The GOP tax cutting dream team.
Reports from Washington last week from
Reuters and
TPM say that Democrats on the Super Congress are taking their jobs seriously, and are attempting to start the process by figuring out revenues. That would allow Democrats to avoid the now well-worn path of agreeing to all sort of cuts only to find out that Republicans still won't budget on taxes.
According to a report from Politico, that might make for short negotiations.
In a closed-door meeting with Republican lobbyists late last week, senior policy advisers representing both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his chief deputy, Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who sits on the special deficit panel, said the issue of tax increases may be an insurmountable obstacle in the secretive talks.[...]
McConnell’s aides continue to believe the most realistic outcome for the supercommittee is to reach the $1.2 trillion target for cuts called for by the law that created the elite panel, which the Republicans believe will still be a tall order, sources familiar with the discussions say. And if the supercommittee can’t reach the $1.2 trillion target, McConnell and Kyl aides made clear that they believe Congress would not allow a painful round of automatic across-the-board budget cuts, including $400 billion in Pentagon reductions, to take effect in 2013.
In case you missed the implication, Mitch McConnell is saying all cuts, no revenue and Kyl—who is on the commission—are right there with him. And yes, that will be a tall order for them, because they won't want to include any cuts to defense. The only way they envision a "grand bargain," which for them means any kind of revenue increases, is predictable.
But the only way that a grand bargain could pass muster with the GOP, the Senate Republican aides say, is if it were tied to an overhaul of Social Security or the controversial proposal by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to turn Medicare into a voucher-based system for future recipients. And neither plan could pass this Congress, they believe.[...]
After four private meetings and two public hearings, Kyl is convinced that the three House Democrats on the supercommittee—Reps. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Xavier Becerra of California and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland—are not interested in a deal on taxes because of their demands for more revenue, sources say.
Gee, who could of imagined that a "deal" on taxes would include "more revenue"? Certainly not a Republican. If you're curious as to why we're getting only the Republican side of this story, it's thanks to those Republican lobbyists who had the closed-door meeting with McConnell's and Kyl's aides. It's the lobbyists who are getting the most face time with the Catfood Commission II members, and dishing the most dirt.