Jonathan Chait gets this basic dynamic right:
What’s remarkable about the ability of anti-tax zealots like Ryan to sustain their position is that it places them in direct opposition to conservative goals on both defense and spending. After all, Obama is offering to cut spending on retirement programs and to cancel out cuts to defense — two things large chunks of the GOP would like — in return for more revenue. He’s not even demanding higher rates. He’s merely asking to reduce tax deductions.
Chait notes that this is an obstacle to any hopes for any GOP makeover:
Obama has been offering to reduce spending on Social Security and Medicare for two years now, in return for Republican agreement to spread the burden of the fiscal adjustment. They won’t take the deal…if Republicans want to reform their party’s identity and make it into something other than absolutist advocacy of low taxes for the rich, they need to come up with some negotiating position on fiscal issues other than “no tax hikes for the rich of any kind no matter what we get in return.”
Had not heard that Obama offered to cut entitlement spending. In fact, Jay Carney recently said that a raise in the eligibility age for social security was off the table. That is a simple fix (tell those age 50 and below that they cannot collect SS until age 69). You would not hear a whisper. It is telling that Dems would not even agree to that.
ReplyDeleteI thought you might have comments on my other postings from the 19th.
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