THE "FISCAL CLIFF" SHELL GAME CONTINUES
Charles Krauthammer on Tim Geithner's Absurd "Deal"

Yesterday, the White House sent Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner to the House GOP with an "offer" in the face of the coming fiscal cliff:

Obama wants another $1.6 trillion in taxes, but not to pare down the national debt. Instead, this would be used to fund Obamacare and entitlements, yet another "stimulus" package costing tens of billions, and other Federal programs. The White House included almost no entitlement cuts and wants Congress to turn control of the debt ceiling limit over to him --permanently.

Apparently, this "deal" was offered in response to the House GOP's offer to reconsider eliminating the current Bush tax cuts for "the rich" if the administration was willing to make cuts to entitlement programs.

Here's Washington Post journalist and pundit Charles Krauthammer's take on this on Fox News last night:

“It’s not just a bad deal, this is really an insulting deal. What Geithner offered [the House GOP], ....Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox, and he lost the Civil War. The Democrats won [the White House] by three percent of the vote, and they did not hold the House. Republicans won the House [by six percent of the vote]. So this is not exactly unconditional surrender, but that is what the administration is asking of the Republicans.

"This idea – there are not only no cuts in this, there’s an increase in spending with a new stimulus [emphasis added--JME]. I mean, this is almost unheard of. I mean, what do they expect? They obviously expect the Republicans will cave on everything. I think the Republicans ought to simply walk away. The president is the president. He’s the leader. They are demanding that the Republicans explain all the cuts that they want to make.”

For more on this read Charles Krauthammer: Cliff Jumping with Barack Obama