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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Tea Party Absolutism Cost The GOP A Huge Win On Entitlements
The GOP's long-held dream of slashing the retirement safety net faded this week.
Back in the summer of 2011, Republicans had it within their grasp. A dejected President Barack Obama placed the crown jewels of liberalism on the chopping block, offering Republicans hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.
House Speaker John Boehner wanted to seal the so-called grand bargain, and was willing to reciprocate with the $800 billion in new tax revenues that the president sought in return. Democratic leaders were grudgingly willing to support Obama on what they feared was a lopsided deal for conservatives.
But the Ohio Republican, facing a tea party mutiny that threatened his Speakership, and loyalty issues within his own leadership team, was forced to walk away from the table. By many accounts, he was eager to make it happen, but the pressure from the anti-tax tea party movement was too strong to overcome. And so the deal was dead, never to be resurrected.
Nearly three years later, history suggests Boehner was right and the tea party was wrong. Republicans had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to capture their Great White Whale if they just acquiesced to $800 billion in taxes. It turns out they were forced to soak up $650 billion in taxes anyway in the end-of-2012 fiscal cliff deal. Only they got nothing in return on entitlements.
As of this week, Obama has rescinded his proposals to chop Medicare and Social Security benefits. The political landscape has changed, and the dream is over.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/how-tea-party-absolutism-cost-republicans-a-huge-win-on-entitlements
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/21/1279265/-Abbreviated-pundit-roundup-Rejecting-austerity
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)It's a right-wing "frame"
I'd prefer to see folks at DU use terms like "social safety nets"
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)localroger
(3,620 posts)I said at the time that Obama was only offering it because (as anybody could see) the fractured Republicans were incapable of taking the deal. The long game, which worked, was to use that fracture to drive a wedge into the heart of the Republican Party.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)the stupid party, aren't they? Like this article indicated, they actually had a somewhat juicy deal in front of them (minus the top tax hikes). Yet because they loathe the President so much and because they were so committed to protecting top taxes from rising, they passed up a golden opportunity. I am SMH at them. This country only has one major party that is committed to being mature and non-extremist anymore, and it sure isn't the GOP.