Obama has boxed in congressional republicans. Slightly more cutting edge party members see that their options are bad and worse. In these cases, lowering the stakes and ending the standoff as quickly as possible is called for. But it’s remains unclear if the party as a whole is capable of admitting a reality principle of this nature.
What’s clear is that whatever happens, the president wins. While many believe that republican failure to come to an agreement will actually be preferable in outcome and politics, there is another argument that can be made that an early agreement from the republicans would actually redound enormously to the president’s standing, and empower him for continued progress specifically in improving the tax code.
Josh Marshall is covering the angle that early breaking Republican daddies on the tax cut fight are shrewdly calculating that by taking the president’s best offer they cut off new revenues from the 1% indefinitely and take away all mandate talk. They will position themselves as bipartisan patriots now and forever and can immediately go back to 100% obstruction and relentless minority veto, with an assist from a bought and paid for national media running debt scare infomercials starring your favorite neighborhood plutocrat.
As for such a move inoculating them from any further need to work with the president on revenue, this ignores the fact that, having once agreed to do business with the president, they will have no cause for refusing to do so in the future.
But I don’t think this will happen. Gosh, once they start working with the president, they may not know how to stop, and where will old white conservatives be then? Something like that could tear apart their whole political legendarium of free-market small-businessman babble. How could they possibly legitimize a president they have slandered without shame for five years? I suspect the base won’t let them.
But for the same reason, if the GOP did break early, it would hardly make it impossible for the president to ask for new taxes. Because guess what, if the president gets more from the 2% now, there’s nothing stopping him from getting more from the ,oh say the .2%, later on. That’s right, this could just be an opener. For our next priority, we get a true minimum tax for all income. How do you think our visionary plutocrats feel about seeing their tax rates on investment revenues rise from sub Mitt Romney-land to a little less than what middle class americans pay? You wonder why all the corporate chiefs are now openly and without shame pushing their pernicious debt chatter right now, jumping up and down about how oh so scary it’s going to be to pay for a social safety net in coming years? Because in their mind once you start taxing the 2% or the 1% more, you could even start taxing the .1% more, which is where they live or hope to live very soon.
