Here’s the thoroughly dishonest Conn Carroll’s fairly accurate depiction of Tim Geithner’s proposal to the Republican leadership:
1. An immediate $1 trillion tax hike through higher top marginal income tax rates as well as higher taxes on both capital gains and dividends.
2. An agreement to raise $600 billion more in taxes later this year by limiting tax deductions for top earners.
3. $50 billion in new infrastructure stimulus spending.
4. Another “emergency” extension of unemployment benefits.
5. An extension of either the payroll tax cut or the reinstatement of Obama’s stimulus Making Work Pay tax credit.
6. A mortgage refinancing program.
7. Billions in new spending to prevent cuts to Medicare reimbursement payments for doctors.
8. An infinite debt limit hike.
Mr. Carroll says that the Republicans should respond by simply giving up on any pretense of trying to avoid the fiscal cliff. They should just go home, enjoy the holidays, and wait for the Obama administration to grow up. Charles Krauthammer basically concurs, comparing Geithner’s terms to General Grant’s at Appomattox. Of course, General Lee didn’t have the option of walking away at Appomattox. Much like Mitt Romney and the Republicans, General Lee and his Confederate Army were defeated.
It doesn’t sound like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans on following Carroll and Krauthammer’s advice, however. He wants to lock in cuts to entitlements.
On spending cuts, [McConnell] called changes in entitlement eligibility — things like increases in the retirement age, changes in the CPI, means-testing in Medicare — “the most important thing that could be achieved.” He believes those are “the only credible spending reductions” because levels of discretionary spending are set every year…
…Are the entitlement-eligibility changes his price for any deal? “There’s a nexus,” he says, “between my willingness to raise revenue and their willingness to make serious entitlement-eligibility reforms.” Does he worry that Republicans will be attacked for refusing to raise taxes on the rich without entitlement cuts? “They’ve talked about our reluctance to raise taxes on high-income people incessantly for a generation.” The main point is that he wants to lock in entitlement changes right away. He wants to “do something other than set up some process where we promise to do something later and it doesn’t happen.” He worries setting up another commission to debate entitlements will give the “AARP and the unions a whole year to beat everybody up so we don’t ever get an outcome.” He emphasizes, “We ought to do it now, right now.”
So, McConnell should probably start a tour of the country so he can take his case for raising the eligibility age of Social Security and Medicare to the people. While he’s at it, he can explain how “changes in CPI” means smaller Social Security checks for everyone.
It’s time for the Republicans to sell their plan to the people. They might like it better than gonorrhea!!
McConnell had an observation about filibuster reform, too.
On the possibility of ending the filibuster, he says, “Harry Reid trying to throw a bomb into the Senate chamber is a curious way to try to set the stage for bringing both sides together to do something important for the country.” He thinks Democrats are “feeling their oats. They just can’t turn off the celebration.” He calls the potential filibuster gambit “breaking the rules to change the rules.” It is “a truly, truly radical thing,” and “not only is it stupid, it’s inflammatory.”
No one is talking about “ending” the filibuster. But McConnell is right that the Democrats are feeling their oats.
The GOP is up a creek without a paddle.
