You no doubt recall this GOP chestnut: "Some Republican critics of the deal had said the Bush-era rates should be extended permanently, complaining that to do otherwise would create economic uncertainty."
By "Bush-era rates," those Republicans -- note to the NY Times: virtually all of them, not "some" -- were of course referring only to the upper-end tax cuts, whose economic effectiveness, according to all empirical data and every uninebriated economist, will essentially be squat.
But so much for that. Lathering plutocrats with unfunded booty is a Republican evangelical calling -- as peculiar an impulse, in this Christmas season, as Christ's was about rendering unto Caesar or unburdening camels' backs. And as for those hyperpatriotic Palinites out there who object that it's not the government's money with which to lather, I would direct them to the traditional concepts of "social contract" and "fair share"; if, that is, learning the fundamentals of civilized society, between halibut-bashings, isn't too much trouble for them.
But, as already conceded, so much for that. Someday, having a valid base of 2 percent of the electorate will catch up to the GOP.
No, this morning what triggered my memory banks was the Republicans' pounding use of the word "uncertainty." Businesses, they insisted (as though personal tax rates had something to do with corporate rates), simply wouldn't start hiring again until all this "uncertainty" about upper-end tax cuts was put aside, in favor, naturally, of the upper-end booty-grabbers.
Really? A couple of nights ago I was watching an interview, on "PBS Newshour," with the CEOs of Honeywell and Motorola. And sure enough, in the course of discussing their business woes both of them pounded the Republican word "uncertainty" -- but of demand. Not tax rates. Demand. Not a whisper of complaint about a 35 percent rate being marginally shifted to 30-something-else. Not a word. Just uncertainty of demand. That's what worried and troubled them most. Give us demand, they said, and we'll hire folks to meet it.
Which, prima facie, is the best case for direct government stimulus. But let's not go there again, since that is not, and never was, in this Congress or next, a realistic possibility.
At any rate, this morning we and the corporate crowd are certain. And Republicans now own the economy, every bit as much as Barack Obama, who can take credit if the economy upswings, or blame Republicans if it doesn't. Smart politics. And given this often-dysfunctional Congress, the smartest economics allowable.