Obama comment sparks liberal group launch of Hostage Prevention Initiative (Daily Caller)

Obama comment sparks liberal group launch of Hostage Prevention Initiative
Matthew Boyle is a contributing reporter at The Daily Caller. The Coalition’s president, Deborah Weinstein, told The Daily Caller the initiative is meant to push politicians to help out lower-income people around the country instead of cutting taxes for upper-income people. “We are urging people to sign up if they are sick and tired of this kind of deal putting on the backs of unemployed people and working people,” Weinstein said. “The unemployed were held hostage to the ...

Senate reworks tax bill; House defies president
WASHINGTON — The Senate opened debate late Thursday on a reworked tax package that would add incentives for Renewable Energy, which many Democrats have demanded, but leave intact the core elements of a deal negotiated by the Obama Administration and Republicans. As the Senate steamed toward a Monday vote on the package, House Democrats were in open revolt. Amid chants of "Just say no," they agreed overwhelmingly during a private meeting Thursday to block the measure from going to the Hou...

Tax cut highlights
_ Extends, for two years, lower Tax Rates for Taxpayers at every income level, lower taxes on capital gains and dividends, marriage penalty relief, more generous child Tax Credits and education tax credits. Cost: $408 billion. _ A patch that would spare more than 20 million people from a significant Tax Increase from the alternative minimum tax in 2010 and 2011. Cost: $137 billion. _ A lower tax on wealthy estates for two years. Under the provision, the first $5 million of a couple's estate co...

President Obama blinked
Are we being led by a brilliant incompetent? …or is our President being advised by foxes in the hen house.  President Obama has  a solid record of drawing a line in the sand only to scuff it away before the opposition can make him blink. It is a record of political weakness that continuously undermines the Democratic Base. Most recently, President Obama started out speaking strongly in favor of economic stimulus and finished by freezing the wages and benefits of federal workers, ...

Obama Weighing Broad Overhaul for Income Tax
President Obama is considering whether to push early next year for an overhaul of the Income Tax code to lower rates and raise revenues in what would be his first major effort to begin addressing the long-term growth of the National Debt. While administration officials cautioned on Thursday that no decisions have been made and that any debate in Congress could take years, Mr. Obama has directed his economic team and Treasury Department analysts to review options for closing Loopholes and simplif...

Guest Post: The Blame Game: The White House vs. House Democrats
Today's guest post comes from none other than Big Brother All-My-Tee himself, Rippa, who blogs at The Intersection of Madness & Reality. Rippa's known around the blogosphere for stirring up a good debate so drop your 2 cents in the comments below as we discuss the latest debacle between the White House and the Democrats: So now everyone has taken lead from Obama's recent Press Conference chastisement of his fellow republi... oops, I mean democrats, Liberals, and or Progressives alike. Yes, w...

Items added to tax cut bill to draw support
WASHINGTON — As Democrats in Congress battled in public over a proposal to extend Bush-era Income Tax cuts, a group of Democratic lawmakers are pushing to make subtle changes to help sweeten the pot. The agreement worked out between President Obama and Republican lawmakers would extend the expiring cuts for all Taxpayers for two years, continue jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and cut Social Security Payroll taxes next year. Many Democrats have balked at the Compromise, particu...

No decision yet on U.S. ethanol subsidy rate: Senator Conrad
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Kent Conrad said on Wednesday lawmakers have not yet reached a decision on the Ethanol subsidy rate that expires at the end of December. Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said Ethanol was "in a separate section of things to be resolved." Conrad said he discussed Ethanol supports with other Democratic senators, who met in private to discuss estate and Income Tax rates. The 45-cent a gallon Excise Tax credit for Ethanol is scheduled to expire on Dec 31. S...

Democrat Lawmaker Says " f--- the president As Anger Spills Over in House Democrat Caucus Meeting
Profanity, Anger Spill Over in House Democratic Caucus Meeting By Anna Palmer Roll Call Staff The frustration with President Barack Obama over his Tax Cut Compromise was palpable and even profane at Thursday’s House Democratic Caucus meeting. One unidentified lawmaker went so far as to mutter “f--- the president” while Rep. Shelley Berkley was defending the package the president negotiated with Republicans. Berkley confirmed the incident, although she declined to name the specific lawma

Let the tax cuts go and you actually stick it to the top for real.
By: Daniel Becker (DOLB) On Countdown (12/9/10), Keith had on Thomas Buffenbarger, president of the International Machinist Union. It was a chance for an “I told you so moment”in that Mr. Buffenbarger noted while campaigning for Secretary Clinton that President Obama would not be a fighter. Go watch the episode. I made my position on of Obama clear after the 60 Minutes interview. Mr. Buffenbarger's comments only reinforces my position as to understanding President Obama as does Oba...

Great News: Potential Obama Primary Challenger Steps Forward
The man we've all been waiting for.Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel is contemplating a primary challenge to President Obama. Gravel, who ran for president in 2008, won't rule out a primary challenge to Obama in 2012. "Both are possible," he told the Daily Caller. Obama has been taking heat recently from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which was angered by his Compromise with the GOP over extensions of the Bush-era Tax Rates for top income earners. While Gravel mulls his challenge, he ...

Oh, Christmas Tree! Tax deal larded up with TARP special interest provisions
Remember all of those special interest Tax Breaks in the 2008 TARP bill? - Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502) - Wooden Arrows designed for use by Children (Sec. 503) - American Samoa (Sec. 309) - Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310) - Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311) - Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312) - Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315) - Railroads (Sec. 316) - District of Columbia (Sec. 322) - Wool Research (Sec. 325) Many of them are back. Although I'm not sure yet whether ...

Tax fight puts Schumer at odds with Obama
President Obama is getting along better than ever with Capitol Hill Republicans. But his relationship with Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer has hit a rough patch. This Story House Democrats vow to block tax measure Tax fight puts Schumer at odds with Obama Max Baucus, the Democrats' dud Poll: What's the greatest benefit for Obama's in supporting the extension of Bush Tax Cuts? Graphic: What the tax extension means for you Summers Says Economy Worse Off Without Tax Compromise View All Items ...

Paul Krugman: Obamas Hostage Deal
Obama needs to understand that "concerns about the tax deal reflect realism, not purism": Obama’s Hostage Deal, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: I’ve spent the past couple of days trying to make my peace with the Obama-McConnell tax-cut deal. President Obama did, after all, extract more concessions than most of us expected. Yet I remain deeply uneasy... Obama has bought the release of some hostages only by providing the G.O.P. with new hostages. About the deal: Republicans ...

How the World Works: The economics of tax-cut fear-mongering
Despite a full-court press from the White House warning that the U.S. might slip into a "double-dip" Recession if congressional Democrats reject Obama's tax-cut deal, the House Democratic Caucus voted against bringing the package up for a vote on Thursday morning. Judging the significance of the vote is tricky. According to ABC's Rick Klein, the mastermind of the maneuver, Rep. Peter Defazio, D.-Ore., the vote rejecting the deal "was nearly unanimous." Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared ...

On the OReilly Factor: The Left Versus The American People
Not that we really needed more demonstrations of the Left’s arrogant disdain for the American People, but we keep getting them. The Left has turned viciously on their erstwhile champion Barack Obama. Though kicking and screaming, Obama finally did something that the American people - but not his Leftist base - approved of. He agreed to a two-year extension of the current Income Tax rates for everyone and concessions on the death tax as part of a Compromise package  that exte...

Progressives Keeping Heat on Obama
One progressive group sure doesn’t mind using President Obama’s words against him. In a new television advertisement, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is using a Speech Mr. Obama gave on the stump in 2008 to criticize the recent Compromise over the Bush Tax Cuts. In the spot, Mr. Obama calls out Senator John McCain, the Republican Candidate for president in 2008, for supporting tax cuts for the wealthy after previously opposing them. “Well, they may have stopped offending John

Senate Drops Two Liberal Priorities
A pair of liberal priorities were set aside in the Senate on Thursday, where Members voted against bringing to the floor a health bill for 9/11 workers and an Immigration Bill similar to one that passed the House late Wednesday night. The Senate voted 59-40 to table the DREAM Act. The bill would give a path to Citizenship to up to 2 million College Students and Soldiers who were brought to the United States illegally as Children. House Democrats scored a legislative win Wednesday night in passin...

The rich can afford it; can we?
Few displays of phony generosity and bogus earnestness are more irritating than watching a stinking rich tycoon advocating that others shell out more in taxes. "People at the high end, people like myself, should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it," explained Warren Buffett, who must be aware that "people like him" number somewhere in the low single digits. But, please, go for it, Mojambo. Hand it over if you're feeling compelled. And if your "please-tax-me- m...

John Thune: Better Tax Cut Deal For Republicans 'Not Likely To Happen' (VIDEO)
South Dakota Senator and potential Presidential Candidate John Thune suggested Wednesday that his fellow conservative heavyweights Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sarah Palin shouldn't expect to be able to craft better Tax Cut bargain for the GOP considering the current Makeup of Congress and the White House. DeMint and Palin have both announced their opposition to the current deal as drawn out by Obama this week, because they believe the minimal increases to the death tax and the two-year extens...

The Eerily Prescient Mr. Brooks
The NY Times is now front-paging the notion that David Brooks floated (as a trial balloon on behalf of the White House?) last week - Obama is considering a re-branding as a champion of tax simplification and reform. I thought, and think, that the idea is absurd, as explained in my earlier post.  Still, here was Brooks imagining a bold declaration from Obama: We will extend the Bush rates for everybody for one year, along with Unemployment Benefits. But during that year we will enact a co...

Howard Fineman Tells Olbermann: Angry Democrats Not Only Said F the President, But Also No F-ing Way, He F-ed It Up
According to Howard Fineman, appearing on MSNBC’s “Countdown,” that was not the sole F-word expressed in disgust for the President at this contentious gathering . Keith Olbermann, HOST: In Nancy Pelosi’s last month as Speaker, and the last month of Democrat control of the House of Representatives, Democrats stood up against Republicans and against the President. Our fifth story tonight, after a rowdy, dramatic, closed door meeting of House Democrats in almost total unison on this i

Dems play fiscal chicken
The behavior of Liberal Democrats in the U.S. House is, well, nothing short of astonishing. Yesterday they were in full-throated revolt against the Tax Cut Compromise crafted by a Democratic president. Barack Obama, whose political survival instincts seem to be intact, agreed to a two-year extension of all the Bush era tax cuts, a reasonable extension of the Estate Tax that exempts estates under the $5 million mark, getting in return a 13-month extension on Unemployment Benefits and a cut i...

Renewable energy industry banking on more grants
WASHINGTON—Officials in the wind industry say that a hard-fought extension of a cash grant program for Renewable Energy will be a lifeline for domestic producers, saving tens of thousands of jobs. "Factories across the country will restart production lines, recall workers and avoid layoffs that would have followed the loss of this key incentive for Wind Energy, which with consistent policies like this one can generate 20 percent of America's electricity within 20 years," Denise Bode, CEO ...

Slim Majority of Americans Would Vote for DREAM Act Law
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans are more likely to say they would vote for than against a law that would grant legal status to Illegal Immigrants brought to the United States as Children if they join the Military or attend college. This is the major thrust of the DREAM Act Legislation Congress is now considering to provide a path to Citizenship for thousands of young adults living in the United States illegally. The DREAM Act, whose formal name is the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Mino...