President Obama’s effort to paint the GOP, and especially the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, as the evildoers in the fiscal problems of America is becoming a little boring, not to mention transparent in its lack of honesty.
In Charles Krauthammer’s syndicated column of the 25th of November, he notes that the tactic is not so much dishonest as it is the product of Democratic hardheadedness. Krauthammer’s explanation is that Democrats are so “stuck” on the idea of raising taxes for the “rich” that they fail to recognize that simpifying the tax code by cutting loopholes often yields the same “tax revenue” result they want, but by making the tax process more fair and clear, something the GOP has been trying to explain without success because of this Democrat blindspot.
As Krauthammer explains, the Simpson-Bowles Commission, which was appointed by President Obama, used the GOP idea of cutting loopholes to increase revenues and simplify the tax code at the same time. It proposed tax reform to lower tax rates at a “cost” of $1 trillion a year while, at the same time, eliminating loopholes that deprive the Treasury of $1.1 trillion a year. This would leave the Treasury with an excess – i.e., new tax revenues – of $100 billion a year, or $1 trillion over a decade.
He adds, “Raising revenues through tax reform is better than simply raising rates, which Democrats insist upon with near religious fervor. It is more economically efficient because it eliminates credits, carve-outs and deductions that grossly misallocate capital. And it is more fair because it is the rich who can afford not only the sharp lawyers and accountants who exploit loopholes but the lobbyists who create them in the first place....Yet the Democrats, who flatter themselves as the party of fairness, are instead obsessed with raising tax rates on the rich as a sign of civic virtue....As regarding the supercommittee, Obama was AWOL – then immediately pounced on its failure by going on TV to repeat his incessantly repeated campaign theme of the do-nothing (Republican) Congress.”
Krauthammer then points out that not only are the Democrats hardheaded, they distort the facts. For example, “It is the Republicans who passed – through the House, the only branch of government they control – a real budget that cut $5.8 trillion of spending over the next 10 years. Obama’s February budget, which would have increased spending, was laughed out of the Senate, voted down 97-0. As for the Democratic Senate, it has submitted no budget at all for two and a half years.”
Why would the Democrats be so obtuse? That’s a slam dunk. They hope to pin the fiscal mess on a GOP Congress that they continue to insist wants to protect millionaires. It’s a campaign phrase that might be attractive to traditional Democratic voter blocks.
So, instead or trying to actually solve America’s fiscal problems, the Democrats in the Senate and White House will continue to whine about the GOP “no new taxes” position when in fact that is also not a fact. It is the Republican members of the Supercommittee who several times offered tax revenue increases to the Democratic members who rejected them.
Krauthammer’s solution? Bring the Simpson-Bowles Commission report to a vote on the House floor. Dare the Senate Democrats to vote down the grandest of all bargains. Dare Obama to veto his own debt commission. Dare the Democrats to actually do something about debt.
Let's go further than that and double-dare them.
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