I just finished reading the LA Times Article, GOP hold reins in debate over tax cut extension. The authors of the article wrote pretty strong opening statements about the situation:
A day after agreeing to work with President Obama to end a stalemate over expiring tax cuts, congressional Republicans flexed their newfound political muscle Wednesday, declaring that they would block consideration of any other legislation during the lame-duck session until a deal is reached on the tax cuts and temporary government funding.
You don’t have to dig too deeply to discover the hidden meaning. It is pretty clear. Republicans intend to block EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF LEGISLATION unless they get to extend tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans (that were irresponsible, to begin with–according to Ronald Reagan’s Budget Director). Everyone agrees that middle and lower-class Americans need the tax breaks, but the fight is squarely over making the tax cuts from George Bush permanent.
Does this sound like extortion to you?
While I am certainly no legal expert, my first impression was that this sounded like a form of extortion. But, being unsure of the exact definition and some of the nuances that make certain actions Extortion, so I did a little research. According to the Wikipedia, the definition of Extortion is:
Extortion, outwresting, and/or exaction is a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person(s), entity, or institution, through coercion.
This seemed to be a pretty close match as a description of the behavior of these Senators, but after a bit more research, I stumbled upon the definition of Coercion, and thought it may be a better fit:
Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats, intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way. Coercion may involve the actual infliction of physical pain/injury or psychological harm in order to enhance the credibility of a threat. The threat of further harm may lead to the cooperation or obedience of the person being coerced. Torture is one of the most extreme examples of coercion i.e. severe pain is inflicted until the victim provides the desired information.
This sounds much closer to the case–though, apparently, the Republicans have a code-word for this behavior on Capitol Hill. I think they simply call it Power. Regardless of the name we use for this, obstructionist tactics (also see: here, and here for more examples) for political gain are wrong. This is not how the Democratic Process was intended to be used, and is a misappropriation of the government and their positions as legislators.
Perhaps Robert Gibbs summed it up the best: “Nothing could be more completely out of whack with what is important to the American people and to getting our economy going again than to watch a debate about billionaire tax cuts while people lose their unemployment benefits.”