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The Tax Deal: Republican Leadership Still In the Wilderness

By: texasgalt (Diary)  |  December 7th, 2010 at 03:43 AM  | 

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Do these guys have the right stuff? Do they have any idea at all what drove the November election results?
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They did it again. They went wobbly. The Republican leadership doesn’t believe in the message the voters sent just a mere 5 weeks ago. They just proved it by agreeing to more big spending and more nanny statism. One begets the other as history proves. It works the same way at the top of the Republican party.

Tea Party folks and conservatives just got poked in the eye. Again. Get used to it.

Modified Chicken Crap. . . that is what this tax deal between Obama and the ruling elite Republicans amounts to. Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker to be John Boehner agreed with Obama to extend unemployment insurance for another thirteen months. Folks, a couple can conceive, give birth and have a baby beginning to walk in that amount of time. Thirteen MORE months? I swear, are these guys Republicans or Social Democrats? Is America now France?

For this extension and some other expensive “stimulus”, the not so wise old men at the top of the Republican party were able to maintain the status quo on tax rates. The status quo was all they could get. Democrats were badly punished just five weeks ago at the polls. A disproportionate number of highly endangered Senate Democrats are up in 2012 and all the Republicans could get was the status quo.

Think about that and what was given up to get it. The unemployment benefits alone will cost over 50 billion. I am not sure what the 2% reduction in employment taxes costs but it’s got to be a huge hit. The people that are most likely to need and use their social security benefits will now have even less skin in the game. Without an adjustment to benefits or at least the age qualifier, well, maybe we can bust the system sooner and move straight into whatever is next. That could be a failed country, but whatever, nobody can touch FDR’s lame legacy.

I know a lot of folks are thinking, well, at least we have some certainty of what our tax liabilities will be. Two years isn’t a lot to plan on and it just happens to put this issue right back on the front burner, just in time for 2012. You say you think it is a sure loser for Obama? We don’t know what the political landscape will be then. We have seen Republicans time and again fumble away issues they should own. I remember thinking Clinton was toast in 1995 and then Gingrich lost his mind and then his nerve. All I know is if Dick Morris says this deal is a total capitulation by Obama, I’m really worried. Sorry Dick, but in the last decade, what have you gotten right?

Maybe this deal seemed like smart politics (for the moment) to the Republicans. Is that what Americans just voted for? More of the same? When will we draw the line on the insane spending? Must all states go the California way?

Republicans must find the courage to tell Americans out of work for two years that their old jobs are not coming back, not ever. I know it is hard and the truth can be mean, but in the truth is a chance for a new beginning. In the spirit of Truman, I offer the truth as I know it and it may seem like hell. No, hell is when the government has stolen your initiative and allegiance for a weekly check.

It’s time to go back to work America. It may be time to start fresh, maybe at less money in a new career. It may be time to move. Our forefathers moved across a whole continent. Surely we can move to another city or state if that is what it takes to find work. It might even be time to go on welfare, for a time, while the long climb back takes its course. Anything but sitting and waiting and drawing a government unemployment check. It’s bad for the soul to lay about and idle hands will make deals with personal demons.

It was courage and work ethic built this country. Lives can be rebuilt with the same right stuff. Wouldn’t you cheer if Republican leaders looked the American people in the eye and said we can not rebuild on the false promises and lies of the left and really meant it? When will they start to govern like they believe in capitalism and the Constitution?

COMMENTS

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  • avgjo

    contact their Representatives and tell them to vote no on this bill? I was mixed in my feelings about this until i read your post. You make a good point: we’re stuck at the status quo and the status quo really, really stinks.

    I read somewhere that Michele Bachmann told Hannity yesterday on his show that House republicans might balk at this because of the extension of unemployment ‘benefits’. Perhaps we should encourage them?

    I have heard it argued that the GOP had to give in on the umemployment extension because it would give the dems a gift to be able to say that the GOP voted to give ‘millionaires and billionaires’ a tax break while denying poor families unemployment money at Christmas. Upon hearing this, I asked myself whether now is the perfect time to do it because (a) it would be the 111th Congress, not the 112th passing this and (b) by the time re-election comes up, no one will really remember ‘giving tax breaks to the rich and denying unemployment to the poor’. What do ya’ll think?

    This seems like a prickly problem. Perhaps we can all put our heads together, get the rest of the blogosphere up in arms and do something about this?

    • texasgalt

      Half the conservative blogosphere is more or less happy with it. Some really think it was the best deal to be had. Some have their own interest at heart.

      You are right to call this a prickly issue. And all we’ve done is kick the can down the road. If this deal is the best we can get, it may take another wave and new leadership to get Republicans to stand up for freedom and the Constitution.

      Karl Rove and Dick Morris love this compromise. Really, do conservatives need to know anything else?

  • earlgrey

    Only now do I see people in my every day life openly rejecting the premise upon which liberal issues are presented. Should we have expected a C-change in such a short period of time? I don’t know. I expected it, but it has not come.

    I am probably the weakest supporter on this site when it comes to staying strong, but we have no other choice. We do have new conservatives, new voices coming in January.

    There are so many that want to speak of our historic gains as something that is once in a lifetime, but I’d prefer to see it as the start of something better. A sustained effort to reject liberalism and to educate Americans about how conservatism best preserves our rights and opportunities.

    What do you all think on this site, is this a peak or a campsite at the foot of a large mountain? Are we strong enough to make the climb?

    • texasgalt

      Our leadership doesn’t trust us or even agree with our method for assaulting the peak.

      Even here in very red Texas, we have a Republican Speaker that was put in place by Democrats. Now, even with Republicans outnumbering Dems 2-1, the Republicans are so invested in Spkr Straus they are struggling with replacing him with a conservative.

      It’s the same on the Federal level. I doubt the majority of Republicans really support the current leadership, but most Rs are content to go along. It’s about the way the system works but it is also about self interest and a lack of courage.

      • earlgrey

        we haven’t had an R majority for a very long time, and the Tea Party asked us to tell our local Reps to vote against the person we have now (I forgot her name). I did so, but we ended up stuck with her.

        In my monthly message from the local R party thaey said congratulations xyz. I can’t tell if the local supported her or not.

        I tried to be a PC committeeman, but they said my precinct already had one. So I volunteered like crazy and made sure the chair of the local R party knows about my volunteering and that I wanted to be more active (it wasn’t hard to do and I wasn’t pushy, I just was active enough to get invited to stuff).

        Now I am not Precinct captain and I don’t know when/how they vote. I’ll try again at the member’s meeting Xmas party on Saturday, but this sucks.

        • texasgalt

          but I cant imagine there isn’t a precinct position available for you. In TX, there is a precinct captain and a certain number of preceinct delegates alloted based on the the number of Republican voters in the most recent primary.There are 26 delegates alloted for my precinct. I am one of FIVE- yeah we have 21 vacancies. Precinct Captains are elected the night of the primary. All delegates get to make suggestions to the party platform and have a vote at the senatorial and state conventions.

          You should probably look into to how your precinct is structured. You may be getting the run-around. It pays to get to know a little about your county chair and precinct chairman. If you determine they are “not with the tea party, reform movement” you might be better off using a little stealth in your quest for a party position.

          Good luck.

  • tngal

    Why didn’t we ask for some sort of weaning clause, at the very least. For instance, When they get down to about three or four months start reducing their checks by some percentage from what they would normally get. If they regularly get , say, 150 bucks, drop them down to 100, then the next month 75. etc.

    It might not be a bad idea for all unemployment to be handled this way, not just these extensions because of the the current economy. If the normal unemployment check system works 12 weeks the last three or four should be a wean-down. it saves money and kicks the job hunting into a higher gear.

    I’m not thrilled about the extensions at all, but I understand compromising when necessary. As much as the left is foaming at the mouth over the One’s capitulation, we rolled over as well. We could have bargained this out.