On the recordJuly 18, 2012
I don't think the Senator from Alabama is wrong at all. In fact, that is what much of the news stories that have been printed in the last few days and reporting on the subject have said. Some of our colleagues on the other side have essentially concluded this is leverage--leverage for them to get higher taxes. It strikes me, at least, that there is a tremendous risk associated with allowing the country to go over a fiscal cliff--which includes not only these Draconian cuts to the defense budget but also tax increases that would occur on January 1, to go over the fiscal cliff, risk plunging the country into a recession, raise the unemployment rate which is already at historically high levels, all to prove a point about raising taxes. But that appears to be--at least by the reporting. There was a story in the Washington Post over the weekend that said: Democrats threaten going over the fiscal cliff basically to get higher taxes out of Republicans. That, to me, seems like a terrible trade to make, to risk the country going into a recession, to risk these tremendous cuts in our national security priorities, just simply so they can get higher taxes.
