Did We Give Up On Bush Taxes to Get DADT Repealed?

[demwing]

The later followed closely on the former. The timing could be due to the lame duck session constraints, or it could be that Obama has negotiated more deeply than we believed.

I look at what we got on the surface, re: the Bush Taxes, and it appears we got killed.

But, if DADT was on the table the whole time (hush-hush, wink-wink, nudge-nudge...) then the Republicans can throw a few Senators our way to support it, agree not to block it, and do so all behind the screen of a mock unified opposition.

They get to cater to their base, Obama gets to fulfill an as yet unfulfilled campain promise, Dems cater to our base, and the GLBT community gets a human rights gain.

This could be why Chinless Mitch has warned House Dems against tweaking the deal. Perhaps more rests on it than we assumed?

[TheKentuckian]

1. I'd never make any such deal. Why pretend you must?

[phleshdef]

3. Easy enough to say when you will likely never be in a position of governing the country.

[valerief]

2. Did we get Social Security broken into to get DADT? More like it. nt

[WilliamPitt]

4. I think, sadly, the bush tax cuts getting passed is a fait accompli

Pass DADT, then START.

And then buckle up for a very long, shitty 2011.

[Democrats_win]

5. The rich and banksters did a heck of a job. Therefore they deserve the Bush taxes.

Why do you hate America for suggesting otherwise?

[JustAnotherGen]

6. Maybe I missed the alert

I saw that it has 61 in SUPPORT in the Senate- but untils it's passed? I won't believe that we gave up any of one thing for another. Same with the Treaty.

I'm not believing anything anymore or getting my hopes up anymore - because there's always some sh*t somewhere in the stew. Watch - we'll find out when DADT passes that the 'compromise' was gay and lesbian couples can no longer adopt children as a Federal law. The Republicans always get away with murder like that.

[gratuitous]

7. Link everything to the giveaway to the wealthy

Then go back on your promise. It's like watching a very bad season of Survior or Big Brother, except there's never any chance that the double-crossing rat will get voted out, and the other contestants keep behaving like nitwits, making deals that they know the other party has no intention of honoring.

[yourout]

8. The only thing worth the bush tax cuts are all of the following.

Medicare buy-in
Middle tax tax cuts
Unemployment Extension
DADT repeal

[Kennah]

9. I think more correctly ...

... we gave up on the Bush Taxes to set up the destruction of Social Security.

[rucky]

10. Hard to tell, with so much horse-trading going on.

But one thing's for sure: Policy & principle have absolutely nothing to do with how the Senate votes.

[BlueCheese]

11. I doubt it.

I think the two are happening fairly independently. Unless the plan was always to have Reid negotiate with Collins, not reach an agreement, bring it up anyway, have it die, and then have the House pass a standalone version, and hope the Senate follows through.

The simpler explanation is the right one--the time for DADT to end has come, and even the Republicans in Congress are finally catching up to where everyone else was a decade ago.

[obxhead]

12. No, the Bush tax cuts are being continued to keep donations coming. nt

[bowens43]

13. if so , it was a shitty deal..

DADT was already dead.

[demwing]

14. OK. I promised I would try to see a positive side to this, but I failed

And this DADT thing was my attempt. Clearly, I can't see it. I just can't...