Obama: Bush Tax Cuts For Wealthy Will Not Be Extended, Period

[JoePhilly]

105. Don't need to interpret it. Its pretty clear.

Obama can let them all expire. But he'd rather NOT allow the cuts for those under 250k to expire if that is possible. Recall promise #1 from my earlier post.

So ... if congress does NOTHING, yes, he can let them all expire. No negative political impact to him, he can't run again anyway. But that hurts the middle class. Which is why he'd rather keep the middle tax cuts in place.

And so, if Congress sends him a bill that keeps the tax breaks for those under 250k, he'd welcome that.

Again, my prediction is that Congress will PUNT this issue into the lame duck session. Once there, the Dems and the GOP will agree to keep the middle class cuts, and end the others, probably at the 1 million mark and above.

Importantly, that 1 million dollar figure will be selected because CONGRESSIONAL Democrats will support it. The 250k number terrifies them because back home, the 250k number is used to claim that they raised taxes on small business. Basically, Obama by allowing the bump to 1M, gives those Dems some cover. But it does nothing for him.