Shoulda When You Coulda

 Congress, Democrats, Economy, Taxes  Comments Off
Dec 102010
 

I can see the “poignant” part of this:

But it’s anyone’s guess what kind of concessions House Dems can win, and more broadly, there’s something poignant about this whole scene. House Dems have erupted in anger and frustration repeatedly in recent months, taking tough votes on big items on Obama’s agenda that then died or got badly watered down in the Senate. House Dems wanted a bigger stimulus, and it didn’t happen. Senate procedural dithering was largely what soured the public on the process, harming Dems in the midterms. Yet House Dems are the ones who took it on the chin and are headed into the minority.

And here you have the same frustrations playing out again. House Dems were able to pass just an extension of the middle class tax cuts. But to no avail: Like a rerun of a bad movie, it failed in the Senate, and Obama decided his only recourse was to cut a deal to extend the high-end tax cuts.

Now their fury has boiled over one last time, to the point where they’re chanting “just say no” in unison. For many House Dems, seeing Obama make this deal was the ultimate sell-out. Their effort to block it, or at least change it, is their last stand in the majority, and they’re determined to make something of it. And yet the truth is that whatever does pass in the end is likely to be unacceptable to many of them, too.

Greg Sargent

But then I go back to: Shoulda got this done before the mid-term elections. That would have been a great last stand in the majority, if there even had to be a last stand. It could have been a winning issue and they should at least have taken the shot when it might have mattered. As President Obama wanted, I might add. He wouldn’t have had to cut the deal to save the fucking day.

Greg Sargent has this graph posted this morning:

He points to an analysis by ThinkProgress.

Link to filibuster in US Senate today, led by Sen. Sanders of Vermont. Bernie’s great. Nothing to argue with, even President Obama agrees with most, just about all, of these sentiments, but, again, it’s all awfully late in the game. Still, Bernie’s got himself an old-timey, barn-burning filibuster going on, God love him.

On the topic of this post, Steve Benen writes today:

But that’s still his position. The president gave a speech in September, as the midterm election season started to heat up in earnest, and he talked up his approach to tax policy. There was no difference from the line he took back in June 2007.

There was no reversal and no “preemptive concession.” If Congress had sent him the tax-cut compromise he designed, he’d have signed it in a heartbeat.

So why strike the deal? Because congressional Democrats balked at voting before the midterms; the party lost its leverage; the president got stuck in a box with limited options; and he negotiated the best deal he could against shameless adversaries while looking out for the middle class the unemployed. The result is an agreement that credible liberal economists believe will have a positive impact on the economy.

 Posted by at 12:46 am

Hard Truths

 Economy, Poutrage Lobby, Presidency, Taxes, Video  Comments Off
Dec 082010
 

“This is the public option debate all over again,” Obama said. “I pass a signature piece of legislation where we finally get health care for all Americans — something that Democrats have been fighting for for 100 years. But because there was a provision in there that they didn’t get, that would have effected maybe a couple of million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people, and the potential for lower premiums for 100 million people, that somehow that was a sign of weakness, of compromise.

“If that’s the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let’s face it: we will never get anything done. People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position, and no victories for the American people, and we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are.

“And in the meantime the American people are still saying to themselves, ‘I’m not able to get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions.’ Or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out. That can’t be the measure of how we think about public service. That can’t be the measure of what it means to be a Democrat.”

 Posted by at 12:47 am

Grownup-In-Chief

 Congress, Economy, Presidency, Taxes  Comments Off
Dec 072010
 

Ezra Klein: But it’s a deal, and a better one than many — myself included — thought they’d reach. These tax cuts were a bit of a special legislative case, as their scheduled expiration forced action, but if you want to be optimistic, this process suggests that the next two years might be a bit more productive than some of us have been predicting.

Michael Scherer: But in the current environment, this may have been the only way that Obama could fire another fiscal jolt into the economy. Zandi’s estimated that if both the expiring tax cuts and the unemployment insurance program expired in 2011, the hit to the economy would approach $375 billion, or 2.5% of GDP, a number large enough to wipe out any real gains and likely return the country to recession.

David Leonhardt: This deal looks an awful lot like a second stimulus.

None of this is meant to wave away the failure by Mr. Obama and other Democratic leaders to take action on the Bush tax cuts earlier. The Democrats did not need to be in this position. But the outcome is not all bad, especially for the short-term sake of the economy.

Steve Benen: All things being equal, I suspected the deal to be worse. Call that the soft bigotry of low expectations if you will, but I’m actually feeling slightly relieved.

 Posted by at 10:13 am

Next Day, Republicans Blocked Middle Class Tax Cut

 Congress, Economy, Jobs, Republicans, Taxes  Comments Off
Dec 062010
 

Floor Statement: Tax Cuts and Unemployment Insurance
Al Franken – Senator For Minnestoa
Friday, December 3, 2010

Mr. President, I was presiding this Monday when one of my friends on the other side of the aisle was speaking on the floor on a very important topic. He said, “We need to do everything to see that the deficit does not increase.” Now, less than a week later, he is going to vote to increase the deficit by $700 billion. That’s an impressive reversal, don’t you think?

Now, many of my colleagues on the other side ran for reelection this fall saying that the deficit is a cancer. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren to cut the deficit. Well, congratulations. Because one of your first votes back you’re going to vote to put over $9,300 more debt on the head of every child in America.

And what is that for? To give an average tax cut of a $100,000 to Americans making over $1 million a year.

Now my friends on the other side of the aisle have been saying to us, “Haven’t you learned the lesson of the election?” I don’t recall permanent tax cuts for millionaires being on any ballot. In fact, let’s take a look at the exit polls conducted by Edison Research, the exclusive provider of the National Election Exit Polls for all of the major TV networks and the Associated Press. And in their poll, they found that roughly sixty percent of Americans wanted to end tax cuts for those making over $250,000. And more recently, a Quinnipiac poll said that only 35 percent of Americans wanted the Bush tax cuts extended for those with incomes over $250,000.

And, of course the American people feel this way. They know what’s been happening over the last twenty years in this country.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, during the past 20 years, 56 percent of all income growth went to the top one percent of households. Even more unbelievable-a third of all income growth went to just the top tenth of one percent. The wealthy have done extremely well for themselves over the past twenty years. Unfortunately, this is while the middle class has done decidedly worse.

When you adjust for inflation, the median household income actually declined over the last decade. During those years, while the rich were getting richer, the rest of working America was struggling to keep up. We’ve been growing apart. And the American people know this. And now, working Americans are forced to listen to the Republicans as they demand “Everyone needs to share the pain. We’re all in this together.”

The IRS published a study analyzing the tax returns of the wealthiest 400 Americans. Together, in 2007, they brought in nearly $138 billion dollars. Want to take a guess at what their average effective tax rate was? Just over 16 and a half percent. Is that really sharing the pain? Are they really sharing in the pain just like everybody else?
Continue reading »

 Posted by at 12:38 am

Happy Thanksgiving

 Cartoons, Economy, Republicans, Taxes  Comments Off
Nov 252010
 

The GOP: Gobbling up our blessings

Thanksgiving may be a time to give thanks for our blessings, but in Washington, the resurgent Republican conservatives want needy Americans to have fewer of them. The new Republicans have the same old leaders – and their passion hasn’t changed. It isn’t about offering a hand up to the afflicted – it’s about handouts to the connected.

In the lame-duck session now convened until the end of the year, Republicans have continued their strategy of obstruction – opposing the New START treaty, opposing repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” opposing consideration of immigration reform, opposing even passage of appropriations for the current year. Their passion is focused on getting one thing done. They will run through the wall to extend the extra tax cuts enjoyed by those, largely millionaires, earning more than $250,000 a year.

Forget about deficit reduction. According to Republicans, these tax cuts – costing an estimated $700 billion over the next decade – need not be balanced by spending cuts, or “paid for” in the Washington parlance.

At the same time, Republicans are willing to filibuster to block extension of unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed. They won’t sign on, they say, unless there are cuts in domestic spending to offset the extension. The basic support of the families of more than 3 million workers will begin to expire at the end of this month. So much for holiday cheer.

Washington Post

 Posted by at 12:05 am

Obama to GOP: How do you pay for tax cut extensions?

 Congress, Economy, Government, Republicans, Taxes  Comments Off
Nov 162010
 

When President Obama and the Republicans meet this week to discuss the George W. Bush tax cuts, he will have a question for them about extensions for the wealthy.

“If they feel very strongly about it, then I want to get a sense of how they intend to pay for it,” Obama told reporters yesterday as Air Force One made its way back from Asia.

Obama supports extending the tax cuts for the middle class, but raises a deficit objection for Americans who make more than $200,000 a year, and couples who make more than $250,000.

“I believe it is a mistake for us to borrow $700 billion to make tax cuts permanent for millionaires and billionaires,” Obama said. “It won’t significantly boost the economy, and it’s hugely expensive. So we can’t afford it.”

USA Today

 Posted by at 12:31 am

Obama: We Can’t Afford $700B For The Rich

 Economy, Presidency, Taxes, Video  Comments Off
Nov 072010
 

..at a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. We’d be digging ourselves into an even deeper fiscal hole and passing the burden on to our children.

I recognize that both parties are going to have to work together and compromise to get something done here. But I want to make my priorities clear from the start. One: middle class families need permanent tax relief. And two: I believe we can’t afford to borrow and spend another $700 billion on permanent tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

 Posted by at 10:42 am
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