Obama-Republican Tax Deal and Hostage Negotiating Examined

I have been quiet about the deal that President Obama struck with the Republicans over the coming tax increases. The President's speech in which he admits, even lauds, his defeat was humorous enough, but my initial reaction was that government works on compromises, so there would be good and bad in the deal.

Below is Jim Demint's reasons for opposing the deal and that really gives me serious pause:First, I do not want to see anyone's taxes go up and I have been fighting for years to permanently extend all the tax rates.

I disagree with the President that we cannot afford to extend these rates for everyone. It's the people's money and we should not raise taxes on hardworking American families.

But this bill does much more than simply extend tax rates.

For starters, it includes approximately $200 billion in new deficit spending and stimulus gimmicks. That's a lot of money that will have to be borrowed from China and repaid by our children and grandchildren. If we're going to increase spending on new programs, we must reduce other spending to pay for it.

The bill also only extends rates for two years. We don't have a temporary economy so we shouldn't have temporary tax rates. Individuals and businesses make decisions looking at the long-term and we're not going to create jobs without giving people certainty as to what their taxes will be in future.

The bill also fails to extend all of the tax rates. It actually increases the death tax from its current rate of zero percent all the way up to 35 percent. One economic study shows that this tax increase alone will kill over 800,000 jobs over the next ten years.

Finally, the bill now includes dozens of earmarks for special interests, including ethanol subsidies, tax breaks for film and television producers, give aways for Puerto Rican rum manufacturers, favors for auto racing track owners, and a hand out for businesses in American Samoa.

I understand compromise, but is this too much to give away?

Finally, some candy. Here it a focus group's reaction to President Obama's hostage taker metaphor:



Remember that "We have to all come together," really means, "Do it my way."