Lindsay Graham:
Do the best you can, make it (the cliff deal) better if you can, but here’s reality: Right now all tax rates have gone up on all Americans,” the South Carolina Republican said. “You need to understand this: If we don’t get this tax rate problem fixed for all Americans, the economy is going to collapse, the stock market will go down, the Defense Department is going to become unraveled.”
He continued: “We’re going to get blamed and about two weeks into this, we’ll fold like a cheap suit. … Save your powder for the debt ceiling fight.”
Yes, you would have folded like a cheap suit Senator. We would have gotten
a pound of flesh out of you rather than a pin prick. Apparently everyone knew that except the White House and Senate Democrats.
A few weeks ago, I was noting that if Republicans had any brains they would have simply passed the Senate Bill that sat in the House in order to move on to the bigger fight:
Assume the GOP grants the White House a clean middle class tax extension. Most Republicans vote against it, but enough join with the Democrats to pull it over the line. What is there to negotiate over now? The president wouldn't put himself in the position of vetoing a middle class tax extension because it doesn't include a Grand Bargain. Therefore, he will most likely sign such a bill (which as I've argued is the GOP's best strategy).
Well, the GOP not only got their best strategy, they did even better than that! That's why the first Senate Bill which sat in the House passed with 51 purely Democratic votes and this one passed with Washington beltway gold: "bipartisan agreement." If you move to the right, of course you'll get more votes. Question is, what did we give up to get it? Was it worth it?
Now as we go into the "this is wonderful muzak" phase of another botched negotiation, we may as well move on to the next manufactured crisis. This is a wonderful way of governing the most powerful nation in the world.