My bottom-line take on the so-called "Fiscal Cliff"
If the *problem* that the Republicans and, basically, everybody in Washington DC is jumping up and down about right now is that the combination of the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and the spending cuts signed into law as a result of the debt ceiling "deal" last year, let us remember back about the past couple of years.
First of all, the Bush-era tax cuts were SUPPOSED to expire at the end of 2010 but the Republicans held a bunch of stuff "hostage" until President Obama and the Democrats agreed to an extension of them. Mission accomplished. They were extended until the end of this year with no further extension for the wealthy contemplated.
Then came the debt ceiling agreement- you know, the deal where Boehner stated that he got "98%" of what he claimed they (Republicans) wanted- reached last year that locked in automatic cuts to defense spending and Medicare (on the provider side) if the so-called "Super Committee" failed to come up with an alternative deficit reduction plan. Well, their intransigence on revenue/taxes persisted and the "Super Committee"- not surprisingly- failed, bringing us to where we are now: spending cuts + the end of the Bush-era tax rates="Fiscal Cliff".
Of course, the fact of the matter is that Republicans never actually planned to have to follow through on either of these deals. Between the drying of the ink on the debt ceiling and now, House Republicans passed a new budget that basically disregarded the debt ceiling deal and restored the impending defense cuts and ran against the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. While such blatant hypocrisy from the GOP is so commonplace that it passes almost unremarked nowadays, it nonetheless illustrates their lack of integrity and their inability and/or unwillingness to negotiate in good faith. Above and beyond this, however, is the fact that the Republicans currently find themselves on the losing end of this year's election that they fervently believed- beyond all need of writing a concession speech- would see them install "vulture capitalist" Mitt Romney in the WH and take over the Senate, ensuring their dominance in Washington DC for the next 2-4 years.
Well, as we all know, despite all the millions of dollars spent on behalf of Mitt Romney and Republican candidates for the House and Senate, all the talk of "unskewed polls", and various electoral college vote scenarios that might throw the election into the House where Romney would be crowned POTUS, they lost.........badly. Not only did they fail to win the WH but they also failed to take the Senate (and actually lost a couple of otherwise winnable seats). They now find that they are, as usual without a "Plan B" other than, it seems, getting President Obama and Democrats to accede to all of their demands despite not having a leg to stand on. They bet the farm on sweeping power this year and proceeding to negate all of the deals they made during the past two years........and lost. Whoops! Well, as they used to tell us, elections have consequences! Time for them to come to the table and deal with the reality that most people don't want all of these draconian cuts to social programs and believe that the wealthy can and should certainly afford to pay more (how can anybody not seeing how much money they spent during just one election cycle)!
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