Back in 1995, President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress, had failed to reach agreement on a budget. The government was funded by a temporary Continuing Resolution that expired on November 13th at Midnight. The government shut down all non-essential services from November 14th until the 19th, and then December 16th until January 6, 1996.
President Clinton used this as a way to try and paint Republicans as extremists. Sound familiar? From the very beginning of this budget struggle, President Clinton was using this confrontation to gain politically. In fact, it is likely, that the whole thing was just a political strategy of the Clinton Administration. The Democrats lost big in the 1994 mid-term elections. For the first time in over 40 years, the Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
It looked like the strategy might backfire, and hurt President Clinton. But in the end, a lot of the public blamed the GOP. It probably helped Clinton win reelection in 1996.
Fast Forward to 2012. President Obama has just won reelection, and the “fiscal cliff” is approaching quickly. With our huge budget deficit showing no signs of being brought under control, we need real solutions. The President campaigned on using a “balanced approach” to deal with the deficit. Tax increases on the “rich”, and some unspecified budget cuts, were the way to fix the deficit, the President Claimed.
So what did the White House come up with as a “proposal”? A $1.6 Trillion tax increase, with additional $50 Billion in “stimulus” spending. No cuts to the budget at all, except some possible, in the future, in some galaxy far, far away. In other words, none.
Reportedly, Republican Minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, laughed when it was presented to him, and other Republicans, by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. It was obvious to all, that this was not a serious proposal. It seems the administration did not even care to make it appear to be serious.
Why would the administration do it? It’s pretty simple really, the Obama administration is playing politics with it. They feel that the public will blame the GOP, if we go over the fiscal cliff. It’s been more then obvious, that this President doesn’t care about a budget deficit, or our total National Debt of over $16 Trillion.
The Republicans must stand strong. Don’t fall for this expensive game of “chicken”, the Obama Administration is playing. Taxes can’t be raised, or it will hurt this already weak economy. Isn’t it more then enough, that we are getting taxes increased because of Obamacare?
Conservatives must keep the pressure on the GOP to not give in to this. The future of our country depends on it.
(L) Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell–(R-KY), Speaker of the House Representative John Boehner–(R-OH)
IT Is non patriotic not to close the loopholes and the overseas accounts for the rich.
Enough with the servicing to the rich and letting the Country down.
Do Republicans want to make a third world country of the United States?
The richest 20% already pay almost 70% of all income taxes. The bottom 20% only pay about 3/10 of 1% of the taxes. The top 1% earn about 13% of the total of ALL pre-tax income but pays over 22% of the total income taxes. This is all sourced in the CBO. This article from the Washington Times quotes all these numbers in a 2012 article http://bit.ly/NHN3TM . So instead of quoting Left Wing talking points you may want to check the facts first.