From Daniel Gross writing in
The
Daily Beast:
The reality should be seeping in to
viewers of the Sunday shows that the Republicans don’t have a game
plan. They don’t have a single, specific proposal to avoid the fiscal
cliff. And even if they had one, they don’t have a roadmap to get
there. They keep expecting Obama to come back with something more to
their liking, which they’d also reject. Many Republicans literally don’t
understand what is happening. Sen. Charles Grassley tweeted over the
weekend that he was frustrated that President Obama hadn’t embraced the
recommendation of the Bowles-Simpson Commission. Apparently, he is one
of the many people in Washington who doesn’t understand that
Bowles-Simpson recommended letting the Bush tax rates on the wealthy
expire, while also proposing to cap or eliminate deductions primarily
enjoyed by the wealthy.
Above
all, the Republicans have yet to grasp that the field is tilted against
them. Republicans have every reason to expect, based on their scouting
of past Obama performances, that he will start moving toward them and
then, essentially, bargain with himself. But now he doesn’t have to.
Right now, the policy choice isn’t between an Obama proposal the
Republicans abhor and a preferred Republican proposal. No, the choice is
between an Obama proposal the Republicans abhor and the fiscal cliff,
which Republicans would like even less and the Democrats could live with
for a while.
The
Republicans are losing, and time is running out. But instead of putting
the quarterback on the field and rolling out an aggressive two-minute
drill, they seem to be preparing to punt.
Update: House Speaker Boehner has come up with a
"proposal." It would take the sequestration that would cut funding so much that it would render the federal government, including the Social Security Administration, inoperable and increase it by 30%! To quote John McEnroe, "You cannot be serious!"
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