Payroll tax cut machinations: Republicans not covering themselves with glory
The WSJ wonders how it is that “GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass.”
I’ll help them out.
(1) Never forget that, as Gerard Vanderleun of American Digest has so aptly put it:
(2) McConnell and Boehner don’t seem to be on speaking terms with each other. Or, that is, according to the WSJ, they were on speaking terms when they mapped out the strategy (pass the 2-months extension and simultaneously wring some concessions from Obama on Keystone) but Boehner bailed when some House Republicans bolted. Leadership? Hardly.
The WSJ suggests that “Republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly. Then go home and return in January with a united House-Senate strategy that forces Democrats to make specific policy choices that highlight the differences between the parties on spending, taxes and regulation.”
Oh, those dreamers (the WSJ, that is, not the Republicans)! One consolation, although it’s a sad one, is that not so many people may be paying attention to the whole sorry business. Or, if they are, many of them might prefer Republican legislative disorganization to the greater ability of the legislative Democratic leaders to whip their underlings into shape and get things—like Obamacare—passed.
[ADDENDUM: More here.]
What about the reports that the 2-month extension would be a nightmare to implement? Do beltway types ever think about these things? I don’t know what this extension would mean, but I’m pretty sure Obama has the campaign schedule in mind with anything he supports.
I understand where the House is coming from. They have passed something like 25 job/tax related bills this year that died in the Senate. They never even made it out of Senate committee, let alone debated on the floor and voted on.
This time the House passed a bill, then the Senate passed its version of the bill. The Senate basically said, “take our version or leave it”. And with 89 votes they had every reason to think the House would take it.
But at this point in the legislative process, as I understand it, constitutionally, the House has the option to either pass the Senate bill as is, or force the Senate leaders into a conference committee to reconcile the House version with the Senate’s version. After being ignored all years, the House chose to exercise their option to force a conference committee. I actually kinda like the chutzpah of the House for not allowing themselves to be rolled by Obama and the Senate.
But I’m sure I’m in the tiny minority and 95% of the population is only reading the editorials saying the House Republicans are obstructionist jerks.
I caught Rush on the radio this morning as I was running errands and I favor his way of framing this charade as Obama and the senate democrats robbing hundreds of billions from the social security instead of as a tax cut. Unfortunately, republicans continue to allow Obama and his MSM henchmen to engage in a propaganda war of misleading sound bites. We need a leader on the right who is willing to confront the left on his or her terms, not on their terms.
Too bad the GOP establishment tolerated (and in some cases encouraged) the MSM’s tar and feathering of Sarah Palin. She and Cain are the only republicans I’ve heard over the last 3 years who have refused to play by the Obama/MSM rule book.
Social Security is headed for a cliff. Why would the Administration want a two month tax cut on Social Security deductions when the system is already underfunded? Also mentioned by Rush today is a provision in the bill that adds a $17 per month tax on home mortgage payments, based on a $200k house. So, in exchange for about a $100 in tax breaks for two months we will be saddled with a $17 charge forever. The whole thing stinks on ice.
The WSJ & the R establishment have it wrong. A 2-month deal ??? Conservative principles not politic as usual is what the the Tea Party House R is standing for. We need radical changes to save this great Nation. RNC and Romney cannot even say publicly that Obama is a socialist … but they have no pb bashing the conservatives.
We are going to see something we never seen before. Obama is going to show us what he can do with 1 billion at his disposal. By miracle, we are going to see his approval # going up along with an unemplyment rate below 8% when come the election. We are going to see a real dirty campaign as never seen before and the elites are so full of themseves to tell us that only Romney can beat socialist-marxist Obama… I stop here.
I wouldn’t be surprised the Democrats engineered this little internal collapse. The Republicans have always been subservient to Democrat political schemes, and that’s been true for a long time now. Even going back to FDR.
Is there a path out of this spiraling debacle our country is in that won’t look risky on its face and be a voter turn off? Of course not.
We either magically aquire a nation of grownups soon or our spiral will continue till we are finished as a recognisable America.
SteveH says,
“We either magically aquire a nation of grownups soon or our spiral will continue till we are finished as a recognisable America.”
I fear the same, especially for my children and grandchildren.
I think Obama rolled the Republicans a year ago.
If I recall correctly, it was Obama who first proposed the payroll tax cut. Since Social Security was already in deep trouble, the cut was irresponsible in the extreme. It would ensure that SS would blow up even earlier than it otherwise would have.
The R’s agreed to the cut, since if they opposed it, Obama would have excoriated them for opposing tax cuts on the working class.
But once it was implemented, there was no way it could have been allowed to expire, because if it had, Obama could excoriate them for raising taxes on the working class.
The congressional Republicans were thoroughly outplayed a year ago. Whether it was out of stupidity or willingness, I don’t know.
Our solstice party is over, so I fired up the computer to see what was happening here…..
“If I recall correctly, it was Obama who first proposed the payroll tax cut. Since Social Security was already in deep trouble, the cut was irresponsible in the extreme. It would ensure that SS would blow up even earlier than it otherwise would have.”
That is my recollection. Bankrupting SS and medicare are both a part of a master plan to make as many people as possible feel dependent upon government.
“The congressional Republicans were thoroughly outplayed a year ago.”
Yep, they don’t understand how to stand up against the Chicago style of politics. The first rule is to always bring a gun to the knife fight, and the second rule is to always bring 2 guns to the gun fight.
“Whether it was out of stupidity or willingness, I don’t know.”
“Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.” — Hanlon’s Razor
“” The first rule is to always bring a gun to the knife fight, and the second rule is to always bring 2 guns to the gun fight.””
Parker
The implication in this very common statement is that we need immoral sleazeballs who think like democrats to defeat them. The problem being…Then everyone is a sleazeball democrat willing to risk the country sliding into oblivion.
The dillema is like one of how do you play russian roullette for all the stakes with someone who is suicidal. Well if you’re a normal person, you look unnerved, stupid and intimidated.
I understand your worries and frustrations, Neo-Neo, but a 2-month extension–rather than YEARS–just screws with (small & big)business plans. It’s Bi-Polar Big Nanny and it really ****s with the necessary need for some consistency and the ability for business to have some Tax Predictability.
A long time ago I said in general terms the kind of things coming down the pike. But because I didn’t know the details of how things would pan, warnings and flow was ignored. I never claimed that my extrapolations where clairvoyant, so of course there would be no details.
Take a moment to take a step back and see the larger picture.
The stops are pulled out and stuff is going on in coordinated action across western civ from the uk to the USA and on all fronts.
Each thing that is the close up focus would in itself not be much of a concern but like chess pieces the combination and convergence of them is a different beast.
And yet no one wants to think the unthinkable as to what is happening and how it’s all converging on 2012 as I said it would almost half a decade ago.(sans details)
the news is now allowing the demographic collapse of western populations be revealed
100% GDP has been reached
the military has been demoralized (bestiality is now a ok)
manufacturing has been gutted
personal ability is gone along with the ability to organize
and the financial games such as this and more will do what among the welfare and th riotus?
Whether it’s by bribe and the breaking of the rule of law
or it’s by lockdown for our own good
or by appeals to the oppressed women etc
this election is already fixed one way or another
each little piece discussed apart does not a flow make
and so there is no view of what’s going on or to happen
no one is assembling the pieces accross the landscape
it’s like discussing one soldier at a time as a way to understand a whole war or listing all the battles and counting bullets
The payroll tax reduction was and is a bad idea. However since it was allowed to pass, if it is to be extended it must be extended for a reasonable period. Two months is not even a quarter. It might be sensible to pass it for say 6 months (two quarters) but realistically the house is correct and it should be passed and funded for the entire year.
The two month extension is a political device so that it can be raised again to continue to distract the electorate from other very real issues with the administration and to bludgeon the Republican poll numbers. Better the house fights this battle once for 2012 and moves on.
No, you don’t need immoral sleazeballs to defeat the Left. You can just use my solution. Kill em using execution scaffolds. It’s been done before.
Reality is complex. There are many different ways to go about things. One gun, two guns, those are a small percentage of the total possibilities.
“The implication in this very common statement is that we need immoral sleazeballs who think like democrats to defeat them.”
I disagree and here is my reality based analogy:
If a 20 year old male, 6’2″ & 220 pound, robber/rapist armed with a knife breaks into the home of a 80 year old 5’2″ & 100 pound wheelchair bound woman; it is not immoral for her to shoot the son of a bitch 6 times in the chest with a .357 magnum revolver loaded with 125 grain semi-jacketed hollow points with a muzzle velocity of 1,300 feet per second. Can’t stand the heat? Get out of the f*&@ing kitchen.