Rolling Right Along

Take a deep breath and repeat after me: the cliff is dead, long live the cliff.

Do not dare to settle down, but brace yourself for what will be, no doubt, an even more bitter and intense argument. You see, the fiscal cliff deal – remember that? – was simply a minor precursor to the much bigger and emotion riven deal: what spending do we cut?

None if you ask me, but no one is.

Our clever leader has managed to accomplish two goals. Both Republican. He has made the vast majority of the Bush tax cuts permanent, thus handing the Republicans a triumph of the first order. And he has separated the discussion of the aforesaid tax cuts from the much more ideologically strained discussion about spending cuts. He has thus significantly reduced his own negotiating space.

Well done dear leader.

Those of us who now look forward to the upcoming spending arguments do so with more trepidation than before. After all if our leader managed to be cornered into a compromise just after having won a major electoral victory, what will he do a few months later when that victory is well past?

I fear the worst.

Our leader persists in making tough sounding statements and then abandoning his front lines without a shot having been fired. His enemies are now baying for blood. They are likely to get it, which could lead to America becoming a much more cruel and nasty place for millions of its citizens.

Here’s the major point to bear in mind: by agreeing to the fiscal cliff deal the Republican goal of starving the beast is now official Democratic policy as well. Both parties now agree that the tax revenues as they are under the deal are all we can squeeze from the economy. This puts a limit on what the government can do going forward. A very low limit.

If you disagree, just try this mind game: imagine a future Democratic candidate trying to advocate higher taxes in order to pay for some program.

Right. Now you see what our leader hath wrought.

Fat chance.

And if you think I am being silly look at what Mitch McConnell is already announcing. Yes, his op-ed at Yahoo News is only an opening shot, but it is a well aimed shot. No new taxes!

This means that the miserly $620 billion our leader rung from the last deal is all he gets. From here on out we are talking spending cuts.

Now, of course, things in Washington are far more nuanced than this. It is quite possible that McConnell means no new increases to tax rates. That leaves open the possibility for new revenues from backdoor stuff like getting rid of tax deductions and credits. Southern politicians in particular love taking aim at those deductions we get for property taxes. After all, if rich northerners or westerners want to pay high taxes to get good schools why should they get a tax deduction? Can’t we all just make do with rotten cheap schools like they have down south?

Then there’s the possibility that our leader will persuade everyone to reform the corporate tax code and wring revenues from the hands of our big corporations. Boeing gets an annual refund measured in the billions despite making massive profits. You and I can’t pull off that trick, but our fellow citizens-as-corporations can.

Yes, I know, go on and laugh. By the latest count there are 373 ex-members of Congress lined up as lobbyists to throw themselves in front of any attempt to get our big businesses to contribute to the society in which they flourish.

OK, now that we’ve finished with fantasy, we can see why our leader has a problem.

If, and it’s a big if, the goal is to reduce the annual deficit – the last deal did squat in that regard – then without sources of new revenue the entire onus falls on spending. And in the evil eyes of McConnell and his ilk spending means entitlement spending.

There you have it. The discussion we are about to have is how to undo our social programs.

So instead of having a post-Reagan debate about how to build and invest in a better America, we have conceded that the good days are gone, and that the Reagan agenda is still operative. Apparently we can no longer afford to look after our elderly, especially their health.

Look out Granny, our leader has promised to defend you.