Obama in "can't lose" political chess match

[hfojvt]

12. except that, basically

Obama is going to force them to pass 78% of the Bush tax cuts - a $2.6 trillion tax cut over 10 years, and the distribution of this tax cut looks like this

top 1% - $350 billion
top 4% - $340 billion
top 20% - $1.4 trillion (includes the above two groups - 54% of the total)
bottom 40% - $360 billion

So, Obama has put Republicans in a box where he is gonna force them to pass tax cuts that favor the rich.

Brilliant. Three cheers for "middle class tax cuts".

Except it will be worse than that, because the deal will probably extend the tax cuts to $400,000 incomes - in order to gain Republican support in both the Senate and the House.

Which will basically give another $220 billion in tax cuts, mostly to the top 1%.

So when the dust settles, it will be $570 billion for the tax cuts to the top 1% and $360 billion in tax cuts for the bottom 40%.

But it could be more than that, depending on other details which do not get discussed much (meaning they can safely be swept under the rug.