Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, reported by The Hill. He expressed what’s already happening throughout the media – the tax issue is now dead in the water. It’s all about spending cuts now.
This is a major victory for conservatives. The prolonged battle over tax cuts and the fiscal cliff was followed closely by Americans. Everybody was worried sick about major tax increases. More importantly, everybody now knows that all these new taxes on top wage earners only raised $62 billion. Even “low information” voters can see this is almost meaningless relative to a $1 trillion annual debt.
Obama vented again in his weekly address about his refusal to negotiate over the debt ceiling. He doesn’t realize his tax bubble is popped. He returns from vacation in Hawaii to a new reality.
Obama has to toss all the speaking points on tax increases. Now he has to justify his $ 1 trillion in Obamacare taxes, his $1 trillion annual deficits, and his spending $1 trillion each year on welfare.
Conservatives need to ratchet up the heat immediately. The crisis is here and now. It’s not a Crisis crisis but a Legislative crisis. People know very well now how Congress works. In Speaker Boehner’s words, we have seen how they make sausage.
People realize that a two month holiday from sequestration doesn’t postpone for 60 days the next crisis. We see the crisis has happening here and now. The Crisis in “Congress Terms” (the way they always speak about legislative bills as saving $100 billion over ten years) is immediate.
We need a national conversation on this, starting today and not ending until a deal is forged.
Obama wants to postpone all of this. His strategy is crystal clear. He will use his Inauguration and State of the Union addresses to focus on immigration reform and gun control. He will use the bully pulpit in every possible way to postpone any discussions on entitlement reform, sequestration or the debt ceiling.
Obama knows he will win the debt ceiling, but only in a crisis environment. Only if it’s left until the very last minute, will he win.
Hail Caesar.
