The End Game: A follow up.

Posted by in Blog on December 4, 2012 6:03 pm / 6 comments

Earlier I wrote out what is going to play out in the coming weeks. The game is already over, we just haven’t accepted it yet.

Instead of preparing for the aftermath, people seem content on bashing John Boehner et. al. and attacking the “establishment.” I think that’s a waste of time. What we should be doing is preparing for the aftermath.

Here’s what’s going to happen:

1. We’re going over the fiscal cliff.

2. Republicans will get blamed for it.

3. In January, a bill will make it through the House, Senate, and signed by the President which moves “middle-class” tax rates back to where they were pre-cliff jump.

4. The economy will sputter along and maybe even grow a little in a few months.

5. Obama, Democrats, and the Media will point to the improvement and say “See? Hiking taxes on the rich worked!!!”

The reality, and what every single conservative needs to start pounding away immediately is that the economy, if it improves, will do so because the devastating tax hikes on the middle class will be reversed. The economy will breathe a virtual sigh of relief and things might actually start getting better as a massive amount of uncertainty is removed from the equation. Sure, Obamacare will still be there killing jobs, but the collective sigh of relief will boost consumer confidence.

Watch.

Now, instead of mounting primary challenges and fighting a civil war among ourselves, conservatives need to make the case, over and over again, that Democrats are holding the economy back. Conservatives must get on the tax reform bandwagon. Sell it as the Opportunity Society – because that’s what it would be. We must also constantly explain that the euphoria is temporary. There is a looming fiscal crisis that is still out there. Entitlement reform has to happen. But it must also be sold under the banner of the Opportunity Society.

Marco Rubio knows how to do this. Let’s make him the face of this new pitch for American Exceptionalism. Pronto.

 
 

6 Comments

  1. Kent Vig says:
    December 4, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    While I agree with you 100%, it’s the establishment GOP that is pushing conservatives out. There are too many in the party structure that are convinced that the right cost them the election and that they just need to adjust the message and people will like them. It’s time for some hard truths because in 10 years there wont be enough tax money to cover entitlement spending much less anything else.

  2. @DiscardedVirtues says:
    December 4, 2012 at 6:29 pm

    RB, nothing meaningful about the GOP will change to benefit conservatives until GOP leadership figures out that the goal is to save our economy and our nation, not to get re-elected. Only when conservative leadership is literally prepared to walk the talk about our time-honored conservative values, and refuse to participate in a corrupt government, will any of this begin to change for the better. The only other option is to wait for the whole thing to crash, and then begin the rebuilding process.

  3. jtownejeff says:
    December 4, 2012 at 6:46 pm

    So we shouldn’t primary the GOPpers that go along to get along with dems? Really? You’re serious? Wow.

  4. Jim Rose says:
    December 4, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    One quibble with this, RB. What is Obama’s motivation to lower middle class taxes after the cliff? You say it’s to get the economy moving a little and give the credit to the tax hikes on the rich, but I have to wonder if given the choice between being proven “right” on high taxes for the rich or having an economy so bad that more people join the bumocracy, he’d choose the latter. But it’s all theoretical. I think you’ll probably be proven correct.

  5. MeNot Muppet says:
    December 4, 2012 at 8:15 pm

    The Right DID cost Republicans the presidential election. And House AND Senate seats. America is dead-center; and if you can’t live with that then your cause will become extinct, like the Dodo birdand other species unable to adapt to change. R.I.P.

  6. RB says:
    December 5, 2012 at 11:10 am

    Primary them for the right reasons.

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