Should GOP be grumbling over "fiscal cliff" deal?

News Analysis

Depressed, demoralized, humiliated and stewing in a bitter brew of recriminations, resentments and resignation.

That is the state of mind of congressional Republicans as they stagger their way out of the 112th Congress. Considering this gloom, it's scarcely possible to remember the session began with a newly minted House majority and a splashy vote to nullify President Obama's signature legislative accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act.

It ended with a freshly re-elected Obama bearing relentlessly down on defeated Republicans and seeing them vote for higher income taxes for the first time since the presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush. Mr. Obama broke the back of nearly 20 years of GOP tax orthodoxy and in the course just over 18 months pulled Republicans from a posture of not one dollar of new taxes to $620 billion over 10 years.

• "Fiscal cliff" averted -- now what?
• The art of the "fiscal cliff" deal

And that $620 billion in higher taxes came with not one iota of structural entitlement reform. Republicans even agreed to waive the first two months of the across-the-board spending cuts that supposedly heralded a new day of fiscal austerity wrought by the 2010 midterm elections.

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Ohio GOP congressman speaks out on "fiscal cliff" deal

"At the end of the day we got whooped," Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, said on "CBS This Morning."

"We all knew the president was going to get his way. He campaigned on raising taxes, he wanted to raise taxes, he wins."

House GOP leaders couldn't even bring themselves to discuss the "fiscal cliff" bill - or find a unified position (House Speaker John Boehner voted for the bill, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy voted against it). Only House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., hailed the package, calling it a "legacy vote" and saying it laid a foundation for tax reform "because we are making permanent tax policies Republicans originally crafted."

It was muted praise, but there's a larger point that Republicans seem to have overlooked. It's not unusual in the midst of what feels like chaotic defeat and misery to miss a larger and long arc of history.

What Republicans, most at least, fail to see is they have won virtually all of the tax cut debate started by Ronald Reagan and extended by George Bush the younger.

Yes, Mr. Obama raised income tax rates and raised $620 billion in new revenue. But he also - with conspicuous support from fiery House and Senate liberals - made permanent nearly 99 percent of the Bush-era tax policy. The 10-year cost of these tax cuts is nearly $3.9 trillion. Bush only negotiated his tax cuts for 10 years. Mr. Obama has made them good for the life of the nation.

Whether this is good for the nation or its economy remains an open question. That a durable and bipartisan consensus now embraces the economic theory that low marginal income tax rates for all income earners below $400,000 is best for the nation cannot be challenged.

The president campaigned for higher taxes on incomes of $250,000 and above. That was a concession to Bush and Reagan economic theory on marginal rates. Republicans drove him to $400,000 but were aided considerably by the quiet but persistent urging of Senate Democrats, the same ones who narrowed the scope of higher estate taxes.

For awhile this looked and sounded like a debate about the merits of Bush and Reagan economics and a reversion back to the tax and economic policies of Bill Clinton. While Mr. Clinton gave a memorable speech for Mr. Obama and explained the supposed choices in the November campaign, the post-"fiscal cliff" reality is the Clinton tax code is mostly gone for good and virtually all of the Bush code is set in legislative stone.

But you'd never know it by the sound, the look, the temperament or tenor of congressional Republicans. Perhaps they will find their voice in the coming battle over raising the debt ceiling, tax reform and entitlement cuts.

For now, the sound of humiliated silence is all there is to signify a victory Reagan probably couldn't have imagined and probably surprises Bush the younger.

[tsigili]

Absolutely, they should grumbling. The spending is still totally out of control, with no sign of any improvement on the horizon.

[zenia5]

Why should the GOP grumble when they are a HUGE part of the problem with their staunch support of corporate welfare and overfeeding of the military industrial complex? They absolutely must share the blame. Both parties need to start doing the job they were elected to do instead of only supporting their own selfish interests and those of lobbyists.

[tvwatcher5345]

to quote conan the barbarian, obama has crushed the republicans, driven them before him, and is hearing the lamentations of their women, or is it john boehner obama hears crying?

[logictoo]

That is the goal. Multitudes are following. Remember the words taken from one of our leaders campaign speeches. "Together we can change Washington, together we can change the United States, together we can change the world". May not be exact words but scary anyhow.

[bbglow]

The next step should include provisions for the wealthy to pay for their own wars and military. You want it, you pay for it with appropriate increases and seperate tax roll specifically targeted for that purpose and all troops receive the right to negotiate their individual cost to participate.

[jschm2681]

Then if you want a road pay for it yourself. You want a new school pay for it yourself. The military protects all citizens interests.
How many people do the poor hire?

[Type_Z]

I would suggest also, if a crazy dictator threatens your freedom, or terrorists want to kill you and you don't contribute to military, you are on your own.

Freedom is not Free. Much has been given and sacrificed for our daily freedoms. If you submit an opinion on this website, you are exercising one of those freedoms that has been hard fought. I for one appreciate it and am highly offended at any attempt to suppress that freedom.

[JohnW84]

I have read that the plan only kicks the spending cuts two months down the road. Am I right????

[BigMykul]

yep

[tsigili]

Yes, they should be grumbling........if for no OTHER reason, because the bill had PORK attached to it, that is nothing but wasteful spending........as USUAL!

[fiberglass3]

2016

Boehner for President

Can'tor for VP.


Even the Pea Tarty won't vote for that line up.

[easymoola]

Even the Pea Tarty won't vote for that line up.

Don't know about that but it appears they got a pretty good deal. The democrats approved the Bush tax cuts for a majority, social security taxes will go back to where they were for all of us helping to save or at least extend its life a while longer. The pork added Nascar, Hollywood and rum is something we should all deal with with our votes.

[zenia5]

This mess simply proves that the Republicans don't give a rat's patootie about what the MAJORITY of American people want or need. President Obama won the election by a MAJORITY....he won the election with a platform that included these tax increases...EVERY poll has shown that a huge majority agrees with the tax increases. The GOP needs to stop pandering to the corporate thieves and rely on average Americans to get elected and re-elected....then they won't have to worry so much about biting the hand that feeds them. Hopefully, very few if any of this bunch gets re-elected.

[jschm2681]

This was a Democrat bill! Republicans approved it to prevent the cliff and to fight another day. Obama won by a majority of 3%. Not a mandate to roll over the wishes of the 47% who didn't vote for him. He'd like to be the dictator and used the Chavez method of winning. Republicans were elected to oppose his business and job killing policies.

[Type_Z]

Obama is the panderer in chief!

[dcooper0011]

Buy as many guns as you can and as fast as you can. The GOP are all fakes, they put on this show but at the end of the day they are just as bad if not worse the the Dems on overspending and Constitutional rights. "Wake up" it's not about Dems vs Rep. It's about Government and Corporations vs the people. This debt bubble will burst. What happens is unknown but it will burst.

[davidd5063]

What the author fails to understand is that GW and the GOP NEVER intended to make the cuts permanent for ANYONE except the top 1%. The ONLY reason cuts for anyone else was ever included in anything was to win votes so the inherited-wealth filth could cut taxes for themselves. The GOP is defeated because THEIR CONSTITUENTS and THEIR CONSTITUENTS alone (not even their poor, stupid, bigotted, Fox News addicted patsies which the GOP does NOT represent, only exploits) will pay higher taxes - the exact OPPOSITE goal they set out for back in 2001.

[davidd5063]

Obama has consistently and systematically EXPOSED the various GOP LIES and ruses they've pandered over the past decade to allow the inherited wealth filth to ROB the country blind and stash the money overseas. The GOP has nothing left to offer unless you're an inherited wealth trust fund baby or a very stupid and bigotted patsy.

[BigMykul]

Cite a source for your statement or admit it is a lie.

[WhoSanktheBismark]

The R's tears are crocodile tears. By loudly lamenting Obama's victory in hiking taxes, they are shrewdly painting Obama as responsible for a massive tax hike (when, as you point out, it is really a massive tax cut). Obama's driving purpose in the fiscal cliff brinksmanship was to divide the R's by making them break the Grover Nourquist "no new tax" pledge and to destroy the R's advantage of being perceived by the voters as the anit-tax party. Can anyone state with a straight face that Obama achieved either of these goals? Not since the Greeks withdrew from the battle of Troy, has such a "gift" been handed out to such unwitting recipients. What leverage will Obama have now in the coming battles over entitlement reform and the debt ceiling? The Greeks are inside the city walls. Troy is lost.

[usbworks]

Nice try Bismark. Sure, the Republicans are trying to paint some lipstick on this pig of a deal that they were cornered into making. But it's still a pig.

The meat and potatoes are in the permanent extension of middle class tax cuts for everyone under $450,000. That's a lot of independents who will vote Democrat in 2014.

I find it pathetic that Boehner failed to pass his Plan B tax cut for everyone under $1M, only to vote for passage of a bill that reduced the threshold down to $450K.

You see the tears are real.

[WhoSanktheBismark]

Point well made USB. Just who ultimately gets credit for extending the vast majority of the Bush tax cuts has yet to be determined. I am not convinced, however, that Obama and the D's will be able to convince the voters that they should be credited. After all, everyone is still calling them the Bush or Bush-era tax cuts. It is well known that the R's wanted to extend all of the Bush tax cuts. And the D's seem to be well labeled as the big government, tax and spend party, at least at this point. But the verdict remains out as you astutely point out.