For the first time in some of your lives, the House of Representatives just passed a bill that the majority of the majority party opposed. Ordinarily, such votes are not even allowed to happen. And, while technically this vote occurred past midnight (and thus in 2013), this is the first time that Republicans have voted for tax increases since they helped Poppy Bush violate his “Read My Lips” pledge over twenty years ago. The Republicans also voted for stimulative tax credits and an extension of unemployment insurance, in violation of their anti-Keynesian economics absolutism. Insofar as the fever could be broken, it has been broken.
If you watched the debate in the House, it was clear that the Republicans were absolutely miserable and the Democrats were absolutely giddy. Yet, many respectable voices in the Progressive movement are unhappy. I want to remind you, first of all, that only 16 Democrats in the House voted against this bill. That is only a tiny fraction of the Progressive movement. Unless you think your elected officials are idiots, you probably are wrong to see this as a defeat. This is a bill that was supported by people like Bernie Sanders, Al Franken, Jeff Merkley, Tom Harkin, and Sherrod Brown. If you think that they sold you out, you might be an extremist yourself.
Yes, it sets us up for a battle over the sequester and the debt ceiling, but that was where we were from the beginning, right? We were going to battle over those things, but also unemployment insurance and progressive tax credits and so much more that we got in this deal.
The GOP has been splintered, with their leader forced to take the minority position within his own party and then forced to ram it down the throats of his base. If you ever thought you’d see that day, raise your hand. And we need it to happen again to tackle immigration reform or assault weapons or climate change. It may not happen, but this was a prerequisite if it was going to happen.
If you are worried that we will see cuts in entitlements two months from now, you are probably correct. We were never going to escape that entirely. But any cuts we see will be matched by further tax hikes. We have a president who is coming off a series of victories whose popularity will have never been higher, and he isn’t going to cave. The GOP might think that cuts to entitlements are popular, but they are wrong. Actually, they know that they are wrong and that the only way to get them is as part of a bipartisan deal where blame is widely shared. They will not refuse to pay our debts in order to slash our Social Security checks and, if they do, we’ll win back the House.
Relax. Have a cigar. Bask in the glow.
