what Murray has to say about the “fiscal cliff,” a combination of tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect in January, may be of particular importance. In a town consumed by talk of the apocalyptic consequences of failing to resolve the budgeting crisis, Murray has been arguing that missing the deadline for a deal — going over the cliff — could actually make getting a deal easier."

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/patty-murray-will-be-key-voice-in-senate-on-budget-deal/2012/11/23/d02a5a02-300d-11e2-a30e-5ca76eeec857_story.html

      No less an economic authority than Mark Zandi doesn't think going over the cliff is the end of the world. Certainly he doesn't see the expiration of all the Bush tax cuts if they fail got get a deal as the worse possible option. It could even be the best option he suggests.

      http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-fiscal-cliff-most-over-hyped-event.html

      Everything about her record in the Senate sounds like she won't let herself be intimidated. Which is good. The Dems have the advantage and as long as they remember that, there's nothing to worry about.

      The country already has told pollsters at Pew Research that a failure to get a deal will be blamed on the GOP. They are the ones who can't seem to be unwilling to make a deal.

       At this point you see how much things have changed as the Repubs can't use the words "new revenue" enough. The want to assure people that they want to raise new revenue via higher taxes on the rich.

      What they're left with is trying to argue that the better way to do this is through closing loopholes alone-they never give us any hint what these loopholes might be.

      That-and perhaps to save face more than anything-they have been talking about putting ObamaCare on the table in the budget talks. Boehner kicked the ball rolling in a newspaper editorial. There are several parts of ObamaCAre that they hope could be in a final deal. Again, much of it is more just about making the base feel better than anything.

      http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/the-three-most-likely-obamacare-cuts.php?ref=fpb

       I do see that there are still those that think the President and maybe other Dems are ready to cut deeply into Medicare and SS at any moment-a theory that has been way overdone.

       I still remember the Summer of 2011-a time when the President's personal stock was at it's lowest. At the time I was spending lots of time over at Firedoglake-keep your enemies closer...

       They were certain that the President was all set to gut Medicare. I didn't believe it then and still don't believe it now. Laurence O'Donnell has time and again been the most reliable prophet. At the time he argued that Obama was actually playing the GOP. This certainly didn't seem like it to anyone. The Firebaggers heaped scorn on the idea of Obama as a master of "11 dimensional chess." Yet who has proven correct?

       It was thanks to him playing them that they now have no real leverage. They don't have the political capital to play another long game of chicken. In 2011 they didn't turn out to have it either though they had thought so at the time. This time they must know they don't.

      As to Simpson-Bowles, the big Democrats have all come out and pointedly criticized its framework-during the election. First Schumer, then Reid, than an Obama spokesperson backed that up. I don't think the President is ready to get rolled again. I think he came in with a plan-to be a transformation President-which is why the GOP hated him so much off the bat. They understood his goal. After all it was what Reagan had in his own way been.

      http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/10/harry-reid-not-so-high-on-simpson.html

     Obama's theory was that after 30 years of conservatism, it's a longer process to achieve an ideological shift. At this point though, I think the transformation agenda is well on schedule.