Why Obama's Tax Deal May Be an Even Bigger Disaster Than You Think

[Better Believe It]

Why Obama's Tax Deal May Be an Even Bigger Disaster Than You Think
The package that has outraged many progressives is a Trojan Horse for the "entitlement" cutting crowd that could lead to disaster for working families over the long haul.
By Joshua Holland
December 13, 2010

If our politics weren’t tainted by a unceasing barrage of innumerate right-wing demogoguery on taxes and public spending, then a temporary tax cut would be just that and the deal Obama cut with the GOP last week would be, as the president insisted, a pretty good one on balance.

But as it stands, the package that has outraged many progressives -- and not a few conservatives -- is a baited trap, a Trojan Horse for the "entitlement" cutting crowd that could lead to disaster for working families over the long haul.

.... they’re playing the long-game, and are confident that two years from now, during the heat of a presidential election, they will once again be able to extend “temporary” tax cuts without effective opposition from Democrats, and that those lower rates will cut deeply into the federal government’s revenues, forcing painful cuts and ultimately advancing their overriding wish to shrink government down so it can be drowned in a bathtub.

The final element of this story is Obama himself, and the current Democratic leadership. If we had reason to feel confident that they’d spend the next two years forcefully making the case that these “temporary” cuts needed to expire for our long-term fiscal health, and that they’d stick to their guns and win that fight in an election year, then there’d be a much stronger argument for supporting this deal.

Read the full article at:

http://www.alternet.org/news/149178/why_obama%27s_tax_deal_may_be_an_even_bigger_disaster_than_you_think/?page=entire

[tcaudilllg]

1. This whole thing reflects crisis-oriented thinking going too far. n/t

[tcaudilllg]

2. By not tackling the debt now, Obama is setting the stage for an even bigger crisis.

[jtown1123]

5. We cannot tackle debt until people have jobs and we stem the steady outsourcing of our jobs.

[dflprincess]

6. And nothing in this bill addresses either of those issues n/t

[DCKit]

10. +1

This Bill is the set-up for even more egregious actions later. Kicking the can down the road until they have created the perfect storm of economic shock and can get away with dismantling the remaining social services programs.

[Poboy]

3. recommend

[defendandprotect]

4. Another two years of Obama could bring everything we feared W would bring...!!!

What are the differences between the parties?

Think I need a reminder -- !!

[ProudDad]

20. One right-wing doesn't care about the poor and disadvantaged

the other right-wing of the Corporate War Party pretends it does... :shrug:

[avaistheone1]

7. What a god awful bill

[Scurrilous]

8. K & R

:dem: :dem: :dem:

[soryang]

9. A regressive tax structure is a major cause of no growth

It isn't just about the government deficit and political ineptitude.

What is wrong with the tax code is that it is supply side funneling wealth upward. It doesn't encourage growth. Increasing progressive tax rates on estates, corporations, and the rich forces them to take advantage of business investment tax credits and deductions. If you don't increase the tax pressure on capital accumulations, investment in tangible capital investments and inceases in commerce and employment won't occur.

The Democratic party traded regressive tax measures for stop gap measures which don't increase growth but only stave off disaster for a very limited time.

[ladjf]

12. Our totally unfair and unwise regressive tax structure is a guaranteed

path to economic and social collapse. But, the rich, who getting richer at an exponentially accelerating pace, are too greedy and stupid to realize that they are addicted to acquiring more wealth than they could possibly use.

[soryang]

14. In addition to this sellout, in the future we can expect flat tax...

...and VAT, with the expected attacks on medicare, and social security. I heard Obama spouting all the Peterson and Forbes code words the other night.

[ladjf]

15. The flat tax as you know is just another form of regressive tax.

It would have the same effect as the current system. They only hope to stop the "grand larceny" would
be for the credit rating agencies to start cutting the Country's International credit rating.

Our political system has become almost totally dysfunctional. It has degenerated into a giant cesspool run by criminals.

[soryang]

17. I'm with you!

Incredibly the flat tax i've read about calls for an income tax of ten percent on corporations in addition to that applied on individuals.

Could you imagine going to the store to buy clothing or other necessity and paying a twenty percent sales tax?

[ladjf]

11. In astronomy, the huge mass of "black holes" pulls in smaller

objects. The result is that the large "black hole" gains more gravitational pull as it's size increases.

The "mass of wealth" now accumulated by America's rich is working just like a "black hole". As the rich accumulate more money (mass), the rate of wealth acquisition accelerates exponentially.

IBM's treacherous siding with the rich Republicans has served to contribute to this onerous
headlong slide toward the rich acquiring virtually ALL of the wealth in America. In so doing, he may be even more harmful to the American people than the crazy and greedy escapades of George W. Bush.

The only way this wealth grab could be reversed would be to adopt a fair, progressive tax structure.
This, of course, will never happen so long as the rich are rich and are therefore able to buy whatever influence they need.

Other than a tax structure change, we may have to ride out the complete collapse of the American economy while all of the money is held by about .005 percent of the population. The rich would have all the money, but, there would only be a trivial amount of commerce generated in America for Americans. The rich would purchase everything from foreign sources while everyone else would be
suffering in poverty and abject poverty, dying in the streets of disease and starvation.

After the collapse the rich would literally buy everything that might have any profit possibilities.
Then, they would sell it to foreign interests who would then setup a colony type structure in the U.S. The American citizens would be offered jobs at wages lower than current minimum wages, slave labor, in other words.

America, I wish that there was some way to wake you up before this happens. It doesn't have to happen.

[Poboy]

13. .

[Odin2005]

16. I never imagined that a Dem would be worse than Bush.

I am sick to my stomach.

[southmost]

18. don't you see..

it's all part of the 11th dimensional chess strategy to fuck up the county so bad, thereby creating a scenario where the people will be in dire need of progressive policies to fix everything back up...NOT

[seafan]

19. By refusing to allow the Build America Bonds program into the tax compromise,

...the GOP's intent is to hasten the bankruptcy of states and to annihilate public employee unions at the same time.


From this link:

Congressional Republicans appear to be quietly but methodically executing a plan that would a) avoid a federal bailout of spendthrift states and b) cripple public employee unions by pushing cash-strapped states such as California and Illinois to declare bankruptcy. This may be the biggest political battle in Washington, my Capitol Hill sources tell me, of 2011.

That’s why the most intriguing aspect of President Barack Obama’s tax deal with Republicans is what the compromise fails to include — a provision to continue the Build America Bonds program. BABs now account for more than 20 percent of new debt sold by states and local governments thanks to a federal rebate equal to 35 percent of interest costs on the bonds. The subsidy program ends on Dec. 31. And my Reuters colleagues report that a GOP congressional aide said Republicans “have a very firm line on BABS — we are not going to allow them to be included.”

In short, the lack of a BAB program would make it harder for states to borrow to cover a $140 billion budgetary shortfall next year, as estimated by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The long-term numbers are even scarier. Estimates of states’ unfunded liabilities to pay for retiree benefits range from $750 billion to more than $3 trillion.

Thanks for posting about this, Better Believe It. There are so many poison pills in the Obama/McConnell tax "compromise".

Laden with riches for the rich and nothing but crumbs and lies for the people. It is reaching the breaking point.

[ProudDad]

21. Very Clever. Obama's really a Bolshevik

and is using his opportunity to make things SOOOOO bad that there will finally be the revolt of the Proletariat...

n-dimensional chess...

[Scurrilous]

22. ROFL

:thumbsup: