Digging Into the Legacy
by digby
I just have to pile on to David’s earlier take-down of today’s NY Times coverage of the default crisis talks by pointing out this one laughably nonsensical passage:
[T]he president and Mr. Boehner were moving ahead with their plan, aides said, trying to agree on matters like how much new revenue would be raised, how much would go to deficit reduction, how much to lower tax rates and, perhaps most critical, how to enforce the requirement for new tax revenue through painful consequences for both parties should they be unable to overhaul the tax code in 2012.
The White House wants a trigger that would raise taxes on the wealthy; Mr. Boehner wants the potential penalty for inaction to include repeal of the Obama health care law’s mandate that all individuals purchase health insurance after 2014.
And what excellent incentives. Either the Republicans agree to cut spending or the President will follow through on what he’s already promised to do. Twice. Or the Republicans refuse to cut spending and get to destroy Obamacare. That’s one helluva deal.
I really don’t think Obama’s going to agree to let them mess with his health care plan beyond what he’s already agreed to do (which is slash the hell out of the Medicaid provision.) He’s already potentially sliced millions of people out of the system as it is and put medicare on the table. But at this point, the fate of the world economy is on the line and the President has foreclosed the 14th amendment remedy, so who knows?
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