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Now We See It All. Mitch McConnell’s Pontius Pilate Act Is Cover for Tax Increases

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  July 18th, 2011 at 09:42 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Well, well, well. As Monday’s news cycle gets into full gear, we’re starting to see exactly what Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi are cooking up for the American public — pretend spending cuts and very real tax increases.

It is like the GOP learned nothing from No Child Left Behind. In NCLB, the GOP let liberals like Teddy Kennedy write the legislation and when the legislation’s very foreseeable outcomes appeared, the GOP got the blame for the disaster the law wrought on the public school system.

And now we’re going to get a new deficit commission that is actually just going to raise taxes.

How do we know they are going to raise taxes?

Well, whatever the commission comes up with, it’s going to be deemed filibuster proof — only a simple majority will have to vote for it in the Senate. Oh, and it will not be subject to any amendments in its recommendations.

With Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) already on board tax increases and with Tom Coburn proposing $1 trillion in tax increases today, we see where this is headed. But wait . . . there’s more.Keith Hennessey has a breakdown of the budget negotiations, much of which will be incorporated into McConnell’s Pontius Pilate Act.

How so?

Well, most media reports are now saying that the Pontius Pilate Act will include the $1.5 trillion in cuts from the Biden led negotiations. What are those cuts? You can read Keith Hennessey yourself or just read this summarization from a friend of mine:

Only in Washington are spending increases called spending cuts. They will actually grow discretionary spending at 2/3 rate of inflation (spending increase) but call it $1 trillion in cuts below the baseline of full inflation. About $200 billion come from cuts to health care providers, something we stop every year with the doc fix — not sure how they’ll keep this promise. And another $165 billion come from increases in government fees (some call tax increases), not spending cuts. So at the end of the day, we are left with a $2 billion FY2012 cut, and $55 billion in promised actual spending cuts through yet unspecified policy changes. A whopping $57 billion in cuts over a decade, or less than $6 billion a year.

Oh the games they play.

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COMMENTS

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  • Goldwater_Conservative

    they are really setting the stage for the GOP nominee to hit a grand slam with his proposal. I know this is a cynical view, but if they fixed the debt problem right now, how would they knock off Obama next year?

  • dinorightmarie

    Not according to Ed over at Hot Air.

    More on the Coburn plan to flesh out your assertion, please.

  • izoneguy

    President Obama Doesn’t Know the First Thing About Economics

    Potential budget savings abound. The Heritage Foundation has identified about 90 programs that can be reduced or eliminated entirely at a savings of $343 billion annually. If the president were to agree to half of these, he could keep his Pell grant increases and still reduce discretionary spending by about $170 billion, no tax increase needed.

    The House and Senate Balanced Budget Amendments: Not All Balanced Budget Amendments Are Created Equal

  • dinorightmarie
  • anjinconsulting

    As I have said before; this is nothing but an exercise to maintain the current size of governemnt and attempt to maintain the projected increase in size brough about by Obamacare. McConnell et al in the Senate and Boehner et al in the House are political animals of the same stripe.

    If the government cannot be held at bay now, it will never be leashed. Ditto for the Republican leadership; and I use that term loosely.

  • edintexas

    Surely you jest! The politicians, from either party, avoid elimination and repeal like a plague. Even when the people overwhelmingly wish something eliminated/repealed, the politicians are diligent in avoiding any decisive action. As an example, let’s remember the Clinton era sneak of a universal health identification number through the legislative process (voting on bills not read or understood is hardly new). There was a public uproar when the idea of everyone having to have a healthcare ID became public knowledge. So the Congress immediately repealed that provision of the law – right? Not quite. Each year a rider is passed on the Health and Human Services spending bill prohibiting expending any funds to implement the national health ID. Any time that rider isn’t included in the HHS budget/funding, the national health ID can be imposed on the people – in accordance with a provision of the law our politicians couldn’t bring themselves to repeal.

    Sure they are going to reduce or eliminate programs. And pigs will fly…

  • Bill S

    He’s Benedict Arnold, a traitor to his party and his country.

    I don’t often support campaigns to kick out incumbent Republicans, but this is one exception. He needs to go. Yesterday.

    “Weasel” is a kind way to describe this loser.

  • izoneguy

    eliminate jobs in Congress and keep turning them over.

    G.O.P. Freshmen Say Debt Concerns Them More Than Re-election

  • DaveWT4

    They let us all hang out to dry when Obamacare was passed, and now this. Add a demand to your Senator in 2012, if you don’t vote for Demint as Leader, I will never vote for you again.

  • earlgrey

    The Republican party is still moving left. I read Cold Warrior’s post (most of the time), and it isn’t easy. There are many frustrated and angry voters that wish to remain “bipartisian’/”independent.

    Frankly getting bent over by McConnell will take more steam out of the Tea Party and other activists than Obama and Dems ever could.

  • Bill S

    .

  • johnt

    Fools usually do get things backwards.
    It seems we are running out of people to sell us out.

  • joecollins

    Just for a moment, allow me to dream.

    We in America need relief from all the lies and political spin. Both parties do it. The media does it. Both sides present the worst case scenarios to benefit their own agenda.

    Cuts that aren’t cuts, are actually increases. New boards and czars with authority to enact rules that are akin to unpassed laws. Lies, spoken directly into the camera, in carefully crafted 15 second news bites.

    I’m sick of it. I’m sick of them. Who can we trust? (Jim DeMint comes to mind).

    Wouldn’t it be grand if for 48 hours EVERYONE had to speak the truth? The honest whole truth?

    Okay, that was my tantrum. Back to reality of sorting through all the BS to find what is real.

  • gawken

    That’s what makes NO sense. There is NO way that any GOP hopeful will endorse this..so assuming that they can get it through Congress..the stupid party has given the Dems and the MSM a wedge the size of the Grand Canyon to drive through the electorate in the 2012 campaign.

  • rickdeckard

    When was the last time we saw a democrat at the helm who spoke with courtesy and respect, and who wanted to reach solutions through compromise? My recollections are coming up short.

    Next year, maybe we primary everybody, with the exception of a few true believers, and McConnell never gets majority leader, no matter how many seats we take.

  • crimsonandclover

    that none of the GOP Presidential contenders (other than Cain) have guts enough to wade into the debt ceiling debate. Showing their lack of spine early on, they’re standing on the sidelines, fingers in the wind, waiting until it’s all over to make big speeches on how they would have done things differently. What a pathetic crop of candidates we have.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    And of the pResident until Sec Turbo Geithner told him to rack the (expletive deleted) 9-iron and at least pretend this whole White House gig wasn’t just a 4 year chunk of resume fodder.

  • rightwingmom52

    …

  • alreadyexists

    This sell-out strategy was formulated weeks ago and has been playing out as planned by McConnell and Boehner. All the maneuvering related to cut, cap, and amend has been a feint designed to give cover to the RINOs in the House of Representatives will be asked to vote for the McConnell plan later this week. That has always been the core problem for Boehner; how does he persuade enough members of his caucus to abandon the principle of fiscal conservatism and get to 218 votes for passage? As with the earlier sell-out legislation, most of the Democrats and a minority of the Republican caucus will be coerced into passage under the hysteria of imminent fiscal collapse.

    Boehner believes that he can heal these wounds with later ultra-conservative votes that accomplish nothing and he’s counting on the media to help him sell this load of crap to the American people. What neither he nor McConnell has figured out is that the economy will continue to tank and decent citizens will fundamentally lose faith in the Republican Party. No one will buy into the hogwash that the Republican are less worse than the Democrats, so they have no choice but to stick with them. Good luck driving the Titanic.

  • lineholder

    and if McConnell is trying to restore power to the establishment by minimizing the Tea Party….we’re just going to have to fight that much harder and prove them wrong, politically. We may just have to take a different approach in the fight.

    However, when it comes to considering the impact that is going to have on our economy…I’m going to say my piece, rant or not.

    For months on end, consumers have been cautious in regards to how they spend their disposable income. Just cautious. It hasn’t reached “fearful” yet. Couple that caution with the unemployment rate and rising prices, and it’s caused our economy to flatline on the demand side. We need to stay out of the “fearful” range as much as possible, but decisions like this are more likely to push us into that range.

    The left is going ga-ga over this idea that the glory days of free-market capitalism are now gone, and that the only way we will see growth and development in our economy is via managed capitalism methods resulting from government intervention. This is what they want to happen, so they are projecting that the free-market enterprise system is now collapsing for the purpose of justifying both government intervention and additional tax increases to support these government intervention efforts.

    But these idiots know absolutely nothing at all about what it takes to establish or maintain a successful business venture. All their managed capitalism ideas are pie-in-the-sky grand schemes, with products/services that are mandated to the general public (taking away from consumer disposable income) supposedly for the purpose of generating jobs.

    Yet to make sure that the demand for their choice of products/services might be sustained, they put regulations into place that limit or eliminate competition (which kill jobs and lowers the disposable income across our society as a whole).

    Then to get the demand for their products/services up to the sustainable level they want to see happen, they subsidize either purchase or provision of the product/service or both, which does nothing more than generate a bunch of artificially-inflated bubbles across our economy as a whole.

    Idiots and fools! If they’d pull back on the regulatory measures, keep tax increases on the back burner, let the economy stabilize, and give the American public a chance to determine where true demand for products/services actually exists, we could probably find a way to turn things around. But, oh, no, in their infinite wisdom and superior intelligence, they have to keeping monkeying around with it, don’t they?

    I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but I’m now beginning to support those who have been presenting the idea that we need to reestablish supply-and-demand chains at the local level, separate from the influence of government intervention as much as possible.

  • earlgrey

    play into what McConnell is doing or how we can respond?

    There is only so much $$ to SCF, Heritage, American Majority can do. I am at a loss. With the Republicans betrayal it will be even more difficult to recruit independent voters to vote Republican or vote at all.

  • lineholder

    That politicians in general (which does include some Repubs) have developed a lot of really stupid, ignorant bad habits and a mindset that is dependent on spending far more in public funds than is genuinely needed.

    The best hope that our country has to alter this pattern of behavior is to make sure that we get fiscal conservatives elected into office in 2012.

    The outcome on this point is dependent on our actions, first and foremost, not the actions of those in Congress. If we can’t step up, stay engaged, and exercise our right to vote, then we have no one but ourselves to blame.

    If we do stay engaged and exercise our right to vote, then we have a chance of succeeding, which could turn things around for all us.

    That this is just one of those times when we have to be proactive rather than reactive, and we have to “go for the gold” so to speak DESPITE the foolishness and idiocy that is being displayed by some of those currently in Congress.

  • leehazel

    This McConnell ploy is just what you think it is. It is a bare knuckled approach to force the Tea Party to try to go it alone. I think we all know what the result would be and this is what the PowerCrats/Criminals (aka SOBs) in WDC (Washington District of Corruption) want.

    They are betting that if they can kill the threat of a GOP takeover by the Tea Party the PowerCrats of both current parties can retain office and can preside over the demise of the Late, Great USA.

    After all in WDC the have the resources to protect their worthless hides from being displayed on the razor wire fences they will erect to keep the riff-raff out.

    Folks, this whole thing is out of control and it is about to get real ugly.

  • Marcus_Traianus

    There is no intellectually plausibly, well thought out reason for McConnell’s overture. It is not, as has been implied, a clever tactic in which he makes the Democrats “own” the debt limit increase.

    What McConnell has done is to display that prior experiences and outcomes mean nothing to him. He has now given Democrats a cudgel, which they will use to articulate, ad nauseam about the “extremists” in our party and how they are not serious or surreptitiously uncaring about the debt situation- or was that his intent?

    McConnell has demonstrated for them what is otherwise a fairly united front has a weak spot in its armor; his personal vanity.

    Notice the press has now taken up “McConnell’s Plan on which “he and Reid agree” as a headline, as proof. This confuses the outcome which was otherwise running in favor of Republicans very well articulated plans- as opposed to none from the President or Democrats.

    This is absolutely one of the most contra-intellectual political moves I have ever seen.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    “Well, whatever the commission comes up with, it?s going to be deemed filibuster proof”

    Anything with tax increases are DOA in the House.

    It doesnt matter what they recommend, nothing will be done with Obama in the WH, because nothing he will accept will be acceptable to 220+ House Republicans. Beohner has at least been consistent there. So it doesnt matter what ‘deal’ is cooked up. it won’t sell.

    In my opinion, the Senate gasbags are just creating another Simpson-Bowles-like destined-for-round-file proposal. The mischeif here is not that it might get passed, but that ONCE AGAIN we are letting the President off the hook and letting him play ‘present’ without any plan at all. Good policy, since whatever he proposes will be awful, but bad politics, if the whole point was to get the President on the hook for this.

    Senator Tom Coburn, on the other hand, has offered in my mind the real game-changer proposal. Why?
    Because we have used Ryan as the GOP ‘baseline’ of ‘what can we save’ and Coburn is now upping the ante and saying: “Look, we can cut the deficit by $9 trillion over 10 years.” It puts to shame the dishwater $1.5trillion in ‘cuts’ from Biden talks, and it trump Ryan in terms of deficit reduction. I would also like to see the RSC and Rand Paul budget ideas get more play, as both go more vigorously after the discretionary spending.

    If Coburn can get significant Senate GOP support for his approach, it could be a good counterpart to the House backing for the Ryan roadmap.

  • lineholder

    Cutting the deficit can also mean increasing revenues via taxes, so I’d like to see what Coburn has in mind. Thanks.

  • izoneguy

    NIH-Backed Study Examined Effects of Penis Size in Gay Community

    “This country is broke and we cannot spend money on this kind of stuff,” said Andrea Lafferty, president of the Traditional Values Coalition, which drew attention to the report as part of a six-month investigation into NIH grants for examples of “institutional waste.”

    “We’re spending money on wacky stuff,” Lafferty said.

    Lafferty’s group drew attention to several other studies Monday that it claimed were “bizarre” in the current fiscal climate. Among them was one that asked individuals to “mail in their toenails” to measure “toenail nicotine,” according to the values coalition.

    “The president has said he’s going to hunt down waste. Well, I’m going to give it to him on a platter,” Lafferty said.

  • http://www.sheetanchor.org Sheet Anchor

    our ability to stop President Obama, it is now time to speak in plain terms to Republicans in Congress. We must stop Mcconnell’s proposal, Hence, time to tell our elected Republican representatives that any support for Mcconnell will trigger support for primary opponents in 2012. Further, we will withold campaign contributions from any Republican who supports this proposal, and will actively work to defeat them in a primary.

    If you have not called or e-mailed your representatives in Congress, it is time. We sent them there last November to stop President Obama at all costs – now and not next year.

    We must hold the line here, and let President Obama decide whether or not the United States wil default while he has the checkbook to the pay the current interest on the debt, and social securiiy. If we cannot hold the line now, then when and how can we save this country? A debt ceiling of $16.7 trillion is unacceptable and maddening. The 101st Airborne Division held the line at Bastogne. We must hold the line now, until relieved in 2012 with a new President.

  • caboose

    about it, McConnell is taking advice from lobbists Trent Lott and Bob Dole. He must not be allowed to get away with it. The Washington Switchboard congressional number is 1 202 224 3121. As for your representative’s office whether Senator or House Congressman by name and they will put you through. I just called McConnell’s office told his staff that if McConnell wanted to keep me as a contributor, he damn well better abandon the surrender treason bill he and the two DEM gooks cooked up. I also ask Mitch to step down as leader of the minority in the Senate. If there is a sleeping giant left in this Country and is capable of awakening up, it needs to be done before this country is totally destroyed. Mich McConnell has betrayed us and Boehner is now suspect. When you call demand that Mitch step down

  • AceInTX

    but it cracks me up how you and others in the green eye shade crowd keep going from cave afcter cave saying how brilliant a move each successive cave is because it sets the stage for something dreamy down the road….’

    of course…we never get to the dreamy party because we have to set the stage for the next brilliant strategy from Mitch the B__ch and the geniuses advising him…

    but who knows…maybe you’ll finally be right this time…

    but then again…

    you probably won’t!!!

  • AceInTX

    who bend over for the big boys in exchange for special treatment and protection…he’s not a traitor, he’s not stupid, he’s an unprincipled coward who would sell his wife, mother and kids down the river for a crumb form Harry Ried’s table,

    He’s Harry Ried’s B__ch thus my new name for him…Mitch the B__ch.

    He’s a loathsome creature not even worthy of our contempt and should face the wrath of the conservative movement next time he’s up which won’t be soon enough for me

  • Goldwater_Conservative

    what I would do, much less the right thing to do. I’m just saying, in a purly political sense, the GOP has no incentive in solving the problem now while on Obama’s watch. They have every reson to kick the can down till 2013 and have their new President come in on the white horse and solve all things.

  • AceInTX

    they’re unlocking the credit card for a compulsive spender

    BRILLIANT!!!

  • davesinsanantonio

    a box of rocks. If they punt on this one, no one will be able to trust them and so will not vote Republican next year!!! Who would trust a presidential candidate, or a candidate for any other office, from a party with so little brain power and absolutely no backbone or integrity??? I mean, REALLY!!! “What fools these mortals be.”
    Most Americans would much rather vote for someone who fights for what is right and risks losing than for a weasel who only cares about his or her re-election–especially when the survival of the country is at stake!!! We do not want our chance for survival “kicked down the road”. Get a backbone and stop being a weasel, you weasels!!!

  • davesinsanantonio

    True! But, I don’t want to be banned for saying what I really think of this “weasel”. In fact, I think “Benedict Arnold” is even “a kind way to describe this loser.” But, I can’t think of a stronger one yet.

    Please primary this loser weasel at the earliest possible date. Thank you!

  • davesinsanantonio

    I visited the old Soviet Union back when, and one interesting statistic came out: Half of all residential fires in Moscow were started by faulty TV sets. When was the last time you heard of a TV in the use starting a house fire?
    Here is my point, when you have a government managed economy the bad producers suck up to the bureaucrats and politicians to protect their financial base. Then to be able to afford the graft and campaign “donations”, they have to cut even more corners on their products. So, products get shoddier and shoddier. I went in to several “supermarkets” there, and wouldn’t want to eat anything they had on the shelves. Even the canned goods looked sick. Eventually, the “good” producers have to also cut corners to compete, and the whole mess begins to look like a “soviet” economy. Which is one reason it collapsed.
    I was stationed in Berlin in the Seventies, and the difference between East and West Berlin should have been an eye-opener for anyone. And, eventually even the totally indoctrinated East Germans had had enough. Why are OUR Lefties so stupid they can’t see the truth when it smacks them in the face??? And, smack them in the face it will!!! But, by then it will be too late! For all of us!

  • davesinsanantonio

    nt

  • davesinsanantonio

    It is not a very “intelligent” move. There is a difference.

    As someone once said, there is no statement so silly that some intellectual will embrace it.

    What we need in Washington (and in our universities) is fewer intellectuals and more intelligence.

  • kliff

    to calculate the good that Erick Erickson & Glenn Beck has done for the conservative movement, each, in his own way. And as with everyone, sometimes positions taken that are somewhat slanted. But, on occasion, both will slip the public load of crap. This just happened with the attack on Coebrurn.