H/T to FishOutofWater's top of the list rec'd diary, bringing this treasure up from the swamp at Redstate so we don't have to. Anyway, I don't think Erick Erickson for one second thought he was being helpful, he has no intention of facilitating compromise of any kind and no doubt will be despondent if it turns out that this idea solves a big piece of the business before the lame duck 112th Congress: what to do about income taxes on households with income above $250,000? Here is the money quote from Erickson, stating Erickson's fear that a last minute political compromise will be based on:
bifurcating tax cuts so Barack Obama can veto the tax cut for high income earners and let the rest slide through.
Given that Erickson obviously thinks this outcome to be a terrible idea, it should surprise no one that I think the idea is inspired, It would be a political compromise for the history books. I've been musing on what it would take to make a deal like that work. It's kind of interesting and we can talk about it some more out in the tall grass if you wish.
This political option requires the House to pass a bill per the discharge petition, enacting the middle class tax rates approved by the Senate last Summer. At the moment, House Democrats are prepared to support this. House Republicans are not. But it also requires something new, in that the Senate and House would each have to pass new cuts of the tax rate for the top part of the income of the top bracket households in entirely separate legislation from the tax cuts for the middle class. At the moment, House Republicans would support this and most if not all Democrats would not.
The voodoo that makes all this transpolitical hocus-pocus possible would be President Obama's pledge, as part of the deal, to veto the high rate cut. Everybody on Capitol Hill gets credit for cutting everybody's taxes and President Obama, alone, who already has no political future, takes any political heat for the tax rate increases at the top.
I call this one for the history books because I can't think of another political compromise in Washington where Congress ever sent a law to the White House for the purpose of and with the understanding of having it vetoed in order to get some other law passed and signed.
I don't think this is Erick Erickson's idea. It's too creative and too clever by half. This is something he heard somewhere, hopefully from someone with House or Senate GOP Leadership connections. I don't really think a deal like this is likely, but the idea has a certain elegance and the plan certainly would attain desired objectives.
If Erickson's prophecy bears no fruit, I still warm my heart at the hearth of right wing dissension. Quarrel on crazy old White guys. Quarrel on.