The wealthy in the United States already pay something like 75% of all federal taxes, but according to the left that’s not enough. Despite the fact that raising their taxes won’t do a darned thing to reduce the national debt, President Obama continues to insist in forcing them to pay higher tax rates. (Which is why they’re all running to their accountants to find out how to avoid higher tax rates next year.) This morning Tim Geithner said that he is willing to take the country over the fiscal cliff if he doesn’t get his way.
The treasury secretary later told host Candy Crowley that without those hikes, there would be no deal.
GEITHNER: I mean, Candy, there — there’s not going to be an agreement without rates going up. There’s not going to be —
CROWLEY: So you’ll go off the fiscal cliff if it will — if the Republicans say, sorry, no way are we going to raise rates for the — on the wealthy. You guys are willing …
GEITHNER: If we’re —
CROWLEY: — to go off the fiscal cliff?
GEITHNER: If Republicans are not willing to let rates go back up — and we think they should go back to the Clinton levels, a time when the American economy was doing exceptionally well — then there will not be an agreement.
Charles Krauthammer says the GOP should let Obama give the people the “full Clinton” and let tax hikes rise on everyone.
Obama is claiming an electoral mandate to raise taxes on the top 2 percent. Perhaps, but remember those incessant campaign ads promising a return to the economic nirvana of the Clinton years? Well, George W. Bush cut rates across the board, not just for the top 2 percent. Going back to the Clinton rates means middle-class tax hikes that yield four times the revenue that you get from just the rich.
So give Obama the full Clinton. Let him live with that. And with what also lies on the other side of the cliff: 28 million Americans newly subject to the ruinous alternative minimum tax.
Republicans must stop acting like supplicants. If Obama so loves those Clinton rates, Republicans should say: Then go over the cliff and have them all.
Hey, the people voted for Big Government, may as well make them pay for it. Unfortunately, even those of us who didn’t vote for it are going to pay. May as well get it over with and jump.
Update: Linked by Expose the Media – thanks!
I am a fiscal conservative and I say bring on the pain. You folks want “free” healthcare, “free” education and all your deductions, they have to be paid for somehow. You morons bought the Democrat line about fairness, it is only fair you pay for all the bennies.
What I hate is you morons are taking me and the rest of America with you.
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Probably the smartest move right now. Let Obama lead the way, let him own the result. If they’re not going to bargain with Republicans–who represent those millions of people who did NOT vote for this abortion of a man–then why be involved in talks at all? If the ultimate result will be the same, why not abstain from decisions and let the Democrats do what they want but without the screen of Republican hostages? Don’t give them someone to hide behind. Let ‘er rip. With Progressive Destructivists in power for another 4 years, the ultimate result is the same; so it’s only a question of the speed. The quicker the wreck, the sooner surgeons can get to work on resuscitating the patient….
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hear, hear, Banzai!
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I say the opposite. Give the Sun King everything he wants. Tax hikes that will quicken the impending doom, give it to him. No spending cuts that will accelerate the debt that no one, not even the Treasury can afford to buy it, give it to him. Speed up the implementation of Pelosi-Care to really stick it to the middle class, give it to him. Throw it all on his oak desk there in the Oval Office and walk away. THEN the buffoons, both moochers and those who did not vote because they hated Mormoms, will really get what they deserve. Call his bluff and give ALL to him.
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Secretary Geithner said:
In this, I think that he said exactly what he meant, that everybody’s taxes should go up.
Actually, I think that this is what the Democrats have wanted all along. If they had really wanted to raise taxes solely on the top producers, they could have done that in 2010, when they had large majorities in both Houses of Congress, and they knew the 2001/2003 tax cuts would expire at the end of the year. They didn’t even bring it up until after the election, when they had bombed out so badly, and they figured that they’d have to extend to get the President and themselves past the 2012 elections. Now, when the rates go up automatically, they’ll blame the Republicans.
Well, let ‘em! The so-called fiscal cliff carries spending cuts with it, though it doesn’t cut enough. Then the Republicans, if they have the guts to do it, can start cutting even more out of the next fiscal year appropriations.
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[...] Geithner: Obama Will Take Us Over Cliff If He Doesn’t Get Tax Hikes On The Wealthy [...]
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The cliff is the ONLY plan on the table that cuts spending. It won’t get spending back down to Clinton era levels but it’s a start.
Republicans will ante up the tax money like they did back in the Clinton era. There’s nothing new about this. It’s the way Democrats give up their power. The old tax and spend.
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