Republican Counteroffer: $2.2 Trillion in Total Debt Reduction; $800 Billion in New Revenues

The "new revenues" don't involve nominal rate increases but must include actual rate increases via reductions in deductions.

The Democrats are playing a very irresponsible game here. Republicans have agreed to tax increases so long as we call them something else and can argue that reducing deductions is a net positive for the economy as doing so reduces economic distortions. That's kind of a dodge, of course, but at any rate, the party seems to be willing to do that... so long as there's a dodge.

The Democrats, on the other hand, are insistent that the revenue increases come via tax hikes. They want the Republicans to know they've been broken and have no face-saving cover.

Raising revenue isn't the point of their maneuverings -- they are simply trying to break the Republican Party. And of course they're doing that because they need Republicans to walk away from a compromise-- the Democrats don't want a compromise. They want to go over the fiscal cliff. They just want to be able to blame Republicans for that.

I'll let Bob Costas explain how that's actually a kind of an unheralded sort of statesmanship and fiscal responsibility.

posted by Ace at 03:47 PM

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