WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Monday laid out their proposal to avert a potential austerity crisis, countering what they ridiculed as a “La-La Land offer’’ from President Obama with one calling for almost twice as much in spending cuts and half as much revenue increases.
The Republican plan, outlined in a three-page letter sent to the White House, sets out to raise $800 billion in new revenue over the next decade through closing unspecified tax loopholes and cut $1.2 trillion through a battery of changes that could include raising the eligibility age for Medicare. In addition, House Republicans proposed saving $200 billion by slowing the government’s cost-of-living increases for programs such as Social Security.
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The Republicans are obnoxious and insulting to the American public. "la la land" ended Boehner and his gang with Ryan in the gutter. President Obama should never surrender on the tax. When one reads that Sheldon Adelson gave $150,000,000 for liar Romney and is going to Washing ton to try to rid himself of the two counts against him. And the Koch brothers??? They can't afford a tax raise? We are becoming a nation of an aristocracy and peasants, as far as Boehner and his gand are concerned, along with the people I have already mentioned. What are we France of the late 18th century?
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It was Obama in 2008 who rejected public campaign funds and started the arms race of private campaign donations. Obama won in 2012 in part because he courted big donors in NYC, Hollywood, etc. so successfully. His crony capitalist donors helped him seize the narrative high ground (or is it low ground?) while Romney was scurrying to recover financially from a brutal and costly primary contest.
"La la land??" Yea, nothing like raising the discourse, Boehner.
Oh, this is nothing! Wait until Erc Cantor and Uncle Mitch McConnell get in front of the cameras this week! LOL McConnell is a very wealthy man.
Can someone please tell me where John Boehner finds the time to hit the tanning booth? What has happened to the Republican Party? So, Boehner and friends have learned nothing from Bob Dole and Alan Simpson?
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"closing unspecified tax loopholes" does not sound like a real plan to me.... you HAVE to be specific, otherwise it is not a plan.
I think we will probably go into January without an agreement. But that's OK.
It is not going to be as bad as people make it out to be. It is not really a "cliff". There is climbing gear that can be used, similar to a rope, coming off the "cliff": retroactivity. Sometime in January Congress can pass a tax cut for the 98 percent, retroactive to January 1, while leaving the 2 percent alone at their new Clinton rate, and make some spending cuts that do NOT include Medicare and Social Security. The IRS will have to scramble, but I'm sure they are capable of quickly reacting to a new tax cut for the 98 percent.
After January 1 the Republicans who signed the Grover Norquist pledge to not raise tax rates will see the tax rates go up without the necessity of voting for that. Then they can actually vote to LOWER tax rates for 98 percent and leave them alone for the top 2 percent, without violating that pledge. In December the Republicans are stuck, because most of them made that pledge not to vote to raise tax brackets.
Time is the cure. My advice to the President and the 98 percent of us: STAND FIRM, wait for January, the "cliff" is not the end of the world. It will be a catharsis.
Meanwhile I hope the Senate goes back to their OLD rules in January, where a simple majority rules... and a filibuster actually consists of someone talking for a long time, as in "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington". That will also help after we go over the cliff.
Maybe there's progress ... here in deep-red north FL, the media is almost always sympathetic to GOP views, but this week shows a different tack. When the most popular news hour showed this GOP proposal, they back-dropped it with pictures of luxury yachts and noted that the job-creators would not have a tax increase. Perhaps they're catching on, because the 'job creators' have been buying their yachts offshore and the FL yacht-building industry has had serious layoffs. At some point even the GOP's most ardent supporters must ask themselves 'for what reason do I keep protecting the 1%?'
Boehner's "unspecified loop holes" will cost the middle-class. The tax lawyers for the 1% or 2%, depending on how you look at it, are already looking for new and better ways to hide income. The off-shore tax havens must be thrilled about all of this. They'll be doing a land office business. If I thought for a minute that the GOP was actually thinking of what is best for America and its people, I would be willing to listen to their proposals. Even though we, the taxpayers, are paying their exorbitant salaries and funding their wonderful benefits, we are not uppermost in their minds. Congress is supposed to representative of the will of the people, all of the people. Maybe a clean sweep is in order.
And Obama's specifics?
We already discourage the growth of job-creating startup ventures because of the onerous regulatory requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley. If Barack Obama get the increase in the capital gains tax rate that he wants, startups will be discouraged even more. Let's keep the capital gains tax rate where it is and also give permanent immigrant status to those who start new ventures and hire Americans.