What Now? | National Catholic Reporter

What Now? | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: With respect, MSW didn't vote for Obama so while he certainly has the right to an opinion on what Obama should do next, it might be best to keep it to himself.


MSW should concentrate on the Church - particularly the bishops - who arguably lost last night where they spoke up for their "three non-negotiables." So far they have been badly advised and MSW has been goading them on. What the USCCB needs is someone to speak with them on how they might want to make peace with these issues - all of which are matters of right rather than electoral politics - and focus their political activities on political decisions, such as the economy.

Until the USCCB is willing to listen to voices within the Church that dissent from their position on these issues, they will continue to make the same mistakes. Using this blog to empower them to do so gives neither them nor the Church as a whole good service. Telling the truth might.

As far as the second term agenda, immigration reform should occur - although I am not sure how that looks if James Sensenbrenner continues speaking out against it. With Paul Ryan remaining at budget, I don't see how not simply going off the fiscal cliff is not the best option. Obama holds all the cards and unless the GOP gets real on this fact, he is best advised to simply let all the tax cuts expire and blame the GOP - which would be taking a page from Clinton's playbook (and actually using his tax rates). I suspect a deal is possible, where the top tax rate, the corporate rate, the capital gains rate and the dividend rate all fall somewhere between 25% and 28%. 26.5% is an inconvenient number, so perhaps 27% is where they will end up. Perhaps they can do 25% now, 26% in a year and 27% the following year. Working out a deal on taxes first will let every other issue happen, which after the devestation of Superstorm Sandy should start with the effects of global warming.