Dec 11 2012
GOP Should Use Political Jujitsu Against “Fiscal Cliff”
I was able to catch a bit of Rush Limbaugh yesterday and the short section I heard resonated with me. It also kicked off some thoughts on how the GOP is mishandling the fiscal cliff, and how to do it right.
What the GOP is doing wrong is pretending they can get something out of any negotiations. They cannot. The cliff represents the best they could achieve in terms of spending cuts – so PROTECT THESE.
As Rush said, taxes are going to rise on ‘the rich’ (and everyone else) after Obama won the election. Assuming otherwise is foolish. And the GOP has wasted their time trying to avoid the tax hikes on ‘the rich’. The rich will survive and the small businesses will hunker down. Stop trying to halt this from happening. It is a lose-lose approach. I for one will not trade lower taxes for more spending. That is lose-lose fiscally.
Worse, there will be no real spending cuts in any negotiation with the Dems. We saw this in 2011 after the GOP landslide mid term (and what more than anything else killed their 2012 hopes). No real cuts. All that will occur through negotiation is the spending cuts now pending under sequestration will be made impotent through delay and promises to spend wiser later (same thing we have seen for decades).
So how should the GOP approach the fiscal cliff under this kind of reality?
You apply political jujitsu and you embrace the cliff!
Obama and the dems are leaning forward – way forward – on their tax & spend madness at the moment.
Jujitsu is the art of using your opponents momentum against them. Now is a perfect time for the GOP to pivot and do two key things:
- Accept all the tax increases as necessary medicine for the debt situation (don’t protect Wall Street). Let the private sector adjust. DO NOT discuss phasing the cuts in, because it only adds to the debt. Play it as though the ‘the rich’ must pay their fair share, as should everyone else. The country will adapt – it has through much worse.
- Accept the Defense cuts as another aspect of everyone must have skin in the game. The DoD actually can propose balancing the cuts across their entire domain so as to protect some areas and sacrifice others. Let them prioritize inside the DoD. This way, the cuts to domestic programs must also be retained. Again, DO NOT negotiate delays. That only invites wasting time and more deficit spending.
The GOP is supposed to be the party of fiscal sanity, including the near term pain that comes with ensuring any long term health of the country. Stop trying to avoid the medicine. Embrace the cliff that you resisted in the past, so as not to be seen as being against the little guy but on their side. Exploit this new found progressiveness. Just don’t negotiate.
Let the Dems deal with the pain on the middle class and entitlements. The GOP will be doing the right thing by not attempting to save ‘the rich’ and the DoD.
Besides, its not like there won’t be tax hikes – there will. And the only thing you can negotiate away are spending cuts – which are now wired into the cliff! Don’t lose what we have.
It’s a defensible idea, though I don’t like Defense cuts – DOD has been rode hard and put up wet for 20 years. IF Congress coughed up some loosening of regulatory overhead, we could make it work.
But I’d make damned sure of one thing…EVERYBODY pays more taxes. Especially the 47% who pay not one thin dime today. A minimum income tax of 10% of your gross income.
And yes, dump all over the Democrat Rich.
The Dems have abandoned the middle class. They are now the party of Old Money, the Welfare Class, and Union Thugs.
If the Republicans were smart, they could break out the Reagan playbook, walk in, and crush the Democrats.
Yep, go over the cliff and let the Dems deal with the consequences.
Bush’s tax cuts were responsible for our terrible economic problems. Having everyone’s taxes go up should fix the problems right?
I completely agree.
I don’t believe it’s necessarily so that we’d get blamed for it all either.
First, millions in lower income levels will find out first hand that the Bush Tax cuts were NOT only for the rich, a meme that he left successfully sold them. They will realize they’ve been lied to. We should remind them of this every chance we get.
Also, Obamacare is now being exposed on a daily basis to be just what we said it would be, a burden on the poor. Words cannot refute what’s happening here.
I’m in business, I could withstand a tax hike, most of us have loss carry-forwards from the dismal economy of the last four years.
There should be another side to this coin.
Reduce your taxable income. Give to a charity so that you have NO taxable income period.
Better yet quit your job and sign up for welfare
Starve the demonrats .
I think that if the Republicans cave on the tax hikes without getting 2 or 3 to one in spending cuts, they should simply disband the party. They are proving to be totally useless and take the blame for problems caused by the democrats. They are worthless, and I’m a registered republican for 33 years.
Regards,
Chris
From PJ Media…….think people, this plan will work until the successful run out of money. Look at California!
Socialism is not just about stealing your money; it’s also about manipulating you into praising the thieves as your saviors. You are expected to feel good about being robbed of opportunities, talents, and success.
You must agree that “you didn’t build that.” There must be a popular consensus that the crumbs you are getting back from the government are a sign of caring and largesse, not a meager fraction of your potential earnings. You must sincerely believe that those who are trying to protect you from the thieves are really your enemies, deserving of destruction.
Obama’s current game of tax cuts and hikes contains all of the above elements.
The plan is to pass yet another extension of Bush’s tax cuts — to keep the status quo for the most — while excluding families with a joint income of over $250,000. In plainspeak, it’s a tax hike. But calling things by their real names would be against the rules; this isn’t how the game is played.
Listening to Obama now, one could have never guessed that his “tax cuts for the middle class” are the same policy he used to demonize as “tax cuts for the rich.” Who knew they were saving middle-class families as much as $2,200 a year? Suddenly, “policies that got us into this mess” have become “doing the right thing.”