What A Mess

Happy New Year.  For most of us our taxes will not be going up as of yesterday.  It would seem that the circus that is the House of Representatives in a brief moment of sanity passed the bill that now averts for a couple of months higher taxes for all and automatic spending cuts to defense and what are known as "entitlements" in the US will be put off for now. 

But as of this morning some of the biggest blowhard Republicans are crying that they were sold out by John Boehner and the others that voted to raise taxes on just those making more than $400,000 individually and $450,000 as a couple.  Newt Gingrich tweeted that the GOP has been engaged in a two month dance of defeat and surrender.  Donald Trump called the Republicans the worst negotiators in history.  Other prominent Republicans were equally disdainful of the bill but in the end the President signed it and America lives on.  Even Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, reportedly hated the compromise deal so much he threw it in the fireplace and let it burn.  One thing was clear:  the Republican leadership was fractured by this vote with Boehner and former Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan voting for the bill and Eric Cantor voting against. 

With this latest drama played out on the world stage the biggest concern for the 98% of us is that the power concentrated in the remaining 2% should be of concern to the rest of us.  How can the power and leverage be so strong that what should seem like an easy decision comes down to a nail biter between our elected representatives and the American people?  Who best represents this concentration of power?  The lobbyists.  We know that Grover Norquist and his organization, Americans for Tax Reform, has extracted pledges from most of the the conservatives on Capital Hill to never raise taxes and worked hard to protect the 2%.  But there are undoubtedly many whose names we do not know how are also twisting arms behind the scenes.  It is those that we need to be really concerned about.

Who was the real winner here:  Compromise.  This is something that has been missing in Washington since 2008.  Without a filibuster proof majority this administration has had a very difficult time moving forward its agenda.  An agenda at times aligned with what was at one time the Republican's own agenda.  As John Boehner was appointed Majority Leader of the House of Representatives he proclaimed on CBS' 60 Minutes that he felt that he did not need to compromise.  Two years later he made good on his pledge and the 112th Congress became the least productive since the 1940's passing just 383 bills while the Congress before it passed 463.

But will this be a new trend in Washington or just a momentary pause in the conservatives drive to destroy the recovery in America?  The Congress is already gearing up for the next fight which will be over the sequester, automatic cuts to defense, social security and medicare, and their tying is to the tie it to the debt ceiling.  That will take place in the next 6 - 8 weeks.  The President has said that tying anything to the debt ceiling will be a non starter in any negotiations.

Another residual fallout from this so called mini deal is that victims from Hurricane Sandy will not receive additional aid.  Influential Congressman like Republican Peter King from New York and Governor Chris Christie are outraged that members of their own party would betray them in their time of need.  He squarely placed accountability with House Speaker John Boehner saying that he was responsible for continuing the pain and suffering of innocent victims of a natural disaster.  Could John  Boehner not only be the worst Speaker of the House in modern day history but also the laziest?

So where do we go from here?  If you here it from the right wing pundits it was a crushing defeat for the Republican party and the Tea Party in particular.  They say that this is nothing more than a tax increase without a spending decrease.  But the news is not all bad.  What is not being reported is that the deficit has been shrinking slow under the Obama presidency.  What pundits and the media seem to be downplaying is if this latest deal has been a good one for the American people.  The early answer seems to be yes, but we will know more in just a few more weeks.  Stay tuned.