Obama Wimps Out on Tax Cuts

[ProgressiveLiberal]

Source: Daily Beast via Yahoo News

NEW YORK – Obama Wimps Out on Tax CutsThe president is ready to compromise on the Bush tax cuts and extend them for the rich. Eric Alterman wonders why Obama can’t manage to defend a campaign position that’s both popular and fiscally sound.

It’s happening again. Barack Obama is punching the Republicans in the fist with his face. Almost in spite of themselves, Democrats won the public-opinion battle over extending the Bush tax cuts for Americans making a quarter of a million a year or more with strong majorities supporting their position. They did not have the nerve to hold this vote before the election, and now the nervous nellies appear to be getting ready to throw in the towel (or at least most of it). President Obama, on the other hand, ran for office on a pledge to extend the existing tax rates for families making less than $250,000 a year, while letting the tax cuts for those making over that number expire. The number of Americans lucky enough to earn this kind of money constitutes barely more than 2 percent of the population, though one can imagine they provide a much more impressive proportion of the funds that go into financing election campaigns, whether directly or by stealth.

But with the tax cuts poised to expire Dec. 31, The Washington Post reports that “Obama has opened the door to a compromise with Republicans, signaling a new willingness to accept tax breaks for the wealthy.” He is doing this, meanwhile, as the Republicans continue to stand united against the extension of unemployment benefits for Americans making not $250,000 a year, but nothing.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/20101117/ts_dailybeast/11019_obamawimpsoutwithpossiblebushtaxcutcompromise

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So BOTH tax cuts for the ultra-rich AND unemployment extensions for millions of Americans are ready to expire within the next 6 weeks.

Guess which one President Obama is giving his attention to?
THIS sort of crap is EXACTLY why the elections turned out the way that they did.

[uppityperson]

1. kick to mark

[MannyGoldstein]

2. It's not caving in if this was your goal all along

I'm convinced that Obama is working for the Predator Class. No way he could be as dumb and spineless as he's alleged to be.

The DLC wins again!

[Ken Burch]

3. How is it a compromise?

A compromise is when you get some of what you want in exchange for giving somebody else some of what THEY want.

Giving somebody else ALL of what they want while not getting anything that YOU supposedly want isn't compromise...it's just surrender.

[ProSense]

4. This is the most ridiculous thing I've read in a long time

Has everyone gone mad?

:rofl:

[SarahB]

8. Will you put yourself on record as saying he won't cave?

I'll be happy to put myself on record as saying he will. Hell, I'll even bookmark this thread.

[ProSense]

10. This is not news. It's an analysis piece by Eric Alterman

It's not his best work.

I have no idea what the President is going to do, but he hasn't done it yet.

[SarahB]

11. So even you do not have enough faith to go on record.

Noted.

[ProSense]

12. Faith?

I don't have enough information. I'm not inside his head, and not a part of the negotiations.

[rug]

13. Only the West Wing.

[Uben]

5. It's all speculation at this point

Opened the door, signaled, insinuated, those are all opinions. It aint over till it's over, and I give this president the benefit of a doubt. So many here jump on every appraisal of what Obama "is going to do" by every pundit and blogger who can write. I judge him by what he does, not what he might do or someone says he's going to do. And, I was a Clinton supporter!

BE real sure of where you are placing blame for things. We all know what we read in the paper and online, but I doubt you will know what strategies the presidents team are executing behind the scenes. Be realistic about what can be done with a divided congress and a USSC weighted with corporatists.

[ProgressiveLiberal]

7. Strategies behind the scenes??

This isn't that 4-dimensional chess thing is it? Because I am so over that.
I gave the President the benefit of the doubt on health care and I got a mandated corporate policy. When I gave him the benefit of the doubt on the war in Iraq (where Al-Queda were not) , I got a new war in Afghanistan (also where Al-Queda were not). When I gave him the benefit of the doubt in the economy I got several trillion dollars to the ultra-wealthy and very little for the jobless. And when I gave him the benefit of the doubt on Constitutional freedoms (didn't he actually teach that at some point??) I got the continuation of Gitmo and other rendition Camps, the continuation of The Patriot Act and groped by the TSA.

At this point I am all out of benefit and only have doubt left.

[Grassy Knoll]

9. So very true.....

My vote for Obama made history,and it seems that's all I'll get.

[uppityperson]

19. President gave you a new war in Afghanistan? Huh. I have doubt about some things also.

[awoke_in_2003]

22. it wasn't new...

but he did have to have his own surge to prove he was as manly as the republicans.

[ProgressiveLiberal]

26. Exactly - i used some literary license....

but the point is that he greatly expanded that front - just as you say.

[Turborama]

28. Which is what he said he would do during the election.

Anyone who was surprised when it happened hadn't been paying attention.

[Turborama]

20. "several trillion dollars to the ultra-wealthy"??!???

Your CONCERN is noted.

[ProgressiveLiberal]

25. Yes, several trillion....

When you add up the costs of the various bailouts and add in the war cost (Haliburton, Blackwater, GE, etc.) and include the tens of billions of "lost" and unaccounted funds the Pentagon has admitted to over the past 9 years (anyone else remember the C-140 loaded with pallets of U.S. currency enroute to Iraq that was in the news?)
Yeah - add that up and it's Trillions buddy - Trillions of dollars.

Its just too darn bad that your concern doesn't extend to those areas.

[Turborama]

27. Full quote: "When I gave him the benefit of the doubt in the economy I got several trillion dollars

to the ultra-wealthy"

And now you say you were referring to 9 years of war and loans to the banks etc (yes, the bailouts were loans)?

And yes, I do remember the billions that went missing in Bush's illegal war in Iraq and have posted quite a lot about them here in the past. Here's one example: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x376918

And another: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x394128

One more: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x394148

You're continuing to make shit up to besmirch Obama's presidency. Again, you're "concern" is noted, pal.

[ProgressiveLiberal]

29. Bush... Obama ... I'm talking about American policy for the past 10 years

And I do not see a whole lot of difference, when it comes to war spending and inequality of wealth, between the various administrations.

You keep "noting" my concern.
OK, I will note you noting. {shrugs shoulders}

[Turborama]

30. No, you were talking about giving "him the benefit of the doubt" and hadn't mentioned Bush at all

You're just embarrassing yourself now.




If you don't get the concern thing, try Googling this phrase: "I'm worried that the candidate's history in the legislature might be a problem in the election".

[ProgressiveLiberal]

31. OMG! Somebody's wrong on the internet !

OK I get to try out DU's ignre feature for the first time now.
Congrats!

[Turborama]

32. I feel honored that I'm going to be the first of many you're most likely going to "ignore"

BTW it doesn't mean I won't see your other posts full of epic concern failure in the future to call them out.

Lame.

[Vidar]

6. Obama is a modern incarnation of the Union General McClellan.

On paper, George McClellan was the best general after Robert E. Lee, but only on paper. He looked the part & acted the part, just like Obama, but totally failed to deliver.

[awoke_in_2003]

23. The whole party...

is Gen. McClellan- get the enemy down, get him retreating, then not pursue the enemy. One day the party will need some people like Grant and Sherman.

[thelordofhell]

14. Obama Wimps Out on Tax Cuts..............Again

What is this, the 3rd or 4th time in the last 2 weeks?

:shrug: :tinfoilhat: :shrug: :tinfoilhat:

[SarahB]

15. So, are YOU willing to go on record as saying he won't cave on this?

I'm going on record as saying he will.

[thelordofhell]

18. He won't

I'll pick a Democratic President over an opinion piece anyday and twice on Sunday.

[ProgressiveLiberal]

21. Actually if you read the article....

you find that high level Whitehouse officials go on record saying that Obama is ready to compromise. Such statements do not get made unless the President wants them to be made.

[thelordofhell]

24. Or if some opinion piece writing wonk wants to sell an article

Go ask Huffingtonpost how that works.

[defendandprotect]

16. If Obama actually does this, it will do great harm to the nation -- to the Treasury .....

and I hope we'll find a new Democratic candidate in 2012!!

[defendandprotect]

17. Congratulations MODS ... for making this a SMOOTH transition when moved -- !!! :)

[wilky]

33. Here's what the WH should say:

"EVERYONE gets a tax cut." Which is true -- if you cap the cuts at 250K as Obama has always said, even the rich would get a cut on their first 250K of income! Why haven't they said this all along? All that is at issue is those dollars above 250K. Yeesh.

[wilky]

34. Here's what the WH should say:

"EVERYONE gets a tax cut." Which is true -- if you cap the cuts at 250K as Obama has always said, even the rich would get a cut on their first 250K of income! Why haven't they said this all along? All that is at issue is those dollars above 250K. Yeesh.

[swilton]

35. Saddly, I'm no longer surprised

Rather than believing Obama lacks a backbone - an assumption one can make only if one assumes Obama wants to do the right thing for middle class Americans - I am beginning to believe that Obama's policy behaviors are deliberate and we've all been/we're all being duped.

I will look more forward to being pleasantly surprised than saddly disappointed.