Fiscal Cliff Deal: Obama Takes Less In Revenue In Exchange For Destroying The GOP

It's hard to rundown all the spending/tax hike ramifications since they passed the damn thing at 2am on New Years Day but the politics of the deal are quite clear.

WH tells colleague Ed Henry Obama broke R's tax pledge. Calls it "1 of the most consequential policy achievements of the last couple decades

And what did the GOP get for this? Nothing. In fact, we gave back spending cuts we supposedly won through sequestration. Yes, they say they will "pay" for the delay through unspecified spending cuts and some tax raising gimmicks but the principle of doing anything to avoid actual spending cuts has been set.

And how much did Obama and the Democrats get from this deal? $600 billion in new taxes over 10 years. Obama originally wanted $1.6 trillion over 10 years and Boehner had actually offered $800 billion in revenue so long as it was through tax reform, not hiking rates.

Obama took less revenue just so he could paint the GOP as tax hikers. Even his original position was a joke when it came to dealing with the actual fiscal problems we face.

Mitch McConnell praises the imperfect deal (via email statement):

“The President wanted tax increases, but thanks to this imperfect agreement, 99% of my constituents won’t be hit by those hikes.

“So it took an imperfect solution to prevent our constituents from very real financial pain. But in my view, it was worth the effort. "

No conservative wants to see taxes going up on anyone, especially people struggling in the Obama economy, but by protecting voters from the financial impact of their electoral choices we will simply see ever more demands for larger, not smaller government. Why would anyone support cutting their "free" stuff when it's FREE to them?

I doubt the House GOP has the stones to decline this invitation to sign their own death warrant.

But don't worry guys...we'll get those spending cuts in the debt ceiling deal! This was the key surrender that will catapult us to victory!

Added: Here are the Republicans who voted no.

Mike Lee (R-UT), Richard Shelby (D-AL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Marco Rubio (R-FL).

Some good Senators like Jeff Sessions, Tom Coburn and Ron Johnson who I thought would have known better voted for this. Very disappointing.

posted by DrewM. at 10:13 AM

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