What happened to the estate tax? Had to keep that at no tax on 10 million to create jobs?

[Warren DeMontague]

42. I would have been fine with all the cuts expiring.

But the President made it damn clear that he wanted the tax cuts enacted on the lowest brackets in 2001, to remain in place.

So that's what happened. If it was a "giveaway to the rich", it wasn't a giveaway to the super-rich, because the top marginal rate will now pay 39.6%, and that's a permanent- not temporary- increase.

Yes, that top marginal rate starts at 400K, not 250K. We can quibble- as many do- as to just how rich those figures imply. Personally, I think they're both rich, and they're both way higher than any marginal rate I'm ever likely to see.

But the Grover Norquists and the Rich Lowry crowd are equally as appalled that anyone- anyone!- could consider a measly 400K a year "rich". And that's the rub; with the way the income disparity in this country has shaken out Post-Reagan, there are all sorts of levels to richitude. 250K, while not being toothless banjo playing poor, is pretty damn ordinary compared to the skyrocketing incomes of the folks who pull down 7,8,9+ figures a year. Easy.

So it is what it is. There was going to be negotiation or all the rates would go up, including for people who are ACTUALLY only scraping by. I would have taken that instead of the GOP's demand to keep all the cuts for everyone, and I think Obama would have too. But he didn't want taxes to go up on the real middle class. Give the guy a small amount of credit.