Ezra Klein - "On the sequester, the American people ‘moved the goalposts’"

[TomCADem]

Ezra Klein has a nice explanation that destroys Bob Woodard's argument that President Obama is "moving the goal posts" by not agreeing to spendings cut only to avoid the sequester.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/23/on-the-sequester-the-american-people-moved-the-goalposts/

I don’t agree with my colleague Bob Woodward, who says the Obama administration is “moving the goalposts” when they insist on a sequester replacement that includes revenues. I remember talking to both members of the Obama administration and the Republican leadership in 2011, and everyone was perfectly clear that Democrats were going to pursue tax increases in any sequester replacement, and Republicans were going to oppose tax increases in any sequester replacement. What no one knew was who would win.

“Moving the goal posts” isn’t a concept that actually makes any sense in the context of replacing the sequester. The whole point of the policy was to buy time until someone, somehow, moved the goalposts such that the sequester could be replaced.

Think back to July 2011. The problem was simple. Republicans wouldn’t agree to raise the debt ceiling without trillions of dollars in deficit reduction. Democrats wouldn’t agree to trillions of dollars in deficit reduction if it didn’t include significant tax increases. Republicans wouldn’t agree to significant tax increases. The political system was at an impasse, and in a few short days, that impasse would create a global financial crisis.

The sequester was a punt. The point was to give both sides a face-saving way to raise the debt ceiling even though the tax issue was stopping them from agreeing to a deficit deal. The hope was that sometime between the day the sequester was signed into law (Aug. 2, 2011) and the day it was set to go into effect (Jan. 1, 2013), something would…change.

[AndyA]

1. Those tax cuts for the nation's top wealthiest families were TEMPORARY

They were never intended to be permanent when the legislation was passed. If anyone moved the goalposts, it was the GOP. They pushed through a crap deal that gave higher tax cuts to the wealthiest families in the country, and they enjoyed those cuts for over a decade.

NOW IT'S TIME FOR THEM TO PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE, which begins with restoring the tax rates that were in place for all of them before the temporary tax cuts were implemented.

[Angry Dragon]

2. The top rate belongs where it was before Reagan

at 50 to 70 percent

[karynnj]

3. Agree and the supercommittee had to work with a base line that ASSUMED that all

the Bush tax cuts expired. So, it is ridiculous to claim that because the Republicans "let" some of the tax cuts expire - or more correctly, allowed the Democrats to make some of the tax cuts permanent - that that means no more tax increases.

The Republicans on the committee wanted to make the tax cuts permanent AND meet the goal they had to meet by spending cuts that added the two together. They wanted no real tax increases - and that is why the committee failed.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. Not to mention the fact

that the tax cuts did almost NOTHING for the economy, to boot. Yet, the Republicans kept insisting that removing them would harm the economy. How though? If they weren't helping the economy then removing them shouldn't harm it either. Then I remembered that logical consistency isn't the Republican way.

[AndyA]

8. I remember hearing how the tax cuts would create jobs

The "job creators," the wealthiest who received the biggest tax cuts, would create jobs with their new found wealth.

Over a decade later, we know that isn't the case. Again, makes the point you made: if they aren't helping, they aren't going to hurt if they go away. Utter nonsense from the right wing.

[Doctor_J]

4. Isn't Woodward basically just a Fox "News" hack at this point?

who cares what he says?

[One of the 99]

6. He has been a FAUX News hack for years

Ever since he wrote his fawning Bush At War books.

[CTyankee]

7. He looks like he's got the flop sweat of desperation to stay relevant on him.

time has passed him by. Living off one's past "glory" is pathetic.

He needs to get out more.