John Boehner, he of the (fill in your orange skin joke here), has said on multiple occasions that the recent elections, in which the GOP kicked so much Democratic ass that even downright scary, religio-crazy, swirly eyed yahoos won races across the country, were a mandate for the GOP agenda. Boehner has said Americans now want the Congress to roll back the health care law. He's also adamant that the victory gave him a clear mandate to extend tax cuts for all Americans, including the uber-wealthy.
Of course, neither of these things is remotely true. A post-election poll by the Associated Press found that a mere 31 percent of respondents wanted to repeal the health care law completely. Further, 20 percent want it untouched, and a plurality of 38 percent think the law did not go far enough. Sure, people are upset by the health care law. But most people are upset by it because they wanted more. Most people wonder what ever happened to the public option, which liberals conceded to as a fallback, compromise position from the single-payer system they wanted.
As for taxes, just yesterday, CBS News released a poll that found just a quarter of respondents wanted tax cuts for everyone, while 53 percent wanted tax cuts extended for just families hauling in less than $250,000 per year. A smaller group, 14 percent, want the Bush tax cuts ended for everyone, and hey, at least those people are deficit hawks worthy of the name, unlike the Republicans now in Congress. And here's the real kicker: Just 46 percent of Republicans polled, less than half, want tax cuts extended for everyone. That represents a plurality of Republicans, with 41 percent wanting just the middle class cuts, but if the Republicans in Congress aren't even carrying out the will of the majority of their base, and far from the will of the American people at large, just who the hell are they catering to?
What good, what usefulness, derives from the Republican agenda? The plan they now offer represents more deficits and cannot even claim the support of the GOP's own base, much less America. Who can support these jackals? And why?
Remember right after the 2008 election, when it looked as if the GOP would be wandering in the wilderness for the next decade or three? Back then, a lot of commentators said that the Republican Party had become a regional phenomenon, a Southern, white party with little cachet in the rest of the country. Those commentators were right, after a fashion. The GOP is a minority party, but the South is just a desperately needed voting base. The real clientele of the Grand Old Party are, solely, the people who stand to gain from income tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, from the abolition of the estate tax, from cuts in capital gains taxes. The GOP, at this point in its history, represents solely the interests of the stratospherically wealthy. When their agenda isn't popular with America, or in some cases even their own party, but would benefit almost entirely the wealthiest people, that is the only rational conclusion.
Conservative commentators would call what I just wrote "class warfare." They'd say that I'm fomenting resentment of the rich for no good purpose. To them, I offer the words of Warren Buffett: "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
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Without working-class support, the Republicans are toast. When the economy doesn't improve, grandma's eating catfood, the plug's been pulled on grandpa, the kids don't get to go to college, and mom can't find a job even though her benefits ran out months ago, who do you think will get the blame?
Do NOT raise capital gains or dividend taxes at all. The Market is an extraordinarily important determinant of both business confidence and consumer confidence, and it is crucial to keep confidence high at a time when other key determinants - housing prices and the job market - are not yet recovering. The majority of Americans are influenced by a healthy Market, if not as active traders or investors, then through their 401-Ks or pension funds - even the funds linked to nonprofit organizations or educational or religious endowments.
Income taxes are another story. I believe it's the 250,000 cutoff that upsets many Republicans and quite a few Democrats, because many small business owners, including farmers and owners of S corporations, have incomes higher than that.
Since the main progressive thrust of any income tax rise is to capture more tax dollars form the obscenely wealthy, not small business owners, raise the cutoff to, say, 2 million, and most people will be happy.
In summary: No rise in dividends or capital gains. Rise in income tax cutoff to about 2 million.
Party leaders may rant and rave for a few hours or a few days. But the bulk of the American people would be happy, the Market would soar well into the New Year, and Congress would have proved that it is capable of putting the overall interests of the United States above narrow and vindictive partisan politics.
It would be a meaningful compromise to make the income tax cutoff at one million.
We're talking about being fair and responsible, not what the Republicans want which is anything but that.