http://thehill.com/...
Apparently, The Can'tor didn't learn anything from this election. Exit polling showed very clearly that a majority of Americans want to keep Obamacare, and Obama with his considerable electoral vote win and his clear popular vote win has earned some political capital. The people has spoken, and they want millionaires to pay their fair share which means that their taxes should return to at least the Clinton tax rates.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wrote a letter to his fellow House GOPers. Here are some of the odious parts:
Our nation faces very serious challenges that cannot be postponed: millions of Americans are out of work and are supporting their families on stagnant and in many cases falling wages; our nation is drowning in a debt that is hindering economic growth; our tax system does more to punish entrepreneurs and job creators than it does to encourage them; run-away entitlements – including the recent takeover of our health care system through Obamacare -- are bankrupting us while at the same time failing to actually help those in need;
Resolving the issues surrounding the fiscal cliff, especially the replacement of the sequester, and the next debt limit increase (likely necessary in February) will require that the President get serious about real entitlement reform. While it is unrealistic for us to expect the President to embrace our vision of Medicare reform or Obamacare repeal, it is equally unrealistic for the President to continue to insist that Obamacare is off the table, or that Medicare and Medicaid require nothing more than some additional provider cuts. We will measure entitlement savings on the basis of whether they are sustainable and whether they actually bend down the cost curve.
Now of course we know that the sequester is something the Republicans had initially wanted. And they have tried to welsh their way out of the automatic defense cuts that will happen in January if they continue to obstruct.
The American people also spoke resoundingly on "entitlements", we call them earned benefits since the people have paid for the benefits that they receive through them. And we have seen a runaway sense of entitlement from the 1% who were willing to crash the economy rather than pay an insignificant(to them) increase in their taxes. The people also really rejected Medicare privatization and they rejected again Social Security privatization. We really need to move past the Simpson-Bowles malarkey and address the real fiscal issues in a measured, balanced and responsible way. The 1% should pay more in taxes, let's end corporate welfare "loopholes" like the carried interest deduction and let's actually make some cuts to our defense budget.