With no governing party in sight, the fiscal cliff looks inevitable
Obama’s re-election meant that they couldn’t survive any longer. Public policy is not eternal; it can always be changed. Bill Clinton’s tax increases of 1993 lasted only eight years. George W. Bush’s tax cuts have lasted longer.
Now the question of whether we avoid the fiscal cliff — tax rate increases, sequestration, the full imposition of the Alternative Minimum Tax — is up to the Democrats. Specifically, the Senate Democrats…
But people are not always good predictors of their future opinions. The failure of the grand bargain negotiations in summer 2011 was followed by downturns in opinion toward both Obama and Republicans.
Senate Democrats have been avoiding tough votes on fiscal issues for some time. They haven’t passed a budget resolution for three years though the budget act requires them to do so.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Good. Going over obama’s CLIFF is exactly what America needs right now.
Pork-Chop on December 24, 2012 at 2:13 PM
Great! The middle class are about to find out how much Obama hates them.
The Liar has you all snookered.
Schadenfreude on December 24, 2012 at 2:19 PM
Let it burn.
CurtZHP on December 24, 2012 at 2:19 PM
OMG! Drudge links to a paper that has created an interactive map with everyone who has a CCW permit, including their name and address. Why would they do this???
Blake on December 24, 2012 at 2:23 PM
We know how those turn out. People start posting all the private info of the Newspaper staff until the paper starts firing people.
MechanicalBill on December 24, 2012 at 2:40 PM
I’m with Pork-Chop. Nobody will take overspending seriously until it all goes over the cliff and we have to suffer for our own stupidity. I’ve been expecting this for some time, no better time than the present.
flataffect on December 24, 2012 at 2:42 PM
Dive off.
The only thing that will turn things around is for the looters and moochers to suffer the consequences of their own greed and stupidity.
Let. It. Burn.
single stack on December 24, 2012 at 3:03 PM
Barone’s real value – and he had no peer – was in his political analysis and understanding of electoral mechanics and trends. Well, until this cycle – but that mostly emphasizes the transformation of the electorate into an unserious one unlike anything seen before.
But his substantive stuff has usually been, uh, meh. Here he dives off a cliff of his own.
Raising enough revenue to cover a week’s govt. operations (whether it’s from taxing hot dogs, or flower imports, or “rich” people) is obviously immaterial to any of the serious issues requiring resolution. And the media/political environment is obviously one in which anything other than aggressively debunking the prevailing false framework and making it a serious discussion is a waste of time.
“Governing” would include passing budgets, and otherwise behaving lawfully and within the constitution. The Third World-like lawlessness that is now the norm in the Beltway is the issue, Barone, not some infinitesimal evanescent political “advantage” arising (if you can detect it) from the silly cliff wrangling.
Illiterate/irresponsible/unserious electorate: check
Collapsed institutions/rule of men not law: check
Dumbed down/sub-mediocre elete punditocracy: check
IceCold on December 24, 2012 at 3:24 PM
Obama will blame the Republicans, then put forward some tax relief in March and come out the savior.
claudius on December 24, 2012 at 3:53 PM