Last Word, I Hope

Obama: Tax Cut Deal Not Perfect, But Worth Passage (VIDEO)
Darlene Superville, Associated Press WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama calls his tax-cut agreement with Republicans far from perfect but a good deal overall for Americans, while acknowledging that many fellow Democrats aren't happy about what he negotiated with the GOP. Pressing for passage by year's end, he told lawmakers in his radio and Internet address Saturday that "our recovery will be strengthened or weakened based on the choice that now rests with Congress." The deal would extend for...

Obama takes credit for compromise (Politico)
President Barack Obama reprised his defense of his Tax Cut Compromise with Republicans in his weekly address on Saturday, arguing that the fate of Middle Class families — and the still-fragile Economic Recovery — is at stake as lawmakers consider the proposal. “The opportunity for families to send their kids to college hinges on this debate,” Obama said. “And our recovery will be strengthened or weakened based on the choice that now rests with Congress.” The...

Come Saturday Morning: Reasons to Fight the Obama/GOP Poor Tax
Why should we be melting down our phones telling our Senators and Congresscritters “Hell NO!” on this turkey? Let us count the reasons: - The poorer you are, the more of your disposable income you’re prone to spend. The richer you are, the more likely you are to sock it away somewhere. This is why a stimulus that mainly benefits the poor is far better for The Economy as a whole than one that mainly benefits the rich. Yet the Tax Cut framework actually forces poor people...

Obama defends tax cut deal in weekly address
Well, we all knew this was coming, right? Tax Cut deal! So we hammered out a deal that reflects ideas from both sides. It wasn’t easy, and it’s by no means perfect. And as with any Compromise, everybody had to live with elements they didn’t like. But this is a good deal for the American People. The vast majority of the tax cuts in this plan will help the Middle Class, including a new cut in Payroll taxes that will save the average family about $1,000. And as this plan is debat...

Obama: Letting Middle-Class Tax Cuts Lapse 'Unacceptable to Me'
With the clock ticking on Tax Increases unless Congress acts this month, President Obama insisted Saturday that his Compromise with Republicans is the best deal he could have gotten – and called on members of both political parties to "do the right thing" and pass Legislation keeping Federal Tax rates at the low levels they've been since 2001. "All told, this will not only directly help families and businesses," the president said in his weekly radio address. "By putting more money in peop...

Obama Urges Congress To Pass Tax Deal
President Barack Obama answers questions on his Compromise on Tax Cuts, Unemployment Insurance and jobs on Tuesday at the White House. (Chuck Kennedy / White House) (NewsCore) - President Barack Obama used his weekly address Saturday to urge Congress to pass the tax cut deal he negotiated with Republicans ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline and amid opposition from some of his most stalwart supporters. "We hammered out a deal that reflects ideas from both sides. It wasn't easy, and it's by no means perfe...

Bill Clinton's Take on Obama's Tax Deal
President Barack Obama looks on as former President Bill Clinton speaks in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Dec. 10, 2010. (Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) President Bill Clinton came to the White House briefing room yesterday in a rare, intriguing, shocking, and somewhat bizarre (for Washington) display of common sense. The former President was at the White House to meet with the current President, and their meeting turned into a 30-minute discourse on econo...

Tax Cut Negotiations Continue, Udall Stands Firm
[E]ight Democrats including Ohio's Sherrod Brown wrote to Majority Leader Harry Reid to propose capping the Tax Breaks for incomes over $1 million. People making more than that would go back to Clinton-era Tax Rates. The savings should be used to shore up Social Security, Brown and the others wrote. [Pols emphasis] Class warfare? Not at all, these Democrats say. "Success in America should rightly be celebrated, but the very wealthy do not need Bonus Tax Cuts and America cannot afford to give ...

Pimco Raises Economic Outlook Based on Tax Cut Compromise Deal
If the tax deal reached between congressional Republicans and President Barack Obama is ratified, it most certainly will add to the ballooning Budget Deficit, but according to Pimco, the stimulative measure will contribute much to Economic Growth. On Monday, President Obama unveiled a Compromise deal that would extend all Bush-era Tax Cuts for two years, as well as extend Unemployment compensation for the long-term jobless, and reduce social security Payroll taxes for 2011 by 2 percentage poin...

Obama: Tax deal 'by no means perfect'
President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, Dec. 8, 2010. UPI/Dennis Brack/POOL WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday urged Congress to adopt the Compromise tax plan he reached with Republicans, even though it is "by no means perfect." In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president said if Congress doesn't act on extending Tax Rates enacted early in the administration of former President George W. Bush, "tax rates will automatically go up for jus...

Eugene Robinson - Democrats have no choice but to accept an irresponsible tax deal
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. This Story Swindle of the year Democrats have no choice but to accept an...

Obama: Tax cut deal worth passage, not perfect
Stumble This! President Barack Obama calls his tax-cut agreement with Republicans far from perfect but a good deal overall for Americans, while acknowledging that many fellow Democrats aren't happy about what he negotiated with the GOP. Pressing for passage by year's end, he told lawmakers in his radio and Internet address Saturday that "our recovery will be strengthened or weakened based on the choice that now rests with Congress." The deal would extend for all earners cuts in Income Tax rates...

Low Taxes Are the Problem, Not the Solution
Sen. Bernard Sanders speaks against Tax Cuts on the floor of the Senate on Friday. “Every Economist that I’ve talked to … acknowledges that this [tax] agreement would boost Economic Growth in the coming years and has the potential to create millions of jobs,” President Barack Obama said this week. But if low taxes are the solution, this must mean that high taxes are the problem. Yet the Bush Tax Cuts are already in effect; taxes are therefore low already, and the unemplo...

Obama: Tax cut deal not perfect, but worth passage
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama calls his tax-cut agreement with Republicans far from perfect but a good deal overall for Americans, while acknowledging that many fellow Democrats aren’t happy about what he negotiated with the GOP. Pressing for passage by year’s end, he told lawmakers in his radio and Internet address Saturday that "our recovery will be strengthened or weakened based on the choice that now rests with Congress." The deal would extend for all earners cuts in...

Charles Krauthammer Is the Fraud
Charles Krauthammer says that Obama has conned Republicans into agreeing to a second stimulus even bigger than the first. Democrats are too stupid to see this (and Republicans are even more stupid, presumably, since they are the Victims). Barack Obama won the great tax-cut showdown of 2010 - and House Democrats don't have a clue that he did. In the deal struck this week, the president negotiated the biggest stimulus in American history, larger than his $814 billion 2009 stimulus package. It wi...

Conrad says tax bill will pass, seeks changes to estate tax
Congress will approve Bipartisan tax Legislation brokered by the White House and Senate Republicans with few if any changes, lawmakers said Friday.  Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee in the 112th Congress, and Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) agreed that the plan will go forward although Conrad is keen to see the House adjust the Estate Tax rate.  "I hope the Estate Tax provisions are changed, because they went too far on Estate Tax relie...

A Born Again Bush Booster and the Stealth Stimulus
Don't be fooled as the Democratic Progressives race the Republican Progressives to the microphones complaining they were rolled in Mr. Obama's Great Compromise. What they're really arguing about is how much of the money we earn they can afford to let us keep. President Barak Obama faced the nation as a Born Again Bush Booster as he reversed years of personal commitment and regurgitated Rhetoric presenting the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts as his plan for recovery. Lurking beneath the uber part...

Klein: Time for tax reform?
That's the word out of the White House. It's also what the Deficit commission recommended, and the incoming chairman of the Ways and Means Committee is talking it up, too. But if you really want to see why we might have a Tax Reform fight next year, look at what we're doing to the tax code. The $858 billion deal Republicans and Democrats are kicking around extends the Bush Tax Rates -- which are already far beneath what's needed to fund the government we've chosen to have -- and adds a furthe...

Obama calls in Clinton to help with tax fight
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday called on a battle-scarred dealmaker, former President Bill Clinton, to help convince reluctant Democrats to back a Compromise tax plan before rates rise for most Americans in January. As Democrats in the House of Representatives sought to toughen provisions targeted at the wealthiest, Clinton urged them to pass the plan in its current form before they hand over control of the chamber to Republicans next month. "This is a much, much better...

Something very, very weird is going on in Washington *UPDATED*
Are the wheels coming off the bus, or are we witnessing the most brilliant, and dangerous, political theater in our life times? Here’s what it looked like a few days ago:  the President caved on maintaining the current Tax Rate, leaving Republicans triumphant.  In exchange, it seemed as if the Republicans were extending Unemployment Benefits, which is fiscally offensive (and socially dangerous), but survivable.  The President foll0wed that cave-in by holding a bizarre press ...

The Obama Tax Deal: Giving the Hostage Takers More Hostages
As readers of this blog know, I was originally willing to support the package that President Obama negotiated with the Republicans. While I am not happy about giving Tax Breaks to rich people, President Obama extracted more concessions from the Republicans than I had expected in the form of extending Unemployment Insurance benefits, an expanded earned income Tax Credit, and most importantly a substantial reduction in the Payroll Tax. However, after further thought and conversations with peopl...

Robert Reich: Why Bill Clinton's Favorable View of Obama's Tax Deal Should Be Disregarded
Bill Clinton seems the perfect validator for Barack Obama -- which is why the president is utilizing the former president for selling his tax deal. After all, The Economy boomed when Clinton was president and 22 million net new jobs were created. From a more narrow political perspective -- and this is important to Democrats in Washington -- Bill Clinton was reelected, even though he lost both houses of Congress in the 1994 midterms. But the analogy falls apart as soon as you realize Clinton's ...

The Benefits of a Flat Tax
There is currently a debate on Capital Hill about whether or not to extend the Bush Tax Cuts. It is a measure that the Republicans to support in full by extending it to all income levels, where as most Democrats want to extend it only for the first $250,000 of income. President Obama recently agreed to a Compromise with the Republicans, which includes extending Unemployment Benefits. Although the president cited Economists who believed the tax cuts would benefit The Economy, the tax cuts are not...

Obama gets Social Security facts wrong
Here's a book that needs to be on President Obama's immediate reading list: Nancy Altman's excellent The Battle for Social Security: From FDR's Vision To Bush's Gamble. In it, Altman dispels the kind of Zombie Social Security lies that have been showing up in President Obama's talking points. Dan Froomkin has the details on how he got its history wrong. At the Press Conference (see the transcript), Obama defended his Controversial decision to give in to Republican demands for a massive Tax Cut ...

Guest Post: White House, Republicans Offer Bloggers $100K Each in Compromise Deal
White House, Republicans Offer Bloggers $100K Each in Compromise Deal A little-known program to aid The Economy by distributing money to bloggers is gathering support in the White House and Congress. In the bruising fight to see which party can give away more borrowed money, Republicans and the Obama Administration hammered out a compromise on the White House plan to pay "qualified" bloggers $100 per post, up to $100,000 each. The Obama Administration had originally included income limits in i...