how the GOP will respond, if at all, to this report....

(1) The sky is falling, we cannot let the Bush tax cuts expire, at least not for the rich ones, cuz they are creating millions of jobs (at minimum wage)

(2) We can reduce the spending cuts but only for the military. We still want to eviscerate Social Security Medicare, Medicaid and anything that actually benefits a live human being.

The involvement of the Heritage Foundation suggests that it is.

The CBO report amounts to saying that the currently mandated mix of tax hikes and budget cuts could set off another recession.

How that is dealt with is a matter of choice. For example, one possibility is letting the Bush tax cuts expire and spending the money on infrastructure.

But the Heritage Foundation is clearly out to convince people that anything other than keeping things the way they are now (with the presumable exception of cutting entitlements) would be disastrous.

The CBO isn't making any argument except that the currently slated policies for next year would provoke another short recession.

Exactly.

Of course keeping things the way they are now will also cause a recession.




We know what to do. The solution is not elusive. Tax those who can afford it. Give those who cannot a break. Invest in infrastructure ... which cannot be outsourced overseas. Cut military waste.

Of shooting them, leave a few as an example of fossils?

Would not plunge the country into recession. Bullshit. Just another way for the wealthy to scream "It's the end of the world as we know it"

Were stupid.

but the rich needs to pay their fair share.

Plus, it is not an either or situation.

Why wasn't the CBO asked to score the third option? What is that 3rd option? Keeping the tax cuts for low and medium income taxpayers while letting the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% to expire while following closely to the Simpson-Bowles recommendations on spending plus the defense savings from winding down the Afghanistan War.

Lastly, the CBO report has no mention on the impact on jobs and that makes the report somewhat meaningless.

All we have to do to show the American voter who is on their side and who isn't is to split the tax cut extensions into two bills, one for the rich and one for the middle class.

The GOP is only there in DC to do one thing, make rich people richer. To protect that, Republicans will be forced to block and hold hostage tax cut extensions for the middle class, in an attempt to pass the cut they really care about.

From that point, no matter what the outcome, voters will know and remember that it was the Republicans who tried to raise taxes on the middle class, and tried to take money out of the wallets of something like 70% of all voters, to keep people none of us know personally fabulously wealthy.

I expect the Democrats in Congress to get that ball rolling in only a few weeks.

and cut military industrial welfare and you will see the biggest economic boom since the 50's. No need to cut programs for the poor.

They all seem to say that ALL of the Bush tax cuts have to left alone when in fact the CBO report probably only means the middle class tax cuts. There were middle class cuts in the Bush plan (not as large as Obama's of course) and no reasonable economist nor any historical evidence would suggest that the tax cut for the top did anything to create jobs OR weren't devastating to the budget/debt - in fact the top cuts were meant to create the debt "starve the beast".

We could slash corporate welfare, and tax the rich, ...
or
We could slash food assistance, welfare, child care, schools, and increase low-income taxes and fees.

So, it seems a matter of priorities.