GOP Tax (Pledge) Breaks

Grover Norquist’s concubines…also known as “The GOP” have cheated on him. They’ve had an affair where they got into bed with those who want to raise taxes…but it was only on the lower 99% of American workers. They’ve explained to Grover, “They don’t mean anything to us, we’re not in love with them. It was just political!”

And Grover has already forgiven them…in fact, he confessed to a degree of arousal over the thought of the majority of Americans being bent over by House Republicans.

The fraud of the Norquist no-taxes pledge has been publicly exploded now and as long as Dems don’t overlook this opportunity, the entire raison d’etre for the Republican Party will be invalidated in the minds of most Americans.

Add to this the calls from House and Senate Repubs, as well as GOP Presidential candidates like Prozac spokeswoman Michele Bachmann campaigning for the poor and lower middle class to be taxed heavily (the bullshit term they use for taxing the poor is “broaden the tax base”) and you have a class warfare loving, tax loving GOP.

One would have been mistaken all year, underestimating the lengths to which the hostile, ignorant and hypocritical Repubs would threaten the sanctity of Congressional precedents and the security of this nation. We’ve seen them hold the gun to Americans’ heads enough times this year, threatening, “We’ll do it! We’ll waste them!” like two dimensional villains from an old Dirty Harry movie so we’re hardly shocked by it happening again.

But this time, it’s a little different. This time, these Republicans are threatening to raise taxes if they don’t get their “One MILL-ion dollars!”. Republicans killing a tax cut bill which would result in raising taxes? As Rick Perry would say, “Oops!”

This time, they are rejecting a truly bipartisan bill that 89 out of 100 Senators voted for. This time they are telling the Senate Republican leadership to kiss their asses. This time they are already at 9% approval and most Americans blame them far more than Dems for Congress’ being a failure. And this time, there will be an election in about 10 months.

Today, the Republicans may well have jumped the shark for good. It is hard to see them having any legitimacy from this point forward with the American People (Tea Baggers excluded) in any of their claims for having good reasons for causing gridlock. They have openly stated that defeating Obama is their priority. Okay, America believes you so you can stop with the excuses.

Today, addressing John Boehner and his crocodile tears about wanting to compromise to save Americans from a tax increase, Nancy Pelosi responded, ““He is not Lucy and we are not Charlie Brown.”

A very apt analogy. The entire year the Repubs have said, “Go ahead Charlie Brown, kick the football,” then pulled it away and America landed flat on its back again and again.

Unlike hapless Charlie Brown, Democrats and other Americans have had enough and won’t fall for it again. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have firmly stated that they will not assign conferees to run at the ball the Republicans are holding now.

The House Republicans are the ones who are stuck. They may try to present a confidence that they can fool the public into blaming Obama for the approaching tax hike on Americans but behind the phony self-righteousness is a recognition that it’s not so likely.

When 89 Senators vote for a tax cut, that includes most Republican Senators. So, though House Repubs will continue to try and hang the tax increase on Dems, they are opposing Dems and Repubs in order to screw everyone more.

Let’s also remember that just weeks or months ago, these same liars who claim they’re blocking the payroll tax cut because it’s only two months instead of a year, were loudly declaring their opposition to ANY payroll tax cut. They are bald face liars, plain and simple and thanks to our lazy media, their feet are rarely held to the fire for their blatant bullshit.

As for the Dems in the Senate agreeing to further negotiations, I say they are absolutely correct in saying “no”. First, this is yet another case of the Dems compromising and moving to the right then when that effort is rejected, the already compromised position is framed as a Dem position that needs to compromise with an even farther right position.

Enough!

If payroll taxes need to go up for a month for the fury of the American Public to crash down on these deluded fanatics, so be it. Give into bullies or terrorists and all you get is more of the same. President Obama and the Dems in Congress have compromised repeatedly, even in this case, dropping the tax on the wealthy and agreeing to the Keystone Pipeline provision.

And why have they done so? To protect the American people from the Republican’s vicious agenda. So the contrast is clear, Dems compromise to keep people receiving unemployment and payroll tax breaks, Republicans compromise from destroying the lives of many to destroying the lives of some (check out some of the horrendous things in the House Payroll Tax bill, including slashing unemployment payments from 99 weeks to 59 weeks which would cut off 3,347,942 Americans from receiving UI…that should help in a recession!)

It’s high time to drive the stake through the heart of the Tea Party and the Republican House and make sure that the public throws them in the ash heap of history in November 2012.

It’s kind of ironic that Newt Gingrich is vying for the GOP Presidential nomimation, the current Republican House looks to have made the same kind of political miscalculation that Newt made when he ran The House and shut down government. Repubs then were convinced the public would side with them and against President Clinton when they did so. Instead, Newt was gone shortly afterwards and Clinton was solidly re-elected.

The House Repubs look to have overplayed their hand today in the same way. Whether they panic at the backlash and sign onto the two month extension of the payroll tax cut or not, they are branded by this and for folks who have a memory that can last at least ten months, this would look to be the last straw that breaks the zealots’ back.