The GOP Gift to Obama

As the economy continues to largely stagnate and small businesses and average families struggle to make ends meet, one would think that modest tax cuts tot he middle class and small business would be a no brainer. Yet, not so in the eyes of the GOP which would rather protect the wealthiest taxpayers from even tiny increases even as the average American withers and twists on a economic rope. The question, of course, will be whether or not Barack Obama and the Democrats in congress have the sense to use this growing disdain of average Americans for political advantage. The juxtaposition is pretty simple: payroll tax cuts to average taxpayers and small businesses versus a 1.9% hike for those with incomes over $1,000,000.00 a year. A piece in The Daily Beast looks at this likely campaign gift to Obama. Here are some highlights:

Cutting the payroll tax for working people is good for the economy. The research firm Macroeconomic Advisers projects that the Obama middle-class tax cut will create 1.3 million new jobs by the end of next year and 800,000 more in 2013. Former McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics says the payroll-tax cut has prevented us from slipping back into a recession. If an extension of the cut does not pass, he told MSNBC, “at the very minimum, we’ll likely go into recession.”

Some Republicans raise the valid concern that cutting the payroll tax, which funds Social Security, could undermine the retirement plan. But that’s why the millionaires’ surtax is so important—to replenish the revenue Social Security would otherwise lose. Voters are coming to the conclusion that the GOP cares more about protecting tax breaks for millionaires than the benefits that millions of middle-class retirees depend on.

An alternative explanation is that the GOP is following the strategy of its intellectual leader, Rush Limbaugh, who famously said of the president, “I hope he fails.”

The Republicans seem to believe that if they tank the economy, they will be able to take down Obama and then rule over the ruins. Back in 2010, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell declared that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” And the single best way to defeat Obama is to sabotage the economy.

But there’s just one problem with that strategy: the Republicans have no choice but to pursue it in broad daylight. And the trouble is, if they kill Obama’s middle-class tax cut, and Obama’s American Jobs Act, and his extension of unemployment benefits, and everything else he’s advocating to revive the economy, then fair-minded voters will likely blame the Republicans, and not the president, for the catastrophic results.

The economy isn’t giving Obama enough jobs, but the Republicans are giving him the next best thing: a villain to blame for the poor economy. By killing Obama’s jobs agenda, Republicans may just save his presidency.

Personally, I find it obscene that the GOP doesn't care what harm is done to average citizens and families in their sick quest for partisan gain. At some point the good of the country ought to trump political games.