Taxing credulity

 More bad news from the tax deal, via David Dayen at Firedoglake:

Nancy Altman called the payroll tax cut in the Obama/McConnell deal the end of Social Security. In her view, the American political system circa 2010 doesn’t let taxes go back up, and so Social Security will face a revenue crisis faster with a reduced payroll tax. The money will come out of general revenue to pay for that payroll tax holiday, but that just makes Social Security more dependent on general revenue – and more vulnerable. That this is all coming at a time when knives have been unsheathed and are ready to hack away at Social Security makes it all the more dangerous.

Ryan Grim asked the exact right questions, and Republicans were unusually blunt with him.

Republicans acknowledged that the expiration of the tax holiday will be treated as a tax increase. “Once something like this goes into place, a year from now, when it expires, it’ll be portrayed as a tax increase,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). “So in a body like Congress, precedents matter and this is setting a precedent. I think that certainly is going to create some problems down the road if it passes.”

They know what they're up to.  Most of the time they play sketchy word games to cover their tracks, like saying small businesses will be hurt by the upper-income tax cuts, when they know only 3 percent will be affected.  But sometimes they're so giddy they just can't fake it.   And why should they when they win whether they hide it or not?  If I had just rolled the president, I'd let my guard down and feel pretty cocky, too. It's also reliably, undeniably true: This will be hard, if not impossible, to reverse.  They know it, we know it, Obama knows it. This is a bad precedent, and anyone with eyes and half a brain can see it.

The rightward march continues, under a Democratic president, no less.  Yeah, that's why I voted for him.