NBC/WSJ poll: Nearly 60% approve of tax deal

Conservatives' Opposition To Tax Cut Compromise
In what may be a preview of the impending battles within the Republican Party during the next session of Congress, many influential Conservatives, for political, strategic, or self-interested reasons, voiced strong opposition against the Tax Relief Act, which passed with Bipartisan support in the Senate on Tuesday. Eighty-one Senators supported the measure while 19 opposed. The bill now must pass the House this week. On his Radio Show on Dec.10, Rush Limbaugh said he hoped the “deal fails...

Green Party asks that Democrats in US House vote NO on Obamas compromise tax package
From a Green Party of the United States Press Release, as circulate via e-mail by Howie Hawkins: Green Party of the United States https://www.gp.org For Immediate Release: Thursday, December 16, 2010 Obama’s Compromise tax package will blow up the Deficit, undermine Social Security, say Greens urging House Democrats to vote nay · Tax-cut deal with GOP seals Obama’s betrayal of working Americans who elected him, say Greens WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party Leaders urged House Dem...

Poll: Obama vs. Palin in 2012
Washington (CNN) - It's the most talked about of all the hypothetical 2012 presidential matchups: President Barack Obama vs. former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. And a new poll indicates that Obama leads the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee by 22 points. According to an NBC/Wall Street Journal survey released Wednesday, 55 percent say they would back Obama in a possible 2012 showdown, with 33 percent saying they would support Palin. Obama's advantage over Palin in the poll is larger than in o...

House approval of tax cut deal coming today
On the heels of Senate passage of the Bipartisan Tax Cut deal, the House is expected today to approve the package and send it straight to President Obama's desk. House Democrats will vote on an amendment which would return estate taxes to 2009 levels, but that amendment is expected to fail. In the House, Democratic leaders said they would bring the bill to the floor on Thursday along with an amendment to tax more estates at a higher rate. Democrats predicted privately that the amendment would b...

House will pass tax compromise today
Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Ore., just noted that the House is about to add $858 billion to the National Debt over the next two years, about $450 billion this year and next, as it readies its approval of the Obama/Republican Compromise on extending the Bush Tax Cuts for two years and Unemployment Insurance for one year. Payroll taxes -- the portion going to individuals -- will also be cut two percentage points next year. This is in effect a second stimulus, designed chiefly by Republicans, at almost...

So, we make another crappy "compromise" -- i.e., the tax package -- because, y'know, we HAVE to (wink, wink)
by Ken A sweeping tax package negotiated by the White House and GOP leaders sailed through the Senate on a 81-19 vote Wednesday and now awaits action by the House as early as Thursday. -- washingtonpost.com "Political News Alert" sent out today ("Senate passes tax package") Okay, it's not a done deal. As the second half of the head on the click-through story reports, "House Dems weigh amending Estate Tax." And the story notes: Despite the lopsided tally, many lawmakers were lukewarm about port...

No. No No No No No No No. NO!!!
Republican Indiana Governor and privatization enthusiast Mitch Daniels says he will decide this spring whether he'll run for president. "I think the decision has to come at the end of this General Assembly session, if not before. No later than that," said Daniels. "In fairness to people from all over the place - many of whom I've only read about before - who like this idea [of Daniels running for president], I owe them some kind of an answer."Indeed. And that answer should be NO! I've expressed ...

Obama's Botched Payroll Tax Cut - Now With Graphs!, by Bryan Caplan
Bob Murphy has taken the time and trouble to explain and graph my critique of Obama's Payroll Tax cut. Nice work, Bob! ...

Poll: Tax cut deal a positive for Obama in Pa.
A new poll out Thursday shows overwhelming support for the Tax Cut deal reached by President Obama and Senate Republicans among voters in the key presidential state of Pennsylvania.  A full 69 percent of voters there approve of the Compromise, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll, which also notes a slight uptick in Obama's approval numbers in the state.  Obama won Pennsylvania with 55 percent of the vote in 2008, but has seen his Ratings have fall sharply in the state over the past...

Obama's approval rating remains steady despite setbacks; party favors compromise with GOP: poll
Despite setbacks his party suffered after Midterm Elections and an overwhelming public feeling that The Economy is not recovering fast enough, a majority of Democrats remain optimistic with the job President Obama is doing, and the public's feelings about his performance have remained steady over the past year, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll.   Obama's job Approval Rating is at 45%, which is the lowest of his presidency, but only a three point drop since early January, accor...

Triple Taxation VS The FairTax
The other day I was driving to Chapel Hill and there had been an accident where a car had run a red signal light and hit several vehicles.  The accident had traffic in both directions backed up for a half mile or more.  I decided to turn down a side street to avoid the long wait, only to find that I ended up going in the wrong direction to get to my final destination at UNC Hospital. I took out my GPS and plotted my destination to get headed in the right direction. As I was sitting at ...

Failure
Barack Obama says his Presidency will fail if the tax Compromise fails. Let’s help him! Nancy Pelosi is having a hard time getting enough votes. The more Republicans we get to vote no, the harder a time Nancy Pelosi will have getting Democrats to make up the difference. Go here now and call your Congressman. Let him/her to oppose the tax compromise. ...

WashPost: Procrastination Economics
In the Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria criticises the latest tax Compromise for lacking a balanced, long-term solution to skyrocketing Deficits, deriding the current trend towards 'mañana economics', and compares it to China's investment in sustainable growth. This is the wrong time to raise taxes, say the politicians. The Economy is fragile, say the Economists. The recovery is halting, say the pundits. In a few years, they all affirm, we will need to get our fiscal house in order. Of course, ...

Bernie in the Limelight Again
Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s Junior Senator, has a knack for getting publicity for his left-wing views and for putting himself on the nightly news.   In the past, he has chartered busses to take seniors to Canada to take advantage of lower prescription drug prices - technically an illegal act.   He unabashedly calls himself a Socialist in a country where only a tiny minority identify as such.     In his latest stunt, he spoke for nine straight hours on ...

Bill McKibben: Everything Is Negotiable, Except With Nature: You Can't Bargain About Global Warming With Chemistry and Physics
Crossposted with TomDispatch.com. The UN’s big Climate Conference ended Saturday in Cancún, with claims of modest victory. "The UN climate talks are off the life-support machine," said Tim Gore of Oxfam. “Not as rancorous as last year’s train wreck in Copenhagen,” wrote the Guardian. Patricia Espinosa, the Mexican Foreign Minister who brokered the final Compromise, described it as "the best we could achieve at this point in a long process." The conference did in...

McConnell with tea party on budget
Trying to square himself with Tea Party Conservatives, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell put down a new marker in the year-end Budget fight Thursday: a one page, two month extension of the same stop-gap resolution that has kept the government on auto-pilot since Oct. 1. With the latest extension expiring Saturday, McConnell wants the Senate to just change the deadline to Feb. 18th –punting the fight into the new Congress and leaving agency spending frozen in place for what amounts t...

The Estate Tax Is All But Dead
The House battle over President Obama's tax deal with Republicans may hinge on a passionate fight between Democrats and Republicans over whether to preserve a small piece of the Estate Tax on inherited wealth. But for all the heat, the battle has for practical purposes been over for a long time. Even though Republicans warn that the tax will force families to sell their businesses and farms, and Democrats are venting about extending a costly Tax Break for the rich, the gap is almost invisibly s...

Scott Brown And Lisa Murkowski Back Standalone DADT Repeal Bill
Proponents of repealing the Military's ban on Openly Gay servicemembers have enough votes in the Senate to get it done this year. The only thing standing in the way of ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell now is time. Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is backing the standalone Don't Ask, Don't Tell bill in the Senate, his office confirms to TPM. So is Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). The pair join Republican Sens. Susan Collins (ME) and Olympia Snowe (ME) in publicly supporting the measure, giving it more than enou...

Republicans Save President's Goose By Saving Bush Tax Cuts
Congressional Republicans saved the presidency of Bill Clinton 15 years ago, and now may do the same thing for Barrack Obama. A major move in this direction was the overwhelming Senate vote yesterday passing last week's tax-cut Compromise between Obama and congressional Republicans. The Republicans in Congress have forced the post-2010-election president to endorse extending George W. Bush's Reagan-style Tax Cuts. A Bonus: Obama officials have adopted the Republican line that keeping the curren...

Liberal Dems threaten tax bill
House Democratic leaders hit a speed bump en route to passing President Barack Obama's tax deal Thursday amid rekindled liberal fury over giving breaks to the wealthiest Americans. Progressives were miffed that they would be forced to vote for the Senate passed bill - the underlying Legislation - if they wanted to vote for the Estate Tax alteration. It forced Democrats to pull the rule vote and move to restructure debate, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), a member of the Rules committee, said he ...

The Democrats aren't listening (and neither are the Republicans)
Posted by Guest Blogger Locutisprime. The Democrats aren't listening. The omnibus spending bill, which comprises 1924 pages, has billions and billions of dollars in Earmarks. Something that I for one thought the American People had discussed with Congress on November 2nd of this year. That's right. Fifty four Democrat senators are listed as having earmarks in this bill. But they are not the only culprits with a hearing Deficit. There are thirty three Republicans who apparently didn'...

McCain Blasts Omnibus Bill: "I'm Saying To All The Tea Partiers, Grab Your Pitchforks, Let's Stand up Against This, It Can Be St
McCain on Fox And Friends this morning thehill John McCain said that Tea Party Activists who helped the GOP make large inroads on Democrats are "enraged" about the $1.1 Trillion measure to fund the government that contains nearly $8 billion in Earmarks. "They gave us a second chance last November ... And if we Republicans allow this thing to go through, then I'm not sure they're going to give us another chance," McCain said during an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity. McCain's comments p...

McCain: Republicans could lose seats if omnibus passes
Republicans could relinquish a significant portion of the gains they made in the Midterm Elections if they "allow" the omnibus spending bill to pass, Sen. John McCain said Wednesday. The Arizona Republican said Tea Party Activists who helped the GOP make large inroads on Democrats are "enraged" about the $1.1 Trillion measure to fund the government that contains nearly $8 billion in Earmarks.  "They gave us a second chance last November. ... And if we Republicans allow this thing to go throu...

GOPer Gregg Hartley Plans to Stay at Cassidy
The top Republican Lobbyist at Cassidy & Associates has called off his job search and will remain with the firm. Not a Subscriber? To continue reading, sign up for a free trial. Ex-Rep. Russo, 12 Employees Out in Cassidy Shake-Up What’s at Stake for Lobbying Interests in Next Year’s Tax Fight? Speaker-designate John Boehner leaves a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference on Dec. 15. The House is expected to vote Dec. 16 on a Tax Cut extension passed by the Senate th...

Democrats Defeat Measure Preventing Dual Approps Roles
Speaker-designate John Boehner leaves a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference on Dec. 15. The House is expected to vote Dec. 16 on a Tax Cut extension passed by the Senate the previous day. Featuring more than 80 pages of analysis, this essential issue provides Election Results and detailed profiles of the new Members — giving you the insight you need on the new Congress before any other source....