Speaker John Boehner: "It's not a concession
unless I say it's a concession."
This is what happens when Democrats reach out to Republicans by saying things like "we'll trade you a millionaire's surtax for Keystone XL" in the
payroll tax cut extension debate.
[C]heck out how John Boehner responded today when asked whether the Dem willingness to drop the surtax would improve the prospects of a deal:
"They never had the votes for their so-called millionaires' surtax," Boehner said at his weekly briefing with reporters. "They didn't even have the votes in 2009 and 2010, when they controlled everything. So, I appreciate the fact that they gave up on their millionaires' surtax, but they didn't give anything up because they never had it."
This is an important quote, and we should store it for future reference. Republicans are saying that if Dems drop their demand for the millionaire surtax, it won't even count as giving something up. Dems never had a chance at getting their surtax, because Republicans have refused to support it. And so, even though Dems have been demanding it in the current discussions, dropping that demand won't count as a concession on Dems' part.
As a matter of fact, in the last vote they did have the votes for the millionaire's surtax, they even had bipartisan support, since Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) voted for it. A majority of the U.S. Senate says tax the rich. But because the majority doesn't count in the Senate, the bomb-throwers in the GOP won.
So the orange-tinted fuck that leads the nihilists gets to say what is and what isn't a concession. Fine. Either keep the millionaire's surtax or do what Congress has always done with tax cuts and don't pay for them in any way. Give Boehner either of those two options, and if he refuses to take either one, put the blame squarely on him when they aren't extended.
Boeher said, "If the Senate acts, I’m committed to bringing the House back to deal with whatever the Senate does. And there is absolutely no interest on our part in trying to be strident about this." So go on Christmas break without these tax cuts extended, without unemployment extended, beat up on them every single day of the holiday break, and make them come back and fix this.