Can't we all just get along? At least, that's how House Speaker John Boehner's speech began to the Economic Club of Washington today. He then went on to outline the GOP's proposals for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (better known as the "super committee") by framing it in terms of "no tax hikes". This is nearly the same song and dance that we heard during the summer debt ceiling debacle, but the GOP didn't pay for their intransigence then, so they're not likely to revise their approach now. In fact, it seems that congressional Republicans want to pursue a jobs creation agenda that is diametrically opposed to the President's, and it's more likely a parlor trick to prevent Obama. As one Republican aide characterized it, "We have Obama on the ropes, why would we hand him a win?" To say nothing of the fact that they'd be depriving American unemployed from a win as well.

John Boehner's talking points included the usual lineup about deregulation and the present tax code not fostering investment, hiring, or growth. He called Obama's plan, which includes tax incentives for hiring and state-targeted spending for infrastructure projects, "a poor substitute" for plans he considers more effective. In addressing those provisions that congressional Republicans advocate the Joint Committee adopting, advocates for cutting back government regulation, cutting taxes and spending, and reforming the tax code to be more corporate and business-friendly. "It's a very simple equation," Boehner declares, "Tax increases destroy jobs. And the Joint Committee is a jobs committee. Its mission is to reduce the deficit that is threatening job creation in our country."

And here lies the rub; the national deficit has almost nothing to do with the real economy, particularly where private sector hiring is concerned. Economists and the Congressional Budget Office have all made the distinction that corporations, for the most part, are flush right now, and although small businesses continue to struggle it's the big guys that are staying stagnant. Oil companies have more in subsidies and are drilling more now than they ever have since anyone was keeping track, and yet gas prices remain high. Financial institutions are paying out record bonuses and maintaining massive margins despite credit at a trickle. Manufacturers are making more money overseas, and those tax shelters are not paying anything back to this country. I agree that the tax code needs to be reformed, but I'm sure my version of those reforms would look very different from Mr. Boehner's. "Trickle down" doesn't work. Period.

Finally, Boehner opened his speech with a call to bipartisanship. "If we want to create a better environment for job creation, politicians of all stripes can leave the 'my way or the highway' philosophy behind." Yet the thrust of his speech was contradicting this sentiment. "Tax increases," he added, "are not a viable option for the Joint Committee." Indeed, that seems to have been the sticking point all along. Republicans, and particularly the radical Tea Party element within the party, refused to budge from their entrenched anti-tax ideology during the debt crisis and it precipitated a credit rating downgrade, the first in our nation's history (and yes, Standard and Poor's fingered the GOP for the downgrade). However, the party never saw much in the way of real public backlash to their intransigence, other than a down flux in approval polling (which everyone else saw too). The result is that we can expect more of the same from the Republican Party going forward, and it seems it doesn't matter who pays the price.