What I’d point out, in terms of how ridiculous this is, is that Republicans don’t have a tax reform bill for anyone to agree with. Ways and Means Chair Dave Camp is “vowing to draft complete legislation by the end of the year.” Not pass a bill in the House; not even pass a bill through committee — sure, in the party-run House, it’s possible that those will follow once a bill is ready, but there are no guarantees. Remember, the debt limit showdown is coming this summer. So what this means is that Republicans apparently are ready to insist on Dems agreeing to their this fictional legislation in exchange for the debt limit hike, but months before that legislation sees the light of day. This is not just a rhetorical demand: Republicans are asking for this in exchange for not destroying the economy.
The plain truth here is pretty obvious: Republicans love the idea of extorting concessions in exchange for agreeing to a debt limit hike, and are determined to do it even when they don’t actually have any real policy demands. It’s just extortion for extortion’s sake.
What I’d point out is that the next debt limit “OMG…CRISIS!” isn’t going to roll around until October, which gives even the slow kids in the GOP leadership time to come up with something more concrete to demand. This is pure narrative pre-gaming, nothing more. They have to get the “Republicans are big bad meanies!” bunk out into the low-information voters’ consciousness more than ever because the administration has made nothing but missteps so far during “Team Lightbringer-The Sequel”.
And, bless their hearts, WaPo can’t even pretend they aren’t a full time propaganda agency for Obama.
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