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Six weeks after Republicans failed to get out the vote and learned they can't win as a party for the rich, exclusively, Republican leadership couldn't find the votes to raise taxes on millionaires. Who said elections have consequences?

There was never a remote chance that John Boehner's Plan B would become law. It was always a symbolic vote to let Republicans say they're willing to spare 99.7 percent of the country from a tax increase in 2013. Today, the GOP was hoping to stand before a pool of reporters and tell Democrats: It's on you, now.

Instead, opening night for this little bit of theater was a smashing disaster and the symbolism worked entirely in the opposite direction. It was Republicans who sent the message that they'd rather let taxes go up on everybody than raise taxes for the top 0.3 percent of households. It was Republicans who made the symbolic display that they care more about immediate spending cuts in a weak economy than building an off-ramp before the fiscal cliff. And it was Republicans who appeared to have utterly no idea how to cope with the new inescapable political reality that taxes are going up, no matter what.

Plan B was designed to fail, right from the start. In addition to raising taxes on millionaires (Kryptonite to Republicans) it also cut tax benefits for lower-income families (Kryptonite to Democrats). In fact, taxes would go up by hundreds of dollars for the typical family making less than $50,000, according to the Tax Policy Center. As you can see in the chart below, it's really only families making between $200,000 and $1,000,000 dollars (the 97th to 99.7th percentile of taxpayers) who would get a break under Plan B.



Now there are two key dates going forward: January 1 and January 3. On January 1, we're off the cliff. On January 3, the House of Representatives holds the next election for Speaker. In an atmosphere of GOP dissent, Boehner might need Democrats for both votes. He doesn't have enough GOP support to pass a bill that raises taxes, and he might not have enough GOP support to control his own caucus on January 4. The first political reality is that taxes are going up, no matter what. The second political reality is that Boehner will need Democratic votes to pass legislation.

"We've got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything," Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said in November. "We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys."

Jindal's comments were both utterly right and devastatingly prescient. The country would benefit from a party with a conservative, market-driven approach to economic inequality and social mobility. One day, it just might get one. But yesterday, in an attempt to show off how reasonable Republicans could be, Boehner accidentally revealed the stark unreasonableness of a party that's defining itself by a smaller number every month. Yesterday, the party of the 1 percent became the party of the 0.3 percent. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/12/plan-bs-failure-no
t-a-disaster-for- the-fiscal-cliff-but-a-disaster-for-the-gop/266559/

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Here's the sad story of the fiscal cliff in a couple of tweets. On December 14, Eric Cantor tweeted, "We will not adjourn Congress until a credible solution to the fiscal cliff has been announced."

But on Thursday, Boehner tallied up the votes for his Plan B on taxes, calculated that he didn't have the number necessary for an increase on those earning more than $1 million and then withdrew the measure.

A few minutes later, Cantor tweeted, "The House of Representatives has concluded legislative business for the week. The House will return after the Christmas holiday when needed."

The Republicans will pay for this. The popular perception will be that they preferred to allow a fiscal crisis to happen rather than raise taxes on what is calculated to be just 2% of the population (a position that polls suggest the voters favor). It smacks not only of ideology but also of greed. As the Democrats make a case for tax relief for the middle class, the GOP will be left making a case for giving a break to the rich. That puts the president's party in a good position to retake the House in 2014.

Should we blame the tea party right? Given that these lawmakers were probably the ones who denied Boehner his margin of passage, yes. Never forget that the tea party revolt was aimed as much at the GOP establishment as it was Obama. It was Boehner's job to win these radicals over -- and his failure is what the media will now focus on.

In 2013, the GOP has to have a major rethink about its political strategy. There is one wing that feels that the Republican Party was put on the Earth to reduce the state. But while the theory might have intellectual appeal (it's always nice to encounter a politician who stands for something), it's hard to hold that position and govern responsibly. Excerpts from http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/21/opinion/stanley-boehner-failure/index.ht
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Totally insane. And I hope they DO pay for it. Their childishness in walking out has been illustrated over and over, but now it's getting too close to truly damaging the country to be tolerated. And yesterday wasn't the last...today:

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Check this out: earlier this morning, moments after the House was gaveled into session, Democratic Minority Whip Steny Hoyer tries to make a motion to bring the Senate payroll tax cut extension up for a vote ... but the Republican presiding officer not only refuses, but walks off the House floor and out of the room without even acknowledging Hoyer's request.

So not only are House Republicans unwilling to extend the payroll tax cut, they won't even let Democrats talk about it. I can't think of a more perfect demonstration of the utter callousness of the House GOP: they simply do not care about the harm their actions are inflicting on the country. Video at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/21/1047585/-Republicans-walk-off
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Don't we PAY these guys to do their job? Shouldn't they sit there and keep at it until they come up with something which won't put us into a recession? The gall of them just to walk out--some even SMILING--when the work isn't done, to take an Smas holiday even longer than working people are, when they've left us in this position, just leaves me simmering.