The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Why Doesn’t Obama Come Right Out and Say, ‘Democrats Want to Raise Taxes’?

Posted on | July 2, 2011 | 24 Comments

There is a cynical saying among political strategists on Capitol Hill: “Do we want the bill or do we want the issue”? That is to say, is it to our advantage to pass legislation to address a specific issue, or is it to our advantage to keep the issue alive as a controversy going into the next election campaign? If all you care about is gaining political advantage, that’s how you think about such matters, and this seems to me what President Obama is doing with the current budget debate:

President Obama used his weekly address to reiterate his demand for ending tax breaks for “millionaires and billionaires” in any budget deal to raise the nation’s debt limit.
“It would be nice if we could keep every tax break, but we can’t afford them,” Obama said. “Because if we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or for hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners, or for oil and gas companies pulling in huge profits without our help — then we’ll have to make even deeper cuts somewhere else.”

Watch the video of his weekly address:

Obama knows — or at least, he ought to know — that ending the “tax breaks” he talks about so vaguely would contribute a neglible amount of revenue in terms of shrinking a $1.4-trillion annual deficit. Furthermore, because the policy he advocates would be a disincentive to investment, it might extend the recession and actually decrease federal tax revenue.

Now let’s drop the president’s political euphemisms about ending “tax breaks” and instead speak the plain truth: President Obama wants to raise taxes.

Or does he?

There is ample reason to doubt Obama’s sincerity when we remember that, during the lame-duck session of Congress — when Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats were still in the majority — Obama signed into law a measure extending the Bush tax cuts until 2013.

If the president was willing to continue “tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires” when Democrats controlled Congress, why is he now insisting that these “breaks” must be ended?

In terms of the wisdom or equity of the policy, nothing has changed in the past seven months, and we can only conclude that the president’s shift is not a matter of policy, but of politics.

That is to say, Obama knows damned well that the House of Representatives is never going to agree to any tax increase under any imaginable circumstance. The GOP just won a mid-term landslide after a campaign fought straight-up on this policy terrain. Nothing could be more clear than that House Republicans owe their majority to voters who rejected the deficit-spending Keynesian “stimulus” policies enacted by Obama and congressional Democrats during the first two years of the current administration. And the voters who rejected Pelosi’s Democrats certainly did not do so with the idea that Republicans would raise taxes. No, the GOP’s 2010 mandate was to rein in the out-of-control spending, and this they are honor-bound to do if they are truly to be representatives of the people who elected them.

Obama’s current demand for tax increases is in direct contradiction to the public will as expressed in what he called his “shellacking,” an electoral verdict he acknowledged and accepted in December when he signed into law the extension of the Bush tax cuts.

Why, then, has the president resorted to the “tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires” theme six months later? In a word, politics.

Obama is employing this class-warfare rhetoric for two purposes: First, to excite his own political base, and second, to portray Republicans as unreasonable extremists beholden to wealthy special interests.

This entire debate over the debt-ceiling increase has been unnecessarily extended by the president because, as my cynical friends on Capitol Hill would say, Democrats don’t want the bill, they want the issue. Rather than trying to reach an agreement on the size and nature of spending cuts, Obama and Senate Democratic leaders have insisted on tax increases knowing full well that no such increases can ever pass the House.

And Obama has repeatedly used his bully pulpit to frame this issue in class-warfare terms so that when Senate Democrats refuse to compromise, the pre-planned failure to pass a debt-ceiling increase can be blamed on Republican favoritism to “the rich.”

Obama and the Democrats are trying to orchestrate a re-enactment of the 1995-96 budget showdown between Clinton and the GOP Congress for the specific political purpose of setting up Obama’s re-election campaign as a choice between the “reasonable” president and those ideological fanatics, the Republicans.

This debt-ceiling debate is a Kabuki dance, a dramatic pageant scripted by Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) with complete foreknowledge of the outcome: There will be no default on the debt, nor will there be any tax increases. The entire thing is being staged for the purpose of giving Obama a platform to repeat his “tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires” mantra as if this were actually the issue at stake, which it is not.

How can Republicans “win” this? Simple: Speak truth to power.

If Republicans will loudly and repeatedly describe the cynical nature of Obama’s rhetoric, and point out to voters the vast chasm of insincerity that separates what Obama says he wants (higher taxes on the rich) from what Obama eventually knows he will do (sign a debt-ceiling agreement that doesn’t include any tax increases), they can turn the president’s rhetoric against him: “Do Democrats want to increase taxes? Yes or no, Mr. President? Because Democrats had the chance to increase taxes last year, and didn’t do it.”

What the American people want is jobs, jobs, jobs, and you can’t promote economic recovery by hiking taxes on the private corporations which are the only entities that can create those jobs. That’s why Obama never pushed Democrats to increase taxes even when they held an insuperable congressional majority.

Obama can’t win this debate on honest terms and he knows it. If Republicans will call out the president on the cynical dishonesty of his rhetoric, he’ll be forced to abandon it, and a reasonable package of federal spending reductions can be enacted as part of the debt-ceiling agreement.

Let the calling-out begin.

* * * * *

What You Can Do

If you agree with the logic of the foregoing argument, why don’t you copy it in an e-mail and send it to your Republican representative, senator, governor or state GOP chairman? You can also e-mail it to your favorite local or national talk radio host, or Republican presidential candidates (who certainly have an incentive to point out Obama’s cynical tactics). Also, by using the “share” button at the bottom of the post, you can share it via Twitter or post it to Facebook. Thanks in advance for your help in spreading the word. — RSM


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Category: Barack Obama, Budget, Conservatism 101, Taxes

Comments

  • Anonymous

    Because if he could tell the truth, he’d be a Republican!

  • Pingback: Why Doesn’t Obama Come Right Out and Say, ‘Democrats Want to Raise Taxes’? « That Mr. G Guy's Blog

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Never mind the taxes, that’s the least of it. What about him still wanting to make “investments” with tax money, toward education and infrastructure, etc? He’s just wanting to do the same shit Democrats always want to do. Raise taxes, spend and borrow on useless bullshit, hit us up with as many regulations as he can dream up, and raise taxes. The last one, the taxes, wouldn’t be necessary if it weren’t for all the bullshit that come before it. It costs money to regulate, and then you have the obvious drag on economic growth. And how in the hell is he going to cut spending like he says he will agree to? How do you cut spending and spend at the same time?

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    And then you have McConnell coming out and saying one of his members has said if not coming up with a spending agreement by August 2nd endangers the FDA, he’ll have to vote with Obama. Presumably meaning anything the Democrats come up with, he’ll go along just to save the FDA. How many other Republicans will go along with him and cave?

  • http://soitgoesinshreveport.blogspot.com/ Pat in Shreveport

    Linked at SIGIS

  • ThomasD

    Obama’s solution to every problem is: Give me more of your money.

  • Anonymous

    The whole DC GOP needs to be replaced especially Boehner. There is a new campaign method and they aren’t up to it.

  • Joe

    I would cross out republican and replace it with conservative. 

  • Anamika

    I just spilled some port wine on my keyboard…

  • Anamika

    i did it again…

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  • http://www.facebook.com/darwin.xavior Darwin Xavior

    The Free Market Principle of Equal Justice Under Law suggests that special tax credits be repealed. Government cannot be in the business of subsidizing market activities that would otherwise be unprofitable, while taxing profitable industries at the full rate.

    http://www.freemarketprinciples.com

    Repeal of tax credits to industry might not even be seen as a tax increase. It could be called a spending cut. If it makes the democrats in congress feel better to call it a tax increase, we should be happy to accommodate.

    With all due respect, selective tax cuts for the politically favored is worse than tax cuts for no one.

    We can eliminate all subsidies to unprofitable industries and call it a tax increase.

  • Anonymous

    We need to find out who that is and make sure they have a credible opponent in 2012.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    I forgot who the guy was who made that statement, but when the time comes we’ll know who they all are. The amazing thing is, when he said that, it was tantamount to admitting that nobody can do anything at all without the express permission and under the watchful eye of federal bureaucrats. Translation-we are slaves.

  • Anonymous

    You should spray it with WD-40  that helps dry electronics.
    Has anyone told you lately that you’re a Dingbat?

  • Anonymous

    I don’t think they’ll vote for more spending but they will cave on taxes.

  • Anonymous

    We already knew that we were slaves.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

    We certainly need serious tax reform to streamline the code, eliminate special deductions, and keep rates to a minimum.  But Obama has NO interest in that, having ignored even the recommendations of his own bipartisan (but stacked with Democrats and “moderate” Republicans) commission on the deficit.

    The problem is if we do the right thing and refuse any increase in the debt ceiling without real concessions on spending, Obama gets to decide what the priorities are, what gets spent and what does not.  He could take it out on Republican districts, or cut off Grandma’s Social Security and at least try to blame it all on the GOP.

    Of course the legacy media will have his back as usual, but will it convince the public?  There was a movement to cut spending in 2010, and if it perseveres, Democrats are in for an even more disastrous 2012.  If it doesn’t, America is screwed.

  • Anonymous

    I suspect we are screwed. I think most Americans just don’t get it.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    They’ll cave on everything, including spending. Remember, this isn’t just a funding bill, this is political posturing on the part of Obama. He is making it plain he either gets what he wants or there will be a government shut down. He’s pretty much come out and said so. Its a game of chicken and I don’t think the Republicans have the stomach to see it through.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Yeah, but its very seldom that you will find a politician, especially a Republican, not only admit that, but say that he’s fine with it on some levels.

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