America's Hostage Crisis: Day 3,500 -- And Counting - HuffPo

[WillyT]

America's Hostage Crisis: Day 3,500 -- And Counting
Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson
Authors, Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
Posted: December 9, 2010 03:24 PM

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When President Obama said he was forced to negotiate with hostage-takers, he conjured an image of ski-masked Republicans suddenly storming the White House and demanding tax cuts for the rich, a screaming Jane Middle Class in tow.

The imagery made it seem as if this bitter fight just emerged -- an impression reinforced by the breathless commentary of pundits who act as if history began last week. In reality, the hostage takers laid their "trap" a decade ago, as former Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett helpfully explained to The Daily Beast: "We knew that, politically, once you get into law, it becomes almost impossible to remove it. That's not a bad legacy. The fact that we were able to lay the trap does feel pretty good, to tell you the truth."

Republicans have dominated the tax-cut debate because they have consistently kept their long-term objective in mind and skillfully, if ruthlessly, designed their initiatives to achieve it. Indeed, they've counted on the fact that most of us have short memories -- including, alas, journalists who say they want to keep politicians honest.

In our 2005 book Off Center, we summed up the Republican tax-cut strategy as follows:

Republicans carefully calibrated their presentation of the tax cuts to circumvent hostile public opinion. Three strategies were central -- each attuned to the tax cuts' principal liabilities. First, unrealistic projections of federal surpluses and of the costs of the tax changes were used to justify the tax cuts and obscure their effects on competing priorities. Second, Republican leaders managed the legislative agenda to prevent consideration of the tax cuts' specific effects on valued programs. And third, tax-cut advocates worked assiduously to make the cuts look far less tilted in favor of the rich and well connected than they really were...

To respond to their base, Republicans misled most Americans. On an unprecedented scale, phase-ins, sunsets, and time bombs were used to give the tax cuts of 2001 the most attractive public face possible while systematically stacking the deck in favor of Republicans' long-term aims. From top to bottom, Republicans larded the tax cuts with features that made sense only for the purposes of political manipulation.

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More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-s-hacker-and-paul-pierson/americas-hostage-crisis-d_b_794602.html

:mad:

[Hannah Bell]

1. bush laid mines & poison pills everywhere, it's true. worst president in modern history.

[calimary]

2. So why don't OUR GUYS know how to do this shit? Does nobody focus on maneuvering?

Does NOBODY on our side care about strategy and tactics and laying traps for the bad guys? Do they just not think that way? WTF??? We need some pretty damn ruthless people on our side, and all we have are naifs.

:banghead: