U.S. Air Force via Reuters

If it wasn’t such a serious matter, these negotiations would just be down-right hilarious! Some members of the GOP are seeming to be willing to compromise, which is some progress, but the majority are still arguing the same old points of how horrible raising tax rates for the top 2% back to the Clinton-era rates would be. Someone needs to inform them there was an election and it was loud and clear – they better get on board or continue to be left behind as we all move FORWARD.

The GOP’s bizarre ‘doomsday plan’

This week, Washington is obsessed with another so-called “doomsday plan.” But it’s a funny kind of doomsday plan. It’s not a plan meant to save the country in the event of a doomsday scenario. It’s a plan meant to create a doomsday scenario in the event that Republicans have to compromise on tax rates. On Monday, ABC’s Jonathan Karlexplained how it would work:

Republicans are seriously considering a Doomsday Plan if fiscal cliff talks collapse entirely.  It’s quite simple:  House Republicans would allow a vote on extending the Bush middle class tax cuts (the bill passed in August by the Senate) and offer the President nothing more:  no extension of the debt ceiling, nothing on unemployment, nothing on closing loopholes.  Congress would recess for the holidays and the president would face a big battle early in the year over the debt ceiling. Two senior Republican elected officials tell me this doomsday plan is becoming the most likely scenario.

Today, the New York Times adds more detail, including this quote from Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-TX): “There’s always better ground, but you have to get there.”

In this case, the “better ground” is exchanging the threat of a congressionally induced recession for the threat of a congressionally induced global financial crisis. That’s better ground?

Not for the economy, certainly. But it’s also difficult to see how it’s better ground for the GOP.

Read the full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/05/the-gops-bizarre-doomsday-plan/