Let me finish tonight with this.
President Obama made an offer today – an offer the Republicans “can’t” refuse.
They can sit on their hands and mock him. They can play politics and refuse even to make a counter-offer.
Or they can grow up and start negotiating.
That’s if they really do care enough about the country’s slow recovery to kick it into a higher gear.
The President’s put something on the table. He’s put out proposals: a big chop in corporate tax rates, an even mightier one for manufacturing – a total gimme to business.
He’s also proposed a big road and bridge-mending program, the stuff Republicans back to Lincoln and on through Eisenhower and the latest highway appropriation have liked.
He’s also proposed a minimum wage hike.
So how about the Republicans come back and say:
(A) We’ll take the corporate tax cut
(B) We’ll take the road and bridge spending piece if you keep it strictly to that and keep the costs tight
and (C) We’ll give you a minimum wage hike that at least covers inflation. If the Republicans want to kick the economy into a higher gear that’s what they’d do. As Hyman Roth would put it, they’d say “I’m going in to take a nap. When I wake, if the money’s on the table, I’ll know I have a partner. If it isn’t, I’ll know I don’t.” The Democrat in the White House has made his offer. Time for the Republicans to match it. Again, if they really want a partner in growing this economy.
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