Via Lester and Charlie: Concession Depression!
The August 2 deadline for raising the U.S. debt limit looms, and, despite all the closed-door meetings between Obama, Speaker Boehner and House Leader and all-around conservative wacko Eric Cantor, both sides report that no progress has been made.
The GOP must have some idea of the global consequences of the U.S. government defaulting on its debt for the first time ever. They can't be THAT clueless... can they? And Obama has offered compromises that would, at any other time in history, equal a colossal conservative victory -- perhaps the biggest conservative victory of all time. Yet most of the GOP remains opposed, even walking out of meetings when the subject turns to tax breaks for corporate jet owners. Granted, Obama's relentless attack on those not-very-sympathetic corporate jet owners may be populist spin, but we can all agree that somebody, somewhere, has to pay taxes, right?
Perhaps not everyone agrees. We were impressed by the audacity of Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, who wrote in the New York Times on the subject of letting certain tax cuts naturally lapse: "When a mugger passes you on the street leaving you unmolested," he wrote, "he did not in fact give you your wallet."
So the GOP remains opposed to any increases in tax revenue. 236 current members of the House and 41 sitting senators have signed Norquist's pledge to oppose any and all tax increases. The government simply has to "spend less." That sounds nice, but we doubt that GOP congressmen are willing to give up their generous, tax-funded health benefits in the interest of principle.
A few months back, when the federal government was facing a shutdown over the budget, conservatives held out for a gutting of abortion rights, but eventually agreed to a compromise at the last minute. So what are they holding out for this time? What would get them to agree to a compromise? What do they really want?
Comments