Wall and bridges
If this happens it really is the worst of both worlds:
With a little over a week left to reach a deal, members of the Congressional deficit reduction panel are looking for an escape hatch that would let them strike an accord on revenue levels but delay until next year tough decisions about exactly how to raise taxes.
Under this approach, the panel would decide on the amount of new revenue to be raised but would leave it to the tax-writing committees of Congress to fill in details next year, well beyond the Nov. 23 deadline for the panel itself to reach an agreement. That would put off painful political decisions but ensure that the debate over deficit reduction stretched into the election year.
There’s no mention in the article of putting off agreement on the cuts, so presumably those would happen for sure while they work on “tax reform.” After all, slashing the hell out of the safety net is the easy part. Both parties are eager to get that done.
If that’s the idea, they can get all those pesky cuts to entitlements done first so that the Democrats can fall on their swords and the Republicans can stealthily attack them for it during the election season. But the Republicans can run as the people who are saving the nation from higher taxes. Good plan.
But most people think there’s still almost no hope of getting a deal. Greg Sargent reports:
As of yesterday, doubts were growing that differences can be bridged, given the latest status of the talks:
Republicans have offered a $1.2 trillion deficit-reduction package that would cut spending by about $750 billion over the next decade while raising about $500 billion in revenue, including about $300 billion in new taxes. Democrats have offered to trim borrowing by $2 trillion, with that sum equally divided between spending cuts and tax increases.
If I’m reading this correctly, Democrats are offering a deal that includes significantly more in deficit reduction, and significantly more in spending cuts — two things Republicans want. The Dem condition for this deal is that spending cuts and tax increases be equal in amount. But that’s a nonstarter.
So, punt on the revenues? I wouldn’t be surprised. Remember how the conservatives see these negotiations:
[Y]ou don’t have to compromise if both parties want the same thing. The Dems represented that they wanted, or at least were willing to accept budget cuts. Great, our team wanted budget cuts too.
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