I hate to say I told you so but As we said in our Sept 30, 2012 Post Obama would win with over 330 Electorial Votes.
Now what ?
“The Fiscal Cliff” or so we are told.
I see no agreement looming for anything avoiding the expiration of the Bush Era Tax Cuts or the 10% across the board cuts to the budget.
If you are a avid reader of this site, you will know we said “BRING IT ON” to the fiscal cliff. Not that we want to see the economy take any kind of downturn, but we think that this issue is over dramatized, but this will eliminate the stale-mate in the house. Why?
Because Congress will not agree to anything the President wants, The president only has to do nothing. He can not force House members to vote the way he wants and they have no intention of doing so. Let the tax breaks expire and the 10% budget cuts happen and at that point they now have to negotiate to get any of it back. The Republicans will not be increasing taxes but seeking the tax cuts they had. They will however have to justify and answer to any increased spending and on what areas of the government with the American electors in two years. This could make them the “BIG SPENDERS” next election cycle.
I can only hope they do not push us into a new war to justify Military expenditures.
I see this point their greatest loss as they will be a minority in the government as a whole because they keep playing the same game that has warn the public’s skin a little thin.
The Republicans are now in a damned if you do anything position that they can not win, only maybe break even at best. This is of their own doing from the hard line non-negotiable stance they have made.
Here is what’s really going on.
Many of them have signed pledges not to increase taxes in any way and there is a lot of organized conservative political action money sitting there to unseat them in their own primary election if they do not keep their pledged promise.
Combine that with the political action money organized by folks like Karl Rove that keep them from making any kind of deal outside party lines.
You now have the stale mate and reason we make our prediction here that we will see the Fiscal Cliff and then deals will be made after we cross it. And expecting the show will be distasteful to the electors, a major political shift in the mid-term elections two years from now (2014).
To me, it almost looks like a face saving deal to both party’s made some time ago when the President and Speaker knew that any deal was just not doable within their own party’s.
Now this does speak more to the idea that we can only get effective legislation within a year of a election. Everything else will wait till after the next election.
PAC money (free speech now-a-days) is preventing Congressmen from speaking their mind and voting their mind.
Nothing in site to change this and it can only get worse from here.
Solutions?
Unless you can do something with all that PAC money. Not going to happen unless you can deny both party’s a majority in both the House and Senate by electing independents. Everyone then will be forced to make a deal with someone to do anything and hence the showmanship is over. Yes at that point it would be hard to tie-up legislation in some sub-committee protecting the wishes of any party.
Yes, of 435 House of Representative seats, if each party had only 175 seats, 350 Total for both party’s, and the remaining 85 seats were in the hands of independents who do not caucus with either party, you have a fix for the problem. If you could achieve that, the first item up for bids should be election reform that stops this 2 party organized crime !
Probably not possible but everything else would be !
I am a voter… HEAR ME ROAR !