It’s been a week since President Obama announced that he had a “deal” with Republicans to get the current tax rates extended. At that time, the “deal” included an extension of all current tax rates for an extension of unemployment insurance and an increase (yes, an increase as the current rate is ZERO) in estate (death) taxes. For a reason yet mystifying, the “Republican Leadership,” and I can only assume that means Boehner and McConnell, agreed to this “deal.” They agreed even though, in their first official action, it meant that they would clearly put a “we don’t care what you say,” sign out for all grass roots activists to see.
Since last week, Obama has been looking for ways to get Democrats to sign on to the extension bill. While Joe “This is a big F%$&ing deal,” Biden told the Democrat caucus that there would be no room for change, the Democrat caucus has been doing just that.
The first drip was the inclusion of an extension of ethanol credits for two years. Besides the fact that even Al Gore recognizes that ethanol is bogus green science, has anyone noticed how numerous food items are either increasing in cost or being reduced in size resulting in increased costs per ounce? Yeah, look at the items increasing. The majority can be traced back to corn either as an ingredient, a sweetener or a food source for the product. Continuing to extend the ethanol credits is not only bad science, it is having the unintended consequence of pushing inflation into our food supply.
The second drip was the extension of credits for “green” cars, “green” transit, “green” diesel and “green” appliances. Suffice to say that the only thing “green” about any of these items is the money that is being shoveled into black holes that don’t return a dime in benefit!
Additional provisions have been rumored to be considered as a way to improve Democrat’s chances of supporting the bill. You can bet that none of them would move the bill to a more fiscally responsible bill.
One drip, two drips, heck, even three drips aren’t usually enough to cause any real damage. However, if you’re already water logged, even one drip can do you in. The Federal budget is clearly water logged. Any drips, even the ones already “agreed” to, are too much. The Republican leadership can still pull back and demand a straight up or down vote on extending the tax rates. If they don’t, we’ll all be left wondering which drip it will be that will cause the US economy to do this:
