General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ok, no more crap about "obama caving". it's called a trial balloon. COMPLAIN TO CONGRESS. [View all]frazzled
(18,402 posts)The Republican base is fuming that Boehner has "caved" on taxes, and the Democratic base will fume about the chained CPI (which, it has been promised, will have provisions attached to protect poorer Americans and exclude SSI).
I'm not sure what people think "negotiation" is. One thing it is not is putting out your best plan (which Obama did) and expecting not to have to compromise anything away from it when the Republicans call it outrageous. Boehner put forward his best plan too, which we called outrageous. Now they're having to each give up some stuff. Even Paul Krugman, as of today, is torn about whether to accept the CPI deal: he thinks it's better than raising the Medicare age, but it's still not what we wanted.
That's how this shit comes down, and if you thought we could walk away with everything, you were extremely unrealistic. If you thought we'd really go over the cliff and just get the middle-class tax cuts after January ... but not get any extension of unemployment benefits or infrastructure spending: well, that wasn't going to be a good deal for us. As Krugman reminds us, the deal currently under consideration is not bad on the revenue side: in addition to the 39% rate on income over 400K "theres extra revenue too, notably from changing the treatment of itemized deductions ... which means a further substantial tax rise for people in the top bracket."
So how should we feel? Probably like Krugman, who says: "So am I dead set against? No, Im still agonizing."
This is reminding me of the 1990s, when President Clinton worked with Newt Gingrich to sign the Welfare Reform Act. We went absolutely batshit crazy thinking how badly we had been betrayed. We were certain people were going to be dying in the streets. I thought that myself. But it wasn't as bad as we thought, because many changes were added to it to soften the blow.
Whatever deal is ultimately reached, one thing is for sure: it won't be as bad as either side is claiming, and all of it will be subject to tweaks over the next years. Nothing is permanent. Neither tax rates nor indexes. I want the best deal possible, but I also want it to be over. I'm sure the president wants it to be over, too: because if failure leads to a re-weakening of the economy, it really won't be good for anyone.