President Obama is about to get into some good old-fashioned second term political trouble because of his doubletalk during the fiscal cliff negotiations. The truth is, he wants his deal or no deal for the final fiscal cliff package and thinks his narrow re-election means he doesn’t have to compromise. He is mistaken.
Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)
His obsession is to levy higher taxes on Americans who have worked hard and have become successful. Citizens United has launched the “Say No To Obama Tax Hikes” petition drive so Americans can let their collective voices be heard in stopping these arrogant tax hikes. President Obama’s fascination with tax hikes is peculiar given that even he (along with most experts in the Western Hemisphere) has said that tax increases will further damage our economy. If he thought that was true in the past, why is he now pushing for them with every ounce of his being? President Obama plays, like so many Chicago politicians before him, the politics of division and class warfare. That’s his cynical and arrogant game. Luckily, he’s about to outsmart himself.
The President thinks he wins either way. If we go off the cliff, Republicans get blamed. And if Republicans go along with his tax increase, we will lose the issue and have a civil war within the GOP. Unfortunately for the President there is a third option. Speaker John Boehner and the Republican majority in the U.S. House should pass their own economic plan before the end of the year that does not raise any taxes.
The package should include the following: across-the-board tax rate cuts for all Americans, designed to grow the pie and increase revenue; reasonable, structural entitlement reforms that will further increase savings; tax code simplification; and across-the-board cuts to discretionary spending in the federal budget (including Defense). This commonsense plan will pass the House with all Republicans voting yes and will also bring a few Democrats along for the ride.
President Obama will, of course, come out against this optimistic pro-growth plan because it doesn’t include his meaningless and economically dangerous tax hikes. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will then say something hate-filled about Speaker Boehner and all Republicans who would vote for something so hopeful. Reid, an embarrassment to the world’s greatest deliberative body, will bring no counter plan to the Senate floor. Christmas will then arrive and all the House Republicans will go home to their districts and compare their comprehensive plan to President Obama’s meaningless tax hike. Then we’d go off the fiscal cliff.
In January, taxes will go up for all Americans, millions of whom are President Obama’s supporters in the lower and middle income tax brackets. Serious spending cuts would also kick in that would make the President’s liberal allies on Capitol Hill angry because, lest we forget, Democrats do not like responsible spending cuts. And all because Mr. Obama is hell bent on raising taxes.
President Obama will then go on to play more class warfare at his inauguration and then at the State of the Union address and the liberal media will say President Obama won the political fight. Then weeks and months will pass and reality will set in. That reality is the Obama economy. Who gets blamed for failures of leadership and failed economics? Presidents do - especially in their second terms when people start to get antsy for new leadership. House Republicans must use their majority to drive an agenda and campaign on American hope, growth, and opportunity.
That’s my conservative Christmas wish.
