Here’s what I know as fact about the fiscal cliff negotiations: President Obama offered to limit tax increases to households earning more than $400K a year. The Democrats agreed to spending cuts, not quite as draconian as the Tea Party demanded, but they also indicated there was room for negotiation on the cuts. Speaker of the House Boehner went back to the Tea People controlling the House and tried to put together a plan that would lift the tax increase threshold to $1 million a year.\u00a0\u00a0 They realized that was going nowhere in their party and attempted to shift negotiations towards using the adjusted CPI for Social Security.\u00a0 John McCain, now considered a moderate, said “it won’t look good if we are advocating tax increases and social security cuts”.\u00a0 Again, no movement and surprise… The Tea Party obstructed.\u00a0 Which part?\u00a0 All of it.\u00a0 They want across the board, draconian spending cuts and NO tax increases on anyone. Again, realistic, intellectual thinking at it’s finest. Meanwhile rank and file GOP conservatives can do nothing. Their party is still held hostage by the radical faction in their ranks.<\/p>\n
Grover Norquist will be proud of these obstructionists for hold their ground on their tax pledge. The majority of Americans will not.\u00a0 50% of Republicans agree with the Presidents approach to revenue according to a Dec. 7th Bloomberg poll.\u00a0 Staunch Tea People will make these arguments:<\/p>\n
The worst part of this for the GOP is the comments I’m hearing from those claiming to be lifelong conservatives.\u00a0 They do not recognize their own party anymore and are prepared to change their voter registration cards.\u00a0 Sad they are being forced to leave their party because it has been hijacked by Libertarians who refuse to acknowledge their true political identity for the sake of compounding ideological influence.\u00a0 Today the GOP as we know it will be dead as moderate Republicans will no longer have a voice.\u00a0\u00a0 Just like Democrats and the majority of legislation over the past six years they have been stifled by the group known as the Tea Party.\u00a0 I will always refer to them as Tea People or Tea Baggers because they are in fact not a registered political party. \u00a0 They did not ride in on the coat tails of true Republicans.\u00a0\u00a0 They tore them off and stole them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here’s what I know as fact about the fiscal cliff negotiations: President Obama offered to limit tax increases to households earning more than $400K a year. The Democrats agreed to spending cuts, not quite as draconian as the Tea Party demanded, but they also indicated there was room for negotiation on the cuts. Speaker of … Continue reading Today the GOP is writing it’s own obituary.<\/span>