Why can't President Obama just accept a "win win"

The Obama-George H.W. Bush Comparison
In today’s New York Times, Jon Meacham, who is writing a biography of former president George H.W. Bush, points out the historical parallels between Obama’s economic negotiations today and the ones that were going on in 1990: It was in 1990 that Mr. Bush broke one of the most celebrated promises in modern American politics —“Read my lips: no new taxes,” as he put it in 1988 — in order to control federal spending. In the same way that Mr. Obama struck his dea...

Friday Throwdown: Obama on taxes: Cave-in or compromise?
President Barack Obama this week announced a tax Compromise struck with GOP leaders in the Congress that would keep intact the Bush-era Tax Rates for two years at the same time Unemployment Benefits are extended by 13 months for long-term recipients. The deal left many in Obama’s party stunned. In a Caucus Thursday, Democrat members of the House voted not to take up the deal in its current form. U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano called it a ‘poor compromise,’ in an e-mail to supporter...

Democrats Reject Dear Leader's Tax Rate Compromise With GOP: Want To Raise Our Taxes
"That One" just got the finger from Bella Pelosi and the tax and spending Liberals in the House (AP). The House Democratic Caucus has voted to reject President Barack Obama's tax deal with Republicans in its current form. By voice vote, the Rank and File Democrats passed a resolution Thursday that said the tax package should not come to the floor of the House for consideration. Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Ore., introduced the resolution. Said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas: "If it's take it or leave it,...

"Supply-Side Economics: Tea Party Style"
Pro-Growth Liberal takes is puzzled by Michele Bachmann's complaint that extending Unemployment Insurance will increase the Deficit: Supply-side Economics: Tea Party Style: Andrew Leonard covers the opposition to the Obama-McConnell tax deal coming from Tea Party star Michele Bachmann. I’m tempted to say that her comments make me feel 30 years younger... After all, 30 years ago we were mocking supply-siders and their Laugher Curve. Andrew notes: And as for what the country can afford? Th...

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...

Larry Beinhart: WEIRD TAX MYTHS #2 - RECESSIONS, DEPRESSIONS & TAX POLICY
Our prevailing mythology is that Tax Cuts help The Economy. They stimulate it. They promote growth. They create jobs. The truth is that Tax Cuts cause crashes. Tax hikes end depressions and Recessions. Those are the broad strokes. They need some parameters and qualifications. In modern times - since the introduction of the Income Tax by Constitutional Amendment in 1913 - there have been three basic types of recession. 1. Post-war recessions come when war spending stops and the Workforce ...

Lanny Davis: President Obama's Profile in Courage on Tax Cuts
John F. Kennedy wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book in the 1950s titled Profiles in Courage. Bill Clinton in 1992 had an incident called his "Sister Souljah moment" -- a phrase that has become synonymous with the same definition of political courage used by then-Sen. Kennedy in his famous work: the willingness to stand up to your own base when you feel it is the right thing to do, even though it might be the hardest thing to do. On the merits, I strongly disagree with extension of any of the B...

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...

Obama and Bill Clinton to Meet
Bill Clinton in Manila last month. The latest on President Obama, the new Congress and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton is to meet on Friday with President Obama at the White House for a post-election conversation about moving the agenda forward in a new political environment, a senior Democrat told of the meeting said. The meeting will be the first between the two men since the Midterm Elections, when voter...

Roe: Tax deal will help small businesses create jobs
There's been a lot of Controversy this week regarding President Obama's decision to extend the Bush Tax Cuts. It's angered some Democrats and appeased some Republicans, but everyone seems to have an opinion -- including Rep. Phil Roe (TN). He published an op/ed in the Daily Caller today. Please see the following excerpt: This week, President Obama and Republican negotiators announced a deal that will extend all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for two years while also extending Unemployment benefit...

Misdirected Democratic wrath
I CAN'T say about the Rank and File, but I can say for certain the Democratic Twitterati are none too pleased with the president's agreement not to raise taxes on the moustache-twirling plutocrats. There is much teeth-pulling and gnashing of hair and whatnot about Mr Obama's lack of steel. I can't help finding this air of dispirit hovering over the left itself a bit dispiriting. Even if it would be wise in the long run, raising taxes on top earners can wait until The Economy's out of the woods. ...

Democrats defy Obama, oppose tax deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Angry Democrats in the House of Representatives defied President Barack Obama on Thursday and rejected a deal he struck with Republicans to extend low Tax Rates that are set to expire in three weeks. While unlikely on its own to derail the tax plan, the House Democrats' rebellion gives Obama another political Headache just over a month after he took a beating in mid-term Elections. In a raucous, closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, mutinous Democrats chanted "Just say no!...

Dems spending costs Americans retirement dreams
The Free Market has judged the policies of President Obama and Congress during the last two years, and the verdict is in: the Spending Spree from Democrat-dominated Washington has led to a dramatic decline in asset values and reduced Americans' Retirement Savings, analysts are telling WND. In short, the Deficit spending has dampened the American Dream and dealt American Citizens a bad hand. "Two years after the Financial Crisis, our economy is still wallowing in misery," James DiGeorgia, publi...

Senate sets up cloture vote for Monday on tax bill
Senate Democrats are moving ahead with a package to extend the Bush Tax Cuts for two years setting up a Cloture vote for 3 p.m. Monday.  A draft bill is still expected to be released soon with Senate Democrats ironing out the final details of the package, that extend the Bush-era Tax Cuts for two years and federal Unemployment Benefits for 13 months. The House has balked at the plan and said they will wait to see what the Senate does before determining whether they'll bring up the bill.  Hou...

The Coming Interest Rate Squeeze
By: James A. Bacon Jr. 12/09/10 5:12 PM Somebody please e-mail a copy of the McKinsey Global Institute's new report, "Farewell to Cheap Capital," to Paul Krugman and Ezra Klein. Krugman, a New York Times columnist, and Klein, a Washington Post blogger and cable TV talking head, are among the nation's more voluble Deficit deniers. Citing the currently low yields on U.S. Treasury securities as a sign of investor confidence in the nation's fiscal integrity, they argue that cranking up federal spen...

Republicans Slam DREAM Act for Including Immigrants With Criminal Records
In this Tuesday, May 25, 2010 photo, Activists from a group called the Student Immigrant Movement march from the Boston Statehouse en route to the office of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass. , to deliver 1,500 letters asking for his support for a federal Immigration law known as the DREAM Act. (AP) With the House cruising toward a vote on the DREAM Act as early as Wednesday night and the Senate on Thursday, Republicans are grousing about what they argue is a glaring Loophole that allows illegal imm...

In Dissing Unemployment Insurance Extension, Cavuto And Guest Ignore CBO Analysis Of Its Stimulative Effects
On the December 7, 2010 Your World, Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal spoke about the part of the Tax Cut deal that would extend jobless benefits for another 13 months. Neil Cavuto introduced him as "one of my favorite guests of allll time!" That was after a Fox News Alert announcing that the Labor Department had reported “a surge in job openings.” Cavuto framed the discussion by “asking, “Should Congress simply consider this” before it votes to extend unempl...

Lynnwood mayor vetoes two of council's tax increases
Lynnwood Mayor Don Gough has vetoed two tentative Tax Increases and outraged the City Council in the process. Gough took the action after a Wednesday night work session, during which the council was considering the city's Budget woes. Vetoed were an 11.5 percent property-tax increase and a 6 percent increase in the utility tax. Both were part of a package of Tax Increases tentatively approved by the City Council in late November. Final approval of the property- and utility-tax increases, in ad...

Schwarzenegger, leaders talk budget in late afternoon 'Big Five'
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger met with legislative leaders in a so-called "Big Five" meeting this afternoon, urging them to act on the package of Budget solutions he introduced as he called a special session earlier this week. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said after the meeting that while leaders will continue work to prepare for the Budget challenge in the new year, he does not expect any additional hearings or actions on the special-session proposal before Schwarzenegger leaves o...

Why Are U.S. Interest Rates Finally Going Up?
Ryan Avent: American Deficits: The deal, and the yields | The Economist: [Y]ields that rise because the government's solvency is in question are very different from yields that rise because the Private Sector is competing for the private savings government has lately gobbled up. Which kind of rise in yields are we seeing now?... Over the whole of the past week, yields have been generally flat, even as it became clear that a deal on the Bush Tax Cuts was likely. And most of the Budget impact in...

Democrats defy Obama, oppose tax deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Angry Democrats in the House of Representatives defied President Barack Obama on Thursday and rejected a deal he struck with Republicans to extend low Tax Rates that are set to expire in three weeks. While unlikely on its own to derail the tax plan, the House Democrats' rebellion gives Obama another political Headache just over a month after he took a beating in mid-term Elections. In a raucous, closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, mutinous Democrats chanted "Just say no!"...

President Obama Weighing Broad Overhaul for Income Tax
Source: NY Times 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 loop...

Tax Proposal Wins Norquist Seal of Approval
By Jonathan Weisman With so many Republicans signing Americans for Tax Reform’s “no new taxes” pledge, the judgment of ATR President Grover Norquist matters for the fate of the tax deal cut between Republican congressional leaders and President Barack Obama . And the judgment is, the deal does not raise taxes. “We’ve been supportive of it,” said Ryan Ellis , head of tax policy for Americans for Tax Reform. Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee, came out ag

Extension of Bush Tax Rates Likely to Pass, Democrats Hardest Hit
There's a lot of grumbling on the Hill from Democrats desperate to raise taxes on the most productive Americans in The Economy: Slowly, painfully and reluctantly, congressional Democrats are slogging their way toward acceptance of President Barack Obama's Tax Cut Compromise, which would let rich and poor Americans keep Bush-era tax cuts that were scheduled to expire this month. After Obama publicly defended the plan for a third day Wednesday, and Vice President Joe Biden met with Democratic law...

GOP hypocrisy in the lame duck Congress
Barring an emergency, Kirk would oppose passage of any major Legislation before the new Congress is seated. "There is something unseemly about defeated congressman and senators exercising any significant power," he said. Asked if he would oppose a lame-duck session even if the GOP leadership was pushing for one, Kirk said, "Yes." And now that Congress is considering an $850 billion Tax Cut package -- hardly just a "short-term continuing resolution" -- the same principle applies, right? Here's w...