Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The far right pretends to hate Boehner's fiscal cliff proposal

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 28, 2012. Boehner voiced optimism that Republicans could broker a deal with the White House to avoid year-end austerity measures, saying on Wednesday that Republicans were willing to put revenues on the table if Democrats agreed to spending cuts. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS HEADSHOT) The far right's useful tool.

Here's the far Right pretending to be outraged over the pretend proposal House Speaker John Boehner made on negotiating a path away from the fiscal cliff curb.

Sen Jim DeMint R-SC: "Speaker Boehner's offer of an $800 billion tax hike will destroy jobs"
' @jamiedupree via TweetDeck

It's not just DeMint, with groups like the Koch brother's Americans for Prosperity and Heritage Action expressing their dismay that Boehner would even approach the idea of increasing revenues.

But as Steve Benen points out, it's all kabuki. The pretend anger is as much bullshit as the offer Boehner made, which is all Republican wish-list and massive Democratic concessions. This is their dream plan, slashing entitlements while pretending to offer tax "reform" that actually lowers tax rates.

This outrage is part of the game, designed to provide cover to Boehner so that he can pretend he's taking a principled stand against his far-right base, positioning his ridiculous proposal as some kind of moderate compromise. It's neither principled, nor moderate, nor a compromise. It's just more bad Republican math being passed off as a plan.

No comments:

Post a Comment