Debt Ceiling Showdown

Two links from James Pethokoukis.

We've been reading and fretting about House Republican leadership, i.e. Boehner et.al. cracking on tax hikes for debt reduction promises. Having been sorely disappointed over the last CR fight, no wonder, right?

I'm not prepared to give up my concerns, mostly because if any of their junior staffers read this thing I want em to know in no uncertain terms, there won't be a job created over a goddamn tax hike on anyone.

HERE'S a concrete example of why caving on "subsidies for big oil", to pick an example, is dead wrong. The tax code grants all US manufacturers of products an incentive, a "loophole", a BREAK, of 7%.

Except for refining gas, which only gets 4%.

You give that up, all that happens is the price at the pump goes up. It gets passed on as a cost to the consumer.

That would, what's the word I'm looking for here? It would f'n SUCK that's what.

I am hopeful the Republican leadership gets this.

Link one I just like the title of it.

WH is demanding major, unambiguous tax hikes. To get spending caps & entitlement tweaks, greater economic pain appears to be the WH’s asking price. It is increasingly likely that we aren’t going to see a ‘big’ deal if the WH doesn’t budge. Speaker looks to be holding strong. … Their fierce insistence on higher taxes is beyond bizarre. After months of demanding ‘clean’ increase to avert economic calamity (default), WH threatens economic calamity (default) unless they get economic calamity (trillions in tax hikes). No wonder these guys are governing over an economic calamity (9.2% & growth malaise), w an economic calamity on the horizon (debt explosion as mapped out in president’s budget).

Bizarre? Dope smoking bizarre, to fling these threats down. CRACK SMOKING bizarre if the House R's fall for em.

Link 2. Statement from Boehner's office.

"Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes. I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase."

So the White House is digging it's heels in after empty promises, and we're negotiating downward on the tax hike argument.

I find a) digging in on no tax increases encouraging, but b) scaling down the larger opportunity for reform less so.

I don't believe we can hammer this whole thing down in a weekend argument over the debt ceiling, but I do believe we can dig in enough to win a large part of this argument AND set the landscape for 2012.

And I really believe 2012 is what all this crap is about.

(yes, I have been awarded an MFO*, Fall 2008)

*Master's of the F'n' Obvious

posted by Dave In Texas at 08:48 PM

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