2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe GOP Really is Being Dismantled
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/12/14/123743/63The GOP Really is Being Dismantled
by BooMan
Fri Dec 14th, 2012 at 12:37:43 PM EST
I'm beginning to think that, simply by standing pat, the president really is going to dismantle the modern Republican Party. I agree with Jon Chait that Obama isn't doing this out of meanness or spite, but I think he knows what he is doing and that it is part of his desire to be a transformative president. He wants new revenues because the government needs new revenues to keep its obligations, but he's presiding over the total crack-up of the GOP and he isn't lifting a pinkie to help them out of their dilemma.
I think we are witnessing the end days of the Reagan Revolution, and I didn't really see it coming, even a couple of weeks ago.
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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/obama-punishing-the-gop-because-hes-mean.html
Is Obama Punishing the GOP Because Hes Mean?
By Jonathan Chait
snip//
Its certainly true that Republicans are undergoing some internal strife right now over the tax issue. Daniel Henninger, also on the Journal editorial page, mourns that the president is dismantle{ing} their party by letting its most basic conservative principles disappear. But how this is Obamas fault, I cant quite figure out. It was Republicans who elevated the unpopular cause of low income tax rates for the rich to a sacred principle, built an entire party theology around punishing even the slightest dissent from that principle, and then enacted the sacred agenda through a rickety budget mechanism that caused it all to expire after a decade. That was a bad idea. Since Republicans are at least considering how to rebuild their party at the moment, my advice would be to do something else next time.
wryter2000
(46,082 posts)I thought we were on the right track in 2008, and then came the teabaggers and 2010.
Zoeisright
(8,339 posts)Fuck all repukes.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)We'll get to that, too! President Obama has already said ... after we deal with this cliff thing, we'll look at closing loophole.
starroute
(12,977 posts)A loophole is a bug in the system -- something that accidentally overlooks a certain category of income or that was supposed to help the little buy but turns out to make big tax savings possible for the wealthy. And there just aren't a lot of those.
So what the GOP is really talking about is credits and deductions that were deliberately enacted to help the middle class. Things like the deduction for employer-provided health insurance, itemized medical expenses, mortgage interest, or state and local taxes.
If you mess with those, it's the middle class you're harming. Even if you cap them, you're mainly affecting people in the $200,000-$400,000 range, because those sorts of deductions tend to max out at a certain point. You're not even touching the ultra-wealthy unless you deal with things like capital gains rates and the inheritance tax.
meow2u3
(24,773 posts)...into feeling sorry for them. It's one of the oldest tricks in a psycho's playbook.
If there's anyone who's malevolent and spiteful, it's the rethugs.
Kablooie
(18,641 posts)world wide wally
(21,755 posts)The founding fathers succeeded above their wildest hopes in most cases. They set up a system which strives to be dependent on truth and fairness and eventually the truth surfaces over lies. Republicans entire philosophy over the past 100 years has been based on one lie upon another.. ie.. Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1 and 2.
I am never able to understand why Democrats fail to just bring up the truth in so many cases.
Do they believe it?