Barely half a year into his second four-year term, President Obama is already repackaging old tax and spending hike proposals as new “grand bargain” offers.
On Tuesday in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Obama offered to raise taxes on corporations, but only if Republicans also agreed to dedicate the new tax revenue to higher government spending. How exactly this qualified as a compromise to Republican plans for lower taxes and less spending was not explained.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you
Both elements of Obama’s new grand bargain are simply rehashes of past policy proposals, now paired together and repackaged as something new.
The corporate tax hike component, which Obama sells as a simplification of the corporate tax code, is nothing but a restatement of a “framework” for corporate tax reform the Treasury Department first released in February 2012. And the spending proposals closely follow the priorities listed in Obama’s September 2011 American Jobs Act.
Both of these tax and spending hike plans were dead on arrival in Congress when Obama introduced them during his first term in office, and pairing them together now in his second term won’t revive them.
All about the Compromise Caucus
Obama and his advisors know that the tax and spending hikes he proposed yesterday have zero chance of passing either chamber of Congress. But, as Talking Points Memo‘s Brian Beutler reports, the real goal of Obama’s recent economy speeches is to court moderate Republicans who have already shown an interest in advancing Obama’s larger agenda.
“The real question is what do Susan Collins, John McCain and Bob Corker and the rest of them think of it,” Beutler writes. “Obviously their support wouldn’t mean the plan would pass cleanly in the Senate this week or this fall, let alone become law. But it would be an indication that the same group that’s been instrumental in confirming Obama nominees and fighting the right over defunding Obamacare is coalescing around the kinds of ideas that could be included in a future legislative package that would also probably include an increase in the debt ceiling.”
If Obama is going to escape accountability for his lawless implementation of Obamacare, and pass amnesty, the Senate Compromise Caucus, led by Corker, McCain, and Collins, will be key.
From The Washington Examiner
Editorial: A sensible compromise, for now, on Obamacare defunding
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Joel Gehrke: Spy court says it’s not a rubber-stamp for NSA
Sean Higgins: Teamster whistleblowers claim union submitted forged signatures to federal agency
Charlie Spiering: Detroit is bankrupt but neighboring Oakland County is booming
Tim Carney: Conservative firebrands want scalps, not hollow victories
Susan Crabtree: Bradley Manning not guilty of ‘aiding the enemy,’ but guilty on 10 other counts
Sean Lengell: Senate approves Obama’s picks to labor board
Brian Hughes: Obama’s latest ‘grand bargain’ not meant for Republicans
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In Other News
Associated Press, Obama Asks Graham, McCain to Travel to Egypt: Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain have been asked by President Barack Obama to travel to Egypt next week to urge the military to move ahead on new elections, the senators said Tuesday.
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McClatchy Newspapers, Dollars to diplomats, How to become an ambassador in a plush foreign outpost: There’s the vice president of global licensing and retail at the television network HBO, the senior managing partner for a consulting firm based in Chicago and a Miami trial attorney who makes a living suing insurance companies.
Lefty Playbook
Wikileaks statement on the Bradley Manning verdict.
Hunter Walker interviews a top Anthony Weiner aide who calls a former intern a “slutbag.”
Amanda Terkel reports on progressive plans to pressure Republicans on immigration during August.
Righty Playbook
The Heritage Foundation tackles Obamacare in GIFs.
Paul Ryan calls Obama’s latest tax plan a “Grand Bargain for Big Business.”
James Pethokoukis on how Dodd-Frank’s ‘orderly liquidiation authority’ could lead to bailouts and zombie banks.
Michael Tanner on why Republicans must try and defund Obamacare.
