"A fight for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party"

From Down with Tyranny:

John Conyers (D-MI) isn't an Independent and isn't in the Senate. He's a Member of the House, a really important Democratic one. He doesn't seem too happy with the conservative alliance Paul Ryan was so happy about as Obama and McConnell merged into one horrible nightmare:

This is a fight for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party and the Nation. I can tell you with certainty that legislative blackmail of this kind by the Republicans will be vehemently opposed by many if not most Democrats, progressives, and some Republicans who are concerned with the country’s financial budget. I for one will do everything in my power to make certain that legislation along these lines does not pass during the lame duck session.

Tax cuts for the richest two percent, the millionaires and billionaires, are neither justified nor needed. There is no evidence that, in the last eight years, the Bush tax cuts did anything to encourage economic growth and create jobs. It seems hard to argue that the tax cuts for the rich trickled down to rest of the nation, when you consider the fact that we are just now coming out of the deepest economic recession since the Great Depression. If we permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, it will cost our country four trillion dollars in lost revenue in the next decade, and decimate important social programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. As Paul Krugman noted today, “over the next 75 years, the revenue loss would be more than three times the projected Social Security shortfall.”

If America is to compete in a highly competitive global economy, we must have the needed federal revenues to invest in jobs, health care, education, infrastructure, and green technology. Furthermore, in a time when city and states are experiencing serious budget shortfalls, having difficulties paying for police officers, teachers, and firefighters, and other essential needs such as affordable housing and health care, now is not the time to provide tax cuts for the richest Americans who will simply put that money in their banks accounts.

This is not the time to pursue misguided tax policies that will wreak havoc on our nation’s fiscal health. Now is the time to show the American people that government has the ability to improve people’s lives in a tangible way.

But for the rethuglicans, it's just a game, as Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars explains:

Dan Bartlett reminds all of us that the GOP doesn't care about Americans, doesn't care about the destructive effects of their disastrous policies and that it's all gamesmanship for the soulless conservatives:

(I)n Washington, where anything beyond last week’s news cycle is considered ancient history, the jury-rigged nature of the Bush plan—and the fiscal sleight-of-hand involved—have been all but forgotten.

“We knew that, politically, once you get it into law, it becomes almost impossible to remove it,” says Dan Bartlett, Bush’s former communications director. “That’s not a bad legacy. The fact that we were able to lay the trap does feel pretty good, to tell you the truth.”

Case closed.

And Zandar makes a terrific case for why this deal will never happen.