This seems wise:
Dear Republicans: Please wake up. Barack Obama is a welfare state socialist. There is nothing he would like better than a 5 trillion dollar tax increase, an opportunity to gut military spending, and millions of additional destitute people begging for handouts. But he needs someone else to take the blame for such a catastrophe. This is the role you are volunteering for by refusing to pass the middle class-only tax cut he has put on offer as his bottom line condition for avoiding the Fiscal Cliff.
I am a small business man with a personal income high enough to be affected by the repeal of the Bush tax cut for the upper two percent. Like all other small businessmen in my position, I would certainly prefer not to take the hit. But repealing the Bush tax cuts for all income levels would be far worse. Not only would it increase our own taxes still more, by hitting the portion of our incomes below $250,000, but it would slam our bottom line hard by decreasing the effective wages of our employees and customers and increasing the costs, and thus prices, of our vendors. The same can be said for the repeal of the payroll tax cut. And if you are against the growth of taxation, why on Earth would you want to increase it by $5 trillion, in place of the $850 billion Barack Obama is willing to settle for?
Yes. And I'd add that President Obama attracted the support of most of those wealthy. Since they don't actually voluntarily pay their "fair share" by refusing to take lawful deductions that reduce their taxes, why not make them? Enjoy!
Republicans should remind themselves that it wasn't so long ago that Democrats, led by our president, insisted that the Bush tax cuts only favored the rich. Remember that President Bush could only get a temporary tax cut--already extended once. Now the Democrats will fight to keep those cuts!
Dudes, this really is mission accomplished. You won hearts and minds. I know it is more satisfying to stomp your foes and hear the lamentation of their women. But when your foes switch sides, that's better. Think of it as the Upper West Side Awakening.
It reminds me of the frustration that Republicans had in 1996 when President Clinton "stole" Republican ideas in his reelection campaign. How dare he not run as the liberal he is! How dare he adopt our positions to win!
Don't worry about the credit right now if you can get most of the tax results you want. And avoid defense cuts that many of your foes would be delighted to have--and be able to blame you for causing. Are you really going to be that dumb? I have my doubts that the overall effect will be that bad in the long run, but if it is political blame you want to avoid in 2014, don't go there. Fight the battle on cutting overall spending rather than maintaining defense spending by resisting the fiscal cliff. In the short run, I admit, those defense cuts would be painful, given more fixed costs that can't easily be cut suddenly. But fight that battle separately from the tax fight.
Enjoy the sight of President Obama defending as light and justice what was once an evil tax cut that He Who Shall Be Blamed Forever foisted on our economy.
