RG III and the Fiscal Cliff

The political polarization in Washington seems hopeless as America heads toward the fiscal cliff that will be triggered by Congressional inaction on January 1.  To avoid this calamity, the country needs a negotiation facilitator who is respected, admired, and liked by both Republicans and Democrats; someone who can sit between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner and cajole them both into a budget deal.  Fortunately for us, that person exists and currently resides in our nation’s capital.  He is none other than the superstar rookie quarterback of the Washington Redskins, Robert Griffin III, aka RGIII.  The Griffin legend continues to grow as he has led his otherwise mediocre team to victory after victory in front of throngs of DC fans, conservatives and liberals alike, who are head over heels in love with the guy.  Griffin’s appeal is not only for his extraordinary athletic ability.  He is smart, articulate, grounded, and a leader as evidenced by his teammates recently naming him captain despite being a 22 year old rookie. 

So how would a negotiation session with Obama, Boehner, and RGIII go?

Obama:  “There’s just no deal without raising tax rates on the wealthy, those $250K per year or more rich guys like John and me.”

RGIII: “Prez, you’ve got to give Speak some credit for putting additional revenue on the table.  He’s putting up with all kinds of static from Grover because of it.  It’s all about raising more money and higher tax rates are not the only way.  Your buddy Erskine Bowles even agrees with that.  Let’s accept Speak’s proposal to limit income tax deductions.  We’ll take a cue from poor old Mitt Romney and cap itemized deductions at $25K.  That should raise about $120B per year and even though the middle class will pay some of it, rich people like Mitt will pay a lot more.” 

Obama:  “That won’t raise enough money.”

RGIII:  “Then let’s throw in some excise taxes.  How about taxing bad behavior like using too much gasoline?  The Federal gas tax is a paltry 18 cents per gallon and has been unchanged since 1993. I paid $3.20 per gallon the other day.  We could increase it by 50 cents and a gallon of gas would still cost less than 4 bucks.  This would get us another $90B per year.”

Boehner:  “Increasing taxes will hurt the economy and cost us jobs.”

RGIII:  “That’s the beauty of excise taxes Speak; you can choose not to pay them.  Think carpools and hybrids instead of Nissan Armadas.  While we’re at it, we ought to put an extra tax on fast food to offset health care costs and take some fat off of America’s kids. Now let’s look at the spending side.”

Boehner and Obama:  “We can’t cut Medicare for today’s seniors.”

RGIII:  “Got to do it guys.  Raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67 seems reasonable since we’re living longer, but we’ve really got to change the way seniors and all of us think about health care.  Most people with comprehensive health insurance don’t even know what medical care costs because they don’t pay out of pocket. We’ve become addicted to health insurance. If we restructured Medicare with means tests and higher deductibles, people would care about what their doctor charges or what lab does their tests.  Market forces would lower costs.  The reduced cost of insurance would then free up some premium money that seniors could keep in flexible health savings accounts that they could use to pay the deductibles on routine care.  Imagine the reduction in administrative overhead if seniors paid doctors for office visits with debit cards linked to their health savings accounts.” 

Obama:  “What about investments in America?”

RGIII:  “That’s what the stimulus was for Prez.  It’s belt tightening time now.” 

Boehner:  “Now you’re talking.”

RGIII:  “Hold on Speak.  We already dealt with Medicare, one of the big budget elephants.  Now we’ve got to work on Defense.  Speak’s man Mitt proposed a 5% cut to all discretionary programs.  That’s fine but to make a dent we’ve got to include the DOD in that cut.  Now with the Afghanistan war ending, can’t the DOD tighten up by 5% and still keep us safe?  5% from DOD saves us $40B per year.  5% from non-defense discretionary saves another $25B.”

Boehner and Obama:  “I don’t like it.”

RGIII:  “But can you live with it?  That’s the definition of compromise gentlemen.  We haven’t solved this $1 Trillion deficit, but we’ve got a good start and the plan is balanced with spending cuts and revenue increases. This has been challenging, but now I’ve got to head back to Landover for a really tough job, getting my 6-6 Redskins into the playoffs.”