Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama and a fierce critic of the Affordable Care Act said yesterday: “My primary focus is on minimizing risk of insolvency and bankruptcy. There are many paths you can take to get there. Socialized medicine is just one of the component parts of our debt and deficits that put us at financial risk.” Translated: House Republicans are under such intense pressure from their business patrons they’re looking for a way of saving face, and the President has given them one. He told them that if they agree to temporarily fund the government and raise the debt ceiling without holding as ransom the Affordable Care Act or anything else, negotiations can begin on reducing the overall budget deficit.
It may not happen. After all, without the cudgels of a government shutdown and possible default on the nation’s debt, congressional Republicans don’t have much bargaining power. By contrast, the President’s hasn’t been in this strong a position in years. If negotiations do begin, the question is whether he’ll use his advantage to hold out for more tax revenues from the wealthy (limit their deductions and tax credits, close loopholes like “carried interest,” tax financial transactions); less corporate welfare (end tax subsidies to oil and gas, ballooning payments to agribusiness, sweetheart deals for military contractors, and the “too big to fail” subsidy for Wall Street’s biggest banks); and end the horrific sequester. Or will he prematurely cave – agreeing to “means test” Social Security and Medicare and use a “chain-weighted” method for calculating inflation (thereby reducing benefits to all seniors)?
It may not happen. After all, without the cudgels of a government shutdown and possible default on the nation’s debt, congressional Republicans don’t have much bargaining power. By contrast, the President’s hasn’t been in this strong a position in years. If negotiations do begin, the question is whether he’ll use his advantage to hold out for more tax revenues from the wealthy (limit their deductions and tax credits, close loopholes like “carried interest,” tax financial transactions); less corporate welfare (end tax subsidies to oil and gas, ballooning payments to agribusiness, sweetheart deals for military contractors, and the “too big to fail” subsidy for Wall Street’s biggest banks); and end the horrific sequester. Or will he prematurely cave – agreeing to “means test” Social Security and Medicare and use a “chain-weighted” method for calculating inflation (thereby reducing benefits to all seniors)?
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