McConnell's Plan to "Fix Our Fiscal Problems:" Fuck the Middle Class

Because for Congressional repugs, it's their way or nothing, and their only way is the Austerity Road to Serfdom.

James Carroll at the Courier:

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell on Wednesday was re-elected Senate minority leader by his Republican colleagues, declaring that his party is ready to work with President Barack Obama and the Democrats to help solve the fiscal problems facing the nation.

No, it's not. Brian Beutler at TPM:

Obama’s plan to let the high-income Bush tax cuts expire nets him a bit less than $1 trillion over 10 years. But he ultimately wants tax revenues to increase by about $1.6 trillion, by limiting tax expenditures on the same group of top earners. Trying to net the entire $1.6 trillion on the expenditure side of the tax code would almost certainly require raising taxes on middle income earners, according to the Tax Policy Center.

In January, TPC analyzed (PDF) the revenue and distributional effects of three plans to limit tax expenditures. Each would raise over $2 trillion over 10 years. But each would also require millions of middle class taxpayers to pay higher taxes — something Obama’s pledged not to do.

That strongly suggests Obama won’t be able to beg off his pledge to at least slightly increase marginal rates on high income earners. But keeping those rates low is perhaps the right’s highest priority. Republicans and conservative policy wonks believe expenditures lead people to allocate their money inefficiently, and that higher tax rates create a work disincentive that inhibits economic growth. They also know which side of their bread is buttered. And they’re sparing no effort to keep the current tax rates in place into next year.

Which is why the only way around this conundrum is to let all the Bush tax cuts expire, and reinstate middle-income tax cuts early next year. And why White House allies want the public to know that’s on Republicans.

 We've been here before. Repugs will reject any "deal" that does not dismantle the social safety net by turning Social Security over to Wall Street, Medicare over to private insurance and workers over to slave-labor "employers."

UPDATE: In case you were under the impression Mitch McConnell really wants to compromise.