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Republican Doomsday Plan: Cave on Taxes (Vote 'Present')
Yahoo ^

Posted on 12/03/2012 8:24:00 AM PST by Sub-Driver

Republican Doomsday Plan: Cave on Taxes, Vote 'Present'

By Jonathan Karl | ABC OTUS News

Republicans are seriously considering a Doomsday Plan if fiscal cliff talks collapse entirely. It's quite simple: House Republicans would allow a vote on extending the Bush middle class tax cuts (the bill passed in August by the Senate) and offer the President nothing more: no extension of the debt ceiling, nothing on unemployment, nothing on closing loopholes. Congress would recess for the holidays and the president would face a big battle early in the year over the debt ceiling.

Two senior Republican elected officials tell me this doomsday plan is becoming the most likely scenario. A top GOP House leadership aide confirms the plan is under consideration, but says Speaker Boehner has made no decision on whether to pursue it.

Under one variation of this Doomsday Plan, House Republicans would allow a vote on extending only the middle class tax cuts and Republicans, to express disapproval at the failure to extend all tax cuts, would vote "present" on the bill, allowing it to pass entirely on Democratic votes.

By doing this, Republicans avoid taking blame for tax increases on 98 percent of income tax payers. As one senior Republican in Congress told me, "You don't take a hostage you aren't willing to shoot." Republicans aren't willing to kill the middle class tax cuts, even if extending them alone will make it harder to later extend tax cuts on the wealthy.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an influential conservative House Republican, is already on record supporting extending the middle class tax cuts - with or without the upper income tax cuts. On Sunday, he said Republicans should embrace the extension of the middle class tax cuts and take credit for it.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 12/03/2012 8:24:06 AM PST by Sub-Driver
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To: Sub-Driver

Fine with me.


2 posted on 12/03/2012 8:26:23 AM PST by skeeter
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To: Sub-Driver

Good!


3 posted on 12/03/2012 8:26:23 AM PST by The Mayor ("If you can't make them see the light, let them feel the heat" — Ronald Reagan)
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To: Sub-Driver

That would force the Dems own the economy.


4 posted on 12/03/2012 8:26:43 AM PST by Perdogg (Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA4) for President 2016)
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To: skeeter

Ditto.


5 posted on 12/03/2012 8:30:02 AM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: Sub-Driver

It’s the least they can do.


6 posted on 12/03/2012 8:30:27 AM PST by Thorliveshere
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To: Sub-Driver

No vote to cut the mddle two rates by 10%.


7 posted on 12/03/2012 8:31:40 AM PST by Sybeck1 (Exodus 20:17)
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To: Sub-Driver
Let the tax cuts expire. Let some of the 47% who don't pay taxes find out what it's like to pay taxes.
8 posted on 12/03/2012 8:32:08 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum ("The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state." - Cornelius Tacitus, Roman Senator)
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To: Sub-Driver

Good plan. Blubbering Boehner better not screw it up.


9 posted on 12/03/2012 8:34:00 AM PST by EnquiringMind
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To: Sybeck1

The thing is, the Senate already passed this.
The House does not have to force the Senate to do anything else, if the House takes this path.


10 posted on 12/03/2012 8:34:53 AM PST by Kansas58
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To: Sub-Driver

Rep Bonehead (aka, Boehner) can’t even vote present, can he?

After all, what’s left of his RINObrain hasn’t been conscious for the past thousand years or so.

Republicans are sooooo dead.

Long live the Tea Party.


11 posted on 12/03/2012 8:35:20 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Sub-Driver

You can’t give away the tax hikes without getting anything back.

Run over the cliff. That way we at least get spending caps out of the deal.

If people want lots of government goodies, they are going to have to pay lots of government taxes. Shielding the middle class from this simple reality does not help us.

Hit the gas.


12 posted on 12/03/2012 8:36:00 AM PST by gridlock (ELIMINATE PERVERSE INCENTIVES)
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To: Perdogg

The question would be, could the MSM spin it to blame the repubs anyway?

(not “would” - you know they would if they could)


13 posted on 12/03/2012 8:36:38 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Perdogg

agree 1000%....this has been my view from the get-go; vote present and put it in the rats laps...


14 posted on 12/03/2012 8:37:08 AM PST by God luvs America (63.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: Sub-Driver

I read that as “Republican Doomsday Plan: Cave in Texas, Vote ‘Present’”

I’d have voted “present” a few years ago to the local caves but they’re no longer civil defense shelters stocked with MREs.


15 posted on 12/03/2012 8:37:17 AM PST by bgill (We've passed the point of no return. Welcome to Al Amerika.)
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To: gridlock

The thing is - there’s not enough taxable wealth “out there” to afford the goodies that are being demanded.


16 posted on 12/03/2012 8:38:54 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Sub-Driver

Oh, and BTW... If the Republicans think voting “present” is going to get them off the hook for raising taxes, they have another thing coming!

We sent them to Congress to control taxes. They get no credit if they refuse to do their damn jobs! Voting present might as well be an “AYE” vote, as far as I am concerned.

In fact, I would respect a Congresscritter who actually voted AYE more than I would somebody who took the easy way out by voting “Present”. If the Republicans take this approach, I am one TeaPartier who will never support them again.


17 posted on 12/03/2012 8:40:35 AM PST by gridlock (ELIMINATE PERVERSE INCENTIVES)
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To: Sub-Driver

I guess I’m slowly becoming a believe in this.


18 posted on 12/03/2012 8:41:11 AM PST by RIghtwardHo
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To: MrB
The thing is - there’s not enough taxable wealth “out there” to afford the goodies that are being demanded.

Exactly. So maybe if people realize they have to pay the bills themselves, they will stop voting themselves goodies from the Treasury.

I am not going to vote to give myself a thousand dollars cash if I know that it will cost me two thousand dollars after the government gets done with all the postage and handling. But if I think I am going to get the money for free, why not?

19 posted on 12/03/2012 8:43:19 AM PST by gridlock (ELIMINATE PERVERSE INCENTIVES)
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To: Sub-Driver
Dumb idea. The Reps give up their only real bargaining chip. And the GOP will be blamed for the increase in marginal tax rates on small businesses, aka the rich, because they go up automatically on Jan 1. This will split the GOP and more than likely result in the formation of a third party with roots in the Tea Party.

Voting present is the coward's way out. If the GOP is afraid to stand on principle then it deserves to die.

20 posted on 12/03/2012 8:45:24 AM PST by kabar
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