Democrats have no choice but to accept 'irresponsible' tax deal (Eugene Robinson)

[jefferson_dem]

Democrats have no choice but to accept 'irresponsible' tax deal

By Eugene Robinson
Thursday, December 9, 2010; 8:00 PM

Approve the lousy deal.

It pains me to write those words, because the agreement President Obama negotiated with Republicans on tax cuts is really quite awful. I know that some progressives have come to see the package as a cleverly disguised "second stimulus," but they're just rationalizing. The fact is that nobody would start from scratch and design an economic boost offering so little bang for so many bucks.

<SNIP>

Yet congressional Democrats have no real choice but to hold their noses, approve the thing and live to fight another day. The opportunity to shape a better deal - one without those unnecessary, unfair and supremely galling tax cuts for households making more than $250,000 a year - is long gone.

As a practical matter, I don't see how Democrats could possibly think they have leverage to exact concessions before the end of the year. Republicans can simply wait them out, knowing that Democrats will be in a much weaker position when the new Congress convenes in January.

The Democrats do have public opinion on their side - or had it, at least. Polls showing that a substantial majority of Americans opposed extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich were far more meaningful before the deal was announced. Now the calculus has shifted, and not in a good way.

<SNIP>

But as much as I sympathize with the progressives who are ready to man the barricades, let's be real. Killing the deal now would mean a middle-class tax increase, no extended unemployment benefits and no payroll tax holiday. Voters would surely feel they had been robbed - and Democrats, perhaps unfairly, would get the blame.

As I said, this is painful. Democrats in Congress are understandably irate at being lectured so sternly by a president for whom ending the tax cuts for the wealthy was so important that it was non-negotiable - until he negotiated it away.

It's a sad story, for the country and especially for the Democratic Party. I believe the White House continues to underestimate the anger and disillusionment among the party's loyal base - and the need for some victories, or at least some heroic battles, to lift the spirits of the faithful. Obama needs to train his newfound passion and outrage on his foes in the GOP, not on the friends and supporters that his press secretary once derisively called the "professional left."

Pyrrhic victories don't make anything better, however. And that's what killing the tax cut deal would clearly be.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/09/AR2010120904474_pf.html

[Skittles]

1. yet another ringing endorsement

take it - it's better than nothing

gawd, we could have done SO much better than this

[Cant trust em]

3. We should have started this months ago. nt

[niceypoo]

18. He probabally did

The whole while swearing he would never sign an extension of Bush tax cuts for the rich

[bigwillq]

8. ....

:thumbsup:

[sadbear]

25. "Better than nothing" seems to be the common thread

Everything Obama and the Democratic Congress has passed, at least the major legislation, has been "better than nothing." I know that's what I voted for. :sarcasm:

[Cant trust em]

2. "Pyrrhic victories don't make anything better"

I thought this was an interesting article because it really encapsulates how I really feel. Shitty deal that was handled poorly but its the best option right now.

Fuck.

[StreetKnowledge]

20. Best Option?

The payroll tax dumb lays the foundation for the GOP destroying Social Security. The Bush tax cuts will be made permanent because they will come up in the middle of an election campaign.

This is not a best option. It's an irresponsible option that ultimately lays the basis for a much bigger problem later.

Shit can it while Democrats still control Congress. For the sake of all of us. Poor deals can be accepted if their is no other option. But this isn't a poor deal, it's a complete capitulation to the lunatics who will in January be running the asylum.

Kill it dead, or we'll all be paying for it later.

And if Obama has a problem with that, to hell with him. He needs to be primaried anyways. Mark my words - we don't remove him from the ticket, he'll spend another four years being the Republicans' prison bitch. He ain't our man anymore. Start the process now, while we can win the fight.

And to all the Obama fanboys and fangirls - if you accept these sort of deals because Obama does them, you're not a Democrat supporter so much as an Obama supporter. He's not a Democrat any more than Ben Nelson is. I don't expect Bernie Sanders policies, but I think we can expect him to do stuff that works for us - not them. He hasn't done that, and now that he has Boehner to deal with, he's not going to do that. Get rid of him while we still can.

[Cant trust em]

23. I'm sick of this "real democrat" shit.

Smells a lot like Palin's "Real America" garbage.

The tent is getting a lot smaller.

[montanacowboy]

4. fuck him

nt

[jefferson_dem]

6. Profound.

n/t

[emulatorloo]

7. I'd think twice about trashing Eugene Robinson

He's one of the good guys out there in the press, and there aren't enough out there.

[RandomThoughts]

5. No choice, that is insane. and you had a choice before writing that.

The only way it would be a stimulus is if the rich agreeing to spend money, where are they spending it, in India and China.

How is it a stimulus? Besides, why should they decide, and how has that worked out. And most aren't even American, nor do they care about Americans.

Why do you think you have to give to wrong to get right. Why is that?

It makes no sense.


Write a simple page bill for middle class breaks and stimulus, and run it in front of the senate everyday, make them stand up and filibuster it ever day for two years, then every other day, have a bill for tax raises to equalize problems, make them filibuster that every day.

If the news doesn't cover that, tell the people the news is not covering it.

You have to show what they are doing. Or you are complicit.

[emulatorloo]

9. The total package is 800 to 900B. The tax cuts for the rich = 75B

That's less than 10% of the whole thing.

I don't like it either, but too many on DU are acting as if the whole 800B is going to rich people

EDIT link on breakdown: http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/07/news/economy/tax_cut_deal_obama/

[flamingdem]

11. This is TRUE! People don't read and they assume the rich take all nt

[jpgray]

17. Estate tax? Excludes up to $5 million under the deal, after that, top rate of 35%

In 2001, it excluded $675k at a top rate of %55. Quite a windfall for the wealthy, and a substantial loss of revenue, isn't it?

(Absent the deal, it will return to pre-Bush scheduled levels--$1M exclusion, top rate of 55%)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. What

The first thing the new Congress will do is pass a tax cut for everybody without the goodies like EITC, UI extension, and payroll tax cuts, et cetera and dare Obama to veto it. They probably want Obama to veto it so the economy can go into the crapper and then they can beat him over the head with it.

[RandomThoughts]

22. Yep, they want to take things down by forcing not best compermise.

Then blaming the Democrats about all the things they gave up not to get Republican votes.

I think it is a combination of political attacks and sabotage.


Here is the thing, I been watching compromises for decades, and things get worse and worse.

So I started drawing the line when I saw them attacking people in bars 'personal observation' and when I then saw them attacking rights in the constitution. And many that work hard and just want a peaceful life to raise their family.

So I don't compromise by the pattern of direction, and why the public option was important, because if the direction does not change, my thoughts is not to compromise to race further to the bottom.

Even if lack of compromise puts me on the bottom in material or other ways of measure, not going to agree to moving the material to people that can not use it correctly, or if they do, can not report how they are using it accurately.

[madfloridian]

10. Of course we had a choice.

That is just ridiculous propaganda geared to cover up ineptness at the highest levels.

[jefferson_dem]

13. Maybe *had* (as in past tense).

Not *have* ... as in currently existing policy options.

[BeyondGeography]

12. K&R for telling Barack to wake up

A well-worded and reasoned reckoning with the steaming pile that has been served up.

[Zenlitened]

15. I think Robinson is pretty much right on the mark with this one, sadly.

Democrats bungled it, big time. Or were never really interested in getting it right, in the first place.

[ibegurpard]

16. sounds like the shit they were trying to serve us on healthcare "reform" as well

we just HAVE to pass something...we have no choice.
Fuck that.
Let them end.

[paulk]

19. the mantra of the Democratic Party

"Yet congressional Democrats have no real choice but to hold their noses, approve the thing and live to fight another day."


wash, rinse, repeat

[ProgressOnTheMove]

21. Yes, we have no power to resist it a small gain wa better than zip.

[young but wise]

24. Agreed.

They just need get it over with. So we can focus on DADT, The START Treaty, and Dream Act.