The Republicans are destined to lose the political debate over the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling. This destiny is determined by two prime factors:
(1) Corrupt and biased liberal media acting as praetorian guard for the
Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama.
(2) Low information voting public easily misled by previously mentioned praetorian guard into believing the most ridiculous propaganda.
These two realities have been amply chronicled by this blog, and various others including all on my blog roll. Further belaboring what should be obvious to the most casual observer by now would just put my eyeballs at risk of falling out from too much rolling.
The Republicans need to accept this reality, and realize they are playing not to win today's political food fight. They are playing to history.
Here's how they can do it...
This side of the January 1 Cliff ...
(1)Continue to make a public show of negotiating in good faith on both spending and revenue. History will note the contrast with Democrat bad faith on spending and myopic obsession with raising rates to raise revenue. (Side note: My favorite proposal for showing seriousness on revenue without raising rates is an annual cap on deductions claimed - high enough to not touch middle income taxpayers, low enough to raise the ubiquitously discussed $800B number from high income earners. Plus it's simple enough a concept it might even be beyond the capacity of the Leftist propaganda machine to misrepresent to the clueless voting public as an evil Republican trick. Though I'm not sure I'd bet a nickel on it.)
(2)Do *Not* agree to any rate increases. History will note the Democrats held the entire negotiation hostage to their "my way or the highway" revenue condition - raise rates on top earners (aka job creators).
(3)Do *Not* agree to Democrat demands to grant new dictatorial powers to the Empty Suit, allowing him to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling. (Side note: If the GOP does fold on this condition, TEA Party 2013 will make TEA Party 2009 look like a walk in the park.)
Let the Empty Suit take us over the cliff. History will attach blame for the economic damage to him, and record the cliff dive was made necessary by his politics. The republic will survive the cliff dive because the Founders designed it to.
When the Debt Ceiling is reached ...
(1) Refuse to raise it.
(2) Pass legislation prioritizing debt service first, entitlements second, and all discretionary spending a distant dead last.
History will record the math showed debts and entitlements could be serviced with no threat of default, provided the Executive chose to spend in priority order. If the Empty Suit drives the nation into default by choosing other priorities, history will record the disastrous decision as his. The republic will survive a shut down of the federal government because the Founders designed it to.
If the American people were stupid enough to re-elect the radical Saul Alinksy community agitator to a second term, perhaps they are still smart enough to learn from the history auto-generated by his re-election. (Side Note: We're not even up to Inauguration Day yet. There's no telling what chaos this demagogue will inflict upon the republic in the next 1508 days. Strap on your crash helmets, folks - we have a lot of history to live through in the next 1508 days.)
Update 12/6/12
Give the toddler tyrant an inch, and he wants a mile. Or, more to the point, try to give him his trillion dollar new revenue check, and he won't even take it unless he gets a blank check on the matching tab - your grandchildren's.