If there’s one thing President Barack Obama has made clear in the discussions surrounding the fiscal cliff, it’s that he’s not budging on increasing taxes on “those making $250,000 or more.” Of course, the problem with that logic is the hundreds of thousands of businesses who are structured as pass-through entities (S-Corp’s) that will be drastically affected with such an absurd proposal. Many S-Corporations are some of the biggest job creators in Ohio and throughout the nation–employing millions of middle class Americans–but apparently Obama doesn’t much care if they get hit.
Or, to put it another way, in order to screw “the rich,” Obama is willing to throw the middle class over the fiscal cliff.
Just ask his Treasury Secretary:
“If Republicans do not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff?”[Geithner] “Absolutely. We see no prospect for an agreement that doesn’t involve those rates going up…”
No agreement? No room for negotiation? That seems more like an ultimatum than a desire to come to agreement. After those comments, you have to wonder what, exactly, is the Obama Administration’s fiscal cliff strategy…
The position of the Obama Administration is disheartening, especially given the GOP’s willingness to compromise for the betterment of the country. At the end of the day, the only person who’s ready to reach across the aisle has been U.S. House Speaker John Boehner. And yet his proposal–a plan to keep tax cuts for the middle class and our strongest job creators, while also reforming our tax system–was completely brushed aside by the President.
Math, huh? Like adding $4 trillion to the national debt in 8 years in “unpatriotic,” but adding over $5 trillion in under 4 years is just all sunshine & rainbows? Sorry, Mr. President, but apparently your math skills leave a little bit to be desired.“It’s not me being stubborn, not me being partisan; it’s just a matter of math,” Obama said during the interview in the White House. He said that the Republican proposal to raise $800 billion in new tax revenue by closing some loopholes and eliminating some deductions would not be enough to reach his goal of up to $1.6 trillion.
Not to mention, using the President’s accounting practices, the GOP proposal would actually save the country some $4.6 trillion. But, I suppose it would be too much to ask the President to apply his math to anything outside his cherry-picked facts and figures.
Regardless of our Commander-in-Chief’s apparent lack of arithmatical talent, it’s his stubborn approach that will ultimately ensure America goes off the fiscal cliff at full speed. He’s willing to sacrifice the middle class–yes, even #My2k and your $2k–all in the name of making “the rich” pay their fair share, even though the top 5% in this country already pay nearly 60% of all income tax.
That’s not fair. And apparently President Obama and I agree on that point, we’re just on different sides of the argument.
Of course, I would be remiss if I failed to credit the work of Speaker Boehner through this whole mess. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place, with a stubborn President and a useless U.S. Senate, and yet he’s still making the best case he can. He might be the only man in Washington, D.C. capable of balancing that many interests.
Yet, if you read through twitter, he’s come under some criticism from some on the Right–with several going so far as to ask if Congressman Jim Jordan should challenge him for his post. We conservatives can have an honest debate about the best policy positions, but Speaker Boehner doesn’t have that luxury–he must be pragmatic in his approach, or President Executive Order will just do whatever the heck he wants.
If conservatives want to whine and moan about Speaker Boehner, perhaps we should have given him a little more assistance last Election Day. We failed, and Speaker Boehner is left to deal with the results. And that’s what he’s doing: stepping up and showing his willingness to negotiate.
It’s time our President did the same.
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