| Morning Jolt – November 30, 2012 By Jim Geraghty Here's your Morning Jolt. Happy Friday! Jim By the time you see this, I will have appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe, discussing the dynamics of the fiscal-cliff negotiations for Republicans. Cliff Diving as a Teachable Moment to the Country? I don't like the "burn it down" slogan -- it sounds too much like something you would see stitched on a throw pillow at the hideout of Heath Ledger's Joker -- but I do think that the public must get a hard lesson on the folly of believing our fiscal problems can be solved by simply taxing the rich. Ace and Allahpundit seem intrigued. Allahpundit: You want to continue putting off reforms to Medicare and Social Security while making only token cuts to the rest of the budget? No problem. But if we can't have fiscal responsibility on the front end, by cutting spending, then we'll have some measure of it on the back end by squeezing a ton of new revenue from the middle class. Everyone in government understands that the rich can't pay for all of this; if you want to keep the popping-and-wheezing Great Society machine duct-taped together for a few years longer, you'll need to start soaking average Americans. Democrats would prefer a VAT because it can disguise future tax hikes better, but one way or another Joe Sixpack has to start meeting his obligations. The GOP can make it happen on January 1 simply by walking away. This isn't a true "let it burn" plan. "Let it burn" calls for giving Obama whatever he wants so that he can't blame Republicans for anything that happens later. That would mean hiking taxes on the rich and no one else because O's not -- yet -- at the point of informing the middle class that they'll have to pay more to enact his agenda. By contrast, if the GOP followed the Geraghty plan and let tax hikes on the middle class take effect, O would merrily blame them for it while privately rejoicing that the Overton window had been moved back towards higher rates on working-class Americans. Likely end result: The GOP would be brutalized in the midterms, no doubt with some Democrats campaigning on a plan to (temporarily) lower the new middle-class rates if elected in exchange for even higher rates on the rich -- and no entitlement reform, of course. But Geraghty realizes all that. He's playing a long game of "let it burn" here: At some point, Democratic tax-and-spend policies will squeeze so many people and cause so many problems that the public will revolt and turn back towards Republicans with a mandate to undo it. The "blue social model," in Walter Russell Mead's term, will eventually collapse because the left ultimately can't make the math add up. But how long are you willing to wait? The only thing I would add is that the electorate, a slim majority of which voted for Obama on the belief that things were getting better, might get tired of (a) higher taxes and (b) another recession really fast, and might find the across-the-board tax cut demand of House Republicans not quite so unreasonable as the weeks and months go by. Ace's take: Obama was permitted by the media to claim, or at least strongly imply, that the painful cuts Romney was talking about (and Obama, the Great Leader, was not talking about) could be averted simply by levying a small tax on the "richest 1%." It was a lie. It was further a lie the media assisted in. All those Fact Checks and not a single column noting that the central pillar of Barack Obama's Re-Election Strategy was a baldfaced lie that only the uninformed or innumerate could possibly believe. The media is strongly complicit in this lie. If I were someone in power, I would make this connection vigorously, and lay the blame at the feet of the media, and inform the public the media lied to them, and if they're about to get a unwelcome shock, they should write to ABC, CNN, NBC, and the rest of the clownshow and ask them why they chose not to report the actual numbers. But I'm sure they won't, because they're stupid.* At any rate, the public does believe this (and why shouldn't they? The President told them the only fix that was needed was a tax hike on the rich and the media vouched for him). Time to strip them of that misapprehension and force them to confront the actual choice. Who Are You Again? Palestine? I'm Sorry, I Don't Recognize You. Well, the U.N. has spoken, so everything's improved now, right? Right? Oh, I guess not. The United Nations voted overwhelmingly Thursday to recognize a Palestinian state, a long-sought victory for the Palestinians and an embarrassing diplomatic defeat for the United States. The resolution upgrading the Palestinians' status to a nonmember observer state at the U.N. was approved by a vote of 138-9, with 41 abstentions, in the 193-member world body. Jim Hoft: Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations today to make a formal request for a Palestinian state. The Palestinians are certain to win U.N. recognition as a state. The general assembly roared as Abbas made his way to the podium before the historic vote. Abbas did not disappoint. His speech was mostly a total trashing of the state of Israel. At one point he called Israel a racist, colonialist state. He also called for a Palestinian state with borders at the 1967 boundaries. This would put the Holy Land and tomb of Jesus under Palestinian terrorist control. The Sudan gave a supportive introduction for the Palestinians before Abbas gave his speech. Jeff Dunetz: When the media reports about today's UN recognition of Palestine they will talk about Palestinian President Abbas as a "moderate," But that description is as useful as the old Microsoft/Helicopter joke above. Abbas does indeed recognize Israel's right to exist, but he refuses to recognize Israel as the Jewish state -- per UN Resolution 181(the original partition resolution passed by the UN in November 1947, UN Resolution 181 calls for dividing Palestine into Independent Arab and Jewish States). And that refusal is part of the Palestinians stated strategy to destroy Israel. On the other hand EVERY single Israeli prime minster After Rabin recognized the right to a Palestinian Arab state (Rabin did not). No Palestinian leader has ever recognized the right of Israel to exist as the Jewish Homeland. Charter of Abbas' party FATAH does not recognize Israel's right to exist in any form. The Internal Charter of Abbas' Fatah Party written in 2010 did not remove Fatah's rejection of Israel's existence as a Jewish state (or any other kind of state) nor did it remove its support of terrorism against Israel. Obama, Getting Ready for his 'Mele Kalikimaka' Do you know what you're doing New Year's Eve, when the ball drops . . . perhaps off the fiscal cliff? Keith Koffler lets us know the president's schedule is getting set: President Obama is reportedly scheduled to be vacationing in Hawaii on January 2, the date billions in spending cuts -- and untold consequences for the economy -- will kick in if a deal is not reached on the "fiscal cliff." According to the Hawaii Reporter, residents who live in the area of Oahu where Obama and his family vacation have been told that the usual restrictions on their movements during an Obama stay will be in place for 21 days, from December 17 through January 6. The White House has not officially announced the vacation, and it is unclear if the travel plans are finalized or if the Obamas will be in Hawaii for the entire three-week window covered by the restrictions. An upcoming vacation could provide subtle pressure for Obama to reach a deal, since not getting one might force him to cancel his coveted time in Hawaii. Even though the election is behind him, Obama's advisers would probably think it too much of a public relations nightmare to have the president luxuriating in paradise while the country embarks on a season of massive pain. In the past, Obama has made sure he got his vacation time in -- even extending his scheduled Hawaii sojourn after being forced to delay its start because of negotiations with Congress. Rick Moran: "There is serious doubt that Congress can get a deal done before the first of the year. That means that just about the time that tens of thousands are getting pink slips due to budget cuts, and milllions will be seeing a smaller paycheck, the president will be showing off his impressive pecs to reporters on some pristine beach owned by a rich guy who supported him. Good to know our president cares so much about the little guy." Look, America, you had your shot to express disapproval of this approach to the job. You chose otherwise. To read more, visit www.nationalreview.com Save 75% . . . Subscribe to National Review magazine today and get 75% off the newsstand price. Click here for print-edition information. Click here for digital-edition information. And National Review makes a great gift. Click here to send a full-year gift to NR Digital, and here to send a full-year subscription to the print edition. Conservatives – stay healthy! Get plenty of Vitamin Sea on the next National Review cruise. Visit www.nrcruise.com for complete information about our next trip. 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