Gloat over my ignorance: Why can't Obama do the following?

[jpgray]

Lay out to Congress what sort of tax cut legislation he will support, and what sort he will veto. To keep his promises, and to advance his goal of extending unemployment insurance, the sort of bill he would support ought to extend tax cuts for <= $250k income, and extend UI for one year. He could lay this out in clear terms, and then promise to veto anything less, even if all tax cuts expire as a result.

What would be the biggest danger if he did this? What harm would result if he made the terms very clear to Congress and the public? Who would look weak and vulnerable if nothing got done, particularly as Obama's stance enjoys wide public support? Would this fracture the party? Harm fundraising efforts? Alienate voters? What is the biggest risk of stating a clear ultimatum in advance, as opposed to waiting around for a negotiated consensus, do you think?

[allmylove]

1. You're right

He took permanent extensions of the tax giveaways to the rich off the table with a veto threat.

Why won't he do the same thing for temporary extensions?

[Lasher]

2. He doesn't want to.

He wants to renew the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. He just needs an excuse.

[killbotfactory]

3. Raising taxes on non-millionaires will hurt the economy.

And republicans couldn't give a fuck less what kind of damage their obstruction causes, because if the country goes back down the drain voters will reward them for it, as they just recently did. This is the last chance to get anything constructive done before two more years of gridlock.

[jefferson_dem]

4. There would be both policy harm and political harm if he delivered such an ultimatum.

In terms of policy, the obvious result would be taxes going up on those who can least afford it. In addition, there would apparantly be no other legislation passing through the congress this lame duck session (not START, no UI, not DADT repeal, not Dream Act), due to the repug pledge ... er ... terrorist demands.

In terms of politics, this would be beyond stupid. Obama would have gone back on his own pledge during the campaign about taxes not going up on those earning less than 250k and would own a policy result (all tax cuts expiring) that less than 20% of the public supports.

So there you have it in a nutshell. Folks may not like those fact but they are ... facts.

[BzaDem]

5. Then middle class and poor tax cuts would expire (310 billion per year), unemployment benefits would

expire, the economy would get much worse, Obama wouldn't be re-elected, and a new Republican President would not ONLY make the Bush tax cuts permanent -- they would make them even more regressive.

[treestar]

11. And appoint more Alito types to the SCOTUS

[Imajika]

6. Obama is pretty much trapped now...

The time to have this fight was BEFORE the election. It should have been the centerpiece of our campaign, and the public supported our position too.

Sadly, we slunk out of town and didn't deal with when it would have been most advantageous to us. Hell, done right this issue might have even mitigated some of our losses and made a truly terribly election cycle a little less awful.

But no, for some reason Obama, Pelosi and Reid didn't want to have the fight. It may be that just too many moderate/conservative Democrats actually supported the Republican position and therefore our leadership team felt we needed to punt. Whatever the reason, it was still a mistake in my opinion.

As of now, the President is not going to allow tax increases for the middle class. He just can't do it because it would hurt the economy too much. The Republicans know this and will hold the whole thing hostage (along with all other business) till they get what they want. Even though the public supports our position, we are at a serious disadvantage and the GOP holds the stronger hand.

So an agreement will be reached. Everyone knows it. All Bush tax cuts will probably be extended for 2 years. In exchange we will get a 1 year UI extension and most of Obama's tax cuts and credits pushed out for another year or two.

[Hippo_Tron]

7. He loses START, DADT, and the DREAM Act

He has three weeks to try and get these passed before the new congress is seated (where they will be dead on arrival) and the Republicans have wisely refused to hold a vote on any of these until they get their way on taxes because they know he needs to get these things done in the next three weeks. They know (or at least think they know) he wants these things and won't have any other chance to get them.

Ironically, their position to bargain with him will could be a lot weaker in the next congress. Since anything he really wants to get done like emissions reduction doesn't have a prayer in hell of passing in the House, he has more of an incentive to stand up to the GOP and take his case to the public.

[MiniMe]

8. The repugs don't want to do anything that will help Obama

They have their own agenda, and screw national security (Start)

[StarsInHerHair]

9. I recc'd and I agree with you he should make a very clear stand in public of

what he wants & tell people to contact their Reps/Senators if they agree. This would show him in a strong light, any nit-picking or niggling about it I really don't care, I wouldn't shy away from taking a stand. Campaign Obama took a stand against the prevailing GOP view of how the world works and he won because people took him seriously, they liked what they heard. Any time someone here claims crap I go back to that: fracture the party.......harm fundraising......alienate voters?


Hell no. It'd be the reverse.

[Clio the Leo]

10. Read...

.... it's all right here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x543566

[great white snark]

12. I read it when it still had that new post smell.

I think it's VERY telling how many people didn't read it.

Thank you Clio.

:toast:

[truthspeak]

13. Dumb American electorate is the reason...

Obama argued his points to the sheep for over 3 years and yet they still voted against their own interests (others pathetically didn't vote because they were " so disappointed"). So you reap what you sow...