Anyone who believes the Republicans are breaking ranks and are going to agree to net tax increases, also believes that Santa Clause will visit every home in the world on X-mas eve (sorry to burst your bubble on that). How many times do we have to go through this same story over and over again?
The Republicans lie about Benghazi, debt ceilings, deficits, job creators, taxes on small businesses, and the media simply reports the lies. Even some people here hear the lies so often they begin to believe it.
The Republicans know that the 53% want to make the tax system fairer and want more equality in who has what in this country. They know that people have had enough of the Oligarchs efforts to change America from a Democracy to a Plutocracy. Almost ALL the Republican representatives owe their jobs to those same Oligarchs. Do you really think they're just going to say, the people have spoken so lets give them what they want? Not in a million years!
The Republicans want the American people to believe they aren't the party of crazy that they were made out to be during the election. They have 3 ways to achieve this goal. Lie! Lie! Lie!
The lie this time is about how they will except an increase in revenue to pay down the debt. NPR has had a couple of nice stories lately exposing the lie behind this claim.
These quotes are from an NPR story, Fiscal Cliff Compromise: Devil Is In The Definition Of Revenue
A grand bargain, a compromise to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, could all come down to one word: revenue. It's now widely agreed that steering away from the cliff — the combination of spending cuts and tax increases set to hit at the start of the year — will require some combination of revenue increases and spending cuts. The central sticking point could well be whether President Obama and Congress can agree on the definition of revenue.
If you want the people to believe you are giving them the revenue increases they voted for, but you really have no intention of giving those mooching 47%ers anything but what we say they should have, then REDEFINE the word revenue!
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Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Monday that Republicans have stepped out of their comfort zone by agreeing to talk about revenue.
"We've been open to revenue by closing loopholes as long as it's tied to spending cuts and pro-growth tax reform that broadens the base and lowers rates," he said.
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Under the president's definition of revenue, the richest 2 percent would see their top tax rate rise to 39 percent, and he'd also limit deductions and cut out loopholes. That's simply not what McConnell and many of his fellow Republicans mean.
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He says it's both mathematically and politically impossible to get all the revenue needed through closing loopholes and capping deductions while also lowering rates, which is what Republicans are calling for.
Let me translate. Sure! We'll agree to take money out of one pocket of our Oligarch supporters, as long as you agree to put it back in the other pocket.
And then this morning on PBS's morning edition, Steve Inskeep does a very nice job of getting Sen Chambliss (R delusion land) to say some things he probably didn't want to say. And if you go to this link, you'll see a correction from NPR that reads:
Correction Nov. 28, 2012
This story's original headline suggested that Sen. Chambliss plans to raise taxes. As the senator states in the interview, his plan calls for increasing revenue by reforming the tax code.
During the interview he tries to tell America that the Republicans are ready to compromise on taxes, and then using the old Mitt Romney trick, he issues a correction after the interview saying the exact opposite! We all know how well that worked for ole Mittens.
Here are some notes from the interview:
Nothing is different from 2 years ago
3 things we need to do, 1) cut federal spending, 2) Cut Medicare and Medicaid, 3) Raise revenues without raising taxes.
Raising tax rates is not on his radar screen, won't do anything without real reforms to entitlements or cutting federal spending.
Raising tax rates will hurt small businesses.
He basically says we have to cut entitlements, cut other government spending, and then he'll be willing to raise revenues without raising taxes. This is exactly what the Republicans have been saying all along, except now they're just lying about their willingness to compromise.
And while I'm writing this, I found another story on NPR from a couple of days ago entitled, GOP Pushback On No-Tax Norquist: Less Than Meets The Eye.
So, are we to assume it's a new day in D.C. because GOP Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Bob Corker of Tennessee, and Republican Rep. Peter King of New York, have said they're no longer obligated to keep the pledge they made to Norquist?
"Oh, BS," says Steve Bell, senior director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Except that the blunt-spoken Bell, who has worked on economic issues on Capitol Hill and beyond since the mid-1970s, didn't use an abbreviation for his epithet.
In Bell's estimation, the Norquist "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," and whether or not one adheres to it, are not central to Congress' budget dilemma.
"I don't think it's the pledge that's the problem," Bell says. "This thing is not going to founder on taxes. It's going to founder on entitlement cuts."
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"Chambliss, Graham and Peter King? None are in leadership roles, none lead on tax policy, and all three of them said the same thing two years ago," he says.
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Bell, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, is less sanguine. He says he could envision Congress devising a "little junky thing full of gimmicks" that will obviate or put off the fiscal cliff and "sequestration" that triggers automatic spending cuts.
So all this talk you've been hearing from the media about the Republicans willing to compromise on taxes, is nothing but more Republican lies that the media is freely willing to repeat. They are going to ask for savage cuts in entitlements and government programs the Democrats know are essential to a civilized country, and that will be impossible for the Democrats to do. All the while they are preparing for the new lie that they were willing to compromise on taxes, but the Democrats weren't willing to compromise on spending.
I am more pessimistic than ever that the Republicans are willing to stop holding America hostage, and are truly ready to govern for the benefit of the 99%. The theatrics that are building the tax compromise lie, lead me to believe we will go over the cliff, and that it's going to be a very rough road before we get to the smoke and mirrors that kick the budget can down the road and sets America up for the next budget crises.