Playground Rules When Playing with Obama

Republicans are in an impossible position: Anything they propose to fix the so-called Fiscal Cliff will be excoriated by the press, lambasted by the Democrats and generally made fun of. It is the heights of folly to keep tilting against this windmill. They can't win. It's not in the cards.

The only logical solution would be for Republicans to keep putting forth principled solutions right up until the last moment, with tax and spending cuts which really are sorely needed. The press, Democrats, etc. will deride them all. OK, so be it. They should still stick to their principles even with no hope of passing anything. They should never cave in to any ideas Obama puts forward that don't contain real tax cuts and real spending cuts which go into effect now, and not in some nebulous future date.

The final act of this drama will no doubt be that the Democrats in the senate and in the house will put forth a bill, which will undoubtedly be bad for this country containing massive tax increases and spending increases which is exactly the wrong thing to do when the economy is weak. The Republicans in the house and senate should just let it pass without a single Republican vote. In the house they should just vote "present" and let the Democrats stew in their own mess. Then, when the economy completely collapses, maybe America will come to its senses and elect enough Republicans in 2014 to undo the mess the Democrats created. It appears to be the only rational course of action in this "through the looking glass" world. (The press would probably still blame G W Bush. Some things never change.)