Sunday, December 02, 2012

It's The GOP That Is Tone-Deaf on the "Fiscal Cliff"

While a very few Congressional Republicans seem to have received the message telegraphed by voters when they conclusively rejected the Romney/Ryan ticket and in sheer numbers voted for more Democrat House candidates (even though the Republican held a majority due to gerrymandering of districts), most remain cowed by the lunatics of the GOP base who would rather destroy the country than compromise or are among the certifiably insane themselves.  In the former category we see John Boehner and Virginia's continual embarrassment, Eric Cantor.   A piece in CNN looks at how out of fear or insanity, the GOP is ignoring the strong message sent to them on November 6th.  Here are excerpts:

GOP Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, warned that the president's proposal takes us backward, moving us "significantly closer to the cliff." Anonymous Republican aides were immediately dispatched to trash the proposal of revenue increases and spending cuts as "a joke," "an insult" and "a complete break from reality."

These remarks, coming on the heels of a sound rejection of Mitt Romney's fidelity to America's 1%, indicate that the ones suffering from a break with reality are the Republicans deaf to the mandate of this election. Their delusional commitment to eviscerating social insurance programs -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- while allowing the rich to get richer shows a remarkable disconnect from the shared experience of most Americans.

Decades of underinvestment in our country by the wealthy class, two Bush wars paid for on credit, and an unrestrained culture on Wall Street that treated the economy like a poorly run casino has unarguably left America strapped for cash. The only question at hand is whether we'll finally be treated to genuine accountability and sound fiscal policy in this deal.

Not if the Republicans get their way. Their endless exaggeration of the certain doom that awaits us on the other side of the fiscal cliff is intended once again to force middle class and poor Americans to accept yet one more bum deal so that the wealthy don't have to budge an inch. But this time, they do so at their own political peril.

The social divide that has enabled their antics is becoming perilously unbalanced. A full 60% of Americans support letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire for those making over $250,000 a year. This includes 63% of Independents. On the spending side, polls show that most Americans don't want to raise the eligibility age for Medicare.

At a time when economic inequality is the highest it's been since the Great Depression and federal tax rates are lower than they were under Ronald Reagan, the party that fails to support the will of the people will pay a price.

But when push comes to shove, the GOP has greater masters to serve. The Sheldon Adelsons of the 2012 campaign are being followed by Fix the Debt, a corporate front group  .  .  .  .  . The money to run this country has to come from somewhere, and this group nominates the old, the sick, and the poor to foot the bill.

Following the advice of this cabal seems like a dicey proposition morally and politically, a fact that's not lost on all GOP lawmakers. Some are starting to prioritize their own reelection prospects over party fidelity.

Put aside for a moment the grave moral injustice of forcing the middle class, the poor and the elderly to foot the bill for an economic mess not of their making. Pursuing concessions like these barrels down a political path that has been shown to be an abject failure. Two-thirds of Americans believe that our representatives in Washington will act like "spoiled children" through these negotiations, with most people blaming Republicans for the standoff.

And this is where the fiscal cliff negotiations makes strange bedfellows, because for once I find myself agreeing with Rand Paul's assessment that the GOP risks becoming extinct like dinosaurs, if they don't change course.

The death of the GOP cannot come soon enough if it doesn't start putting the country ahead of partisan politics and the 1%.

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