Why didnt Barry just give Clinton the finger?

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 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...

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...

Last Word, I Hope
Most of the blogosphere continues to argue about the Tax Cut Compromise. I’ve said most of what I want to say, but most of the argument for me boils down to these points: One, the argument is that the Payroll Tax holiday is bad because if the lower Tax Rates became permanent they would eventually de-fund Social Security. I am skeptical the Republicans will be eager to extend the lower Payroll Tax rates this time next year, however, because - The Payroll Tax holiday doesn’t he...

Why The Tax Cut Deal Isnt Cutting It.
I want to be sold on this Tax Cut deal on the economics, but the more I look at it the less I’m impressed with it. According to Ezra Klein, the White House is circulating this diagram around the Hill.  James Kwak dissects this chart and the narrative that “Obama won” on this deal; I’ll do the same.  Let’s take the “What We Got” apart. …these looming tax hikes will hurt every family in America. During the 1990s, a Republican Congress enact...

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 ...

Federal deficits a top issue, solving the problem complicated
Unemployment and the federal Deficit are among the most important issues facing the nation, but most don't want to sacrifice to solve the problems, a majority of respondents said in a recent poll.  About 50 percent of people asked cited the high jobless rate, which stands at 9.8 percent, as the major issue while 25 percent said the federal Deficit and Government Spending is the most important issue, according to a Bloomberg News poll. Although deficits rank high, 51 percent said it's more im...

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...

Which Party Owns the Payroll Tax Break?
As David Frum wrote this morning, the GOP needs to reposition itself as the party of the Payroll Tax cut to prevent President Obama from running on that (popular) issue in 2012. Greg Sargent has recently come into possession of a White House slide which underscores why time may be running out for the GOP on this issue. The slide is being circulated to convince Democrats unhappy with the Tax Cut Compromise (Obama may consider them “sanctimonious”) that they in fact got the better en...

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 ...

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...

Suckers --- "The Republicans were more attracted to the payroll tax holiday"
We Didn't Think Of That by digby Dear God. Some of these people must be either criminally inept or crudely malevolent. There is no other choice: Q So the only reason that the Payroll Tax holiday will provide more stimulus is because it’s twice as large. Making Work Pay was capped. Why didn’t you preserve Making Work Pay? Is it because, as the President said some months ago, it’s just a kind of invisible Tax Cut and didn’t provide any political benefit for the White House? MR. SUMM

Bill Clinton's rebuke to Democrats: tax deal is 'best' Obama can get
In an impromptu news conference Friday at the White House, former President Clinton strongly endorsed President Obama’s Controversial tax-cut deal. House Democrats say Obama caved on tax-cut deal. Are they wrong? House Democrats block GOP-Obama tax deal. Is it dead? Bush Tax Cuts 101: Would extension boost the Economic Recovery? Mr. Clinton told reporters that, after reviewing the agreement the president reached with Republicans earlier this week, he felt it was “the best bipartis...

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...

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...

Trust
I basically agree with Ezra Klein's opinion that, liberal conventional wisdom notwithstanding, there's nothing magical about the way Social Security is funded that protects it. And I disagree with Charles Blahous (and Keith Hennessey) that there's any "phony Accounting" or "double counting" involved in the Payroll Tax holiday along with an equal transfer from general revenues to Social Security. Here's the case for it: The problem is not with the tax relief but with an accompanying accounting ...

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...

Lame Duck session cooking our goose with taxes
Media headlines are saying that Obama’s promoting the tax Compromise while Democrats are against it.  They are against giving business a Tax Break to encourage capital investment; providing working couples as much as $4,200 in extra cash in 2011 with a one-year Payroll-tax reduction. Democrats aren’t against the $900 billion that will add to the Deficit but the newly elected Republicans should be.  They’re selling out to funding ObamaCare for the next year with this b...

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 ...

Going To The Dogs
If Obama is letting Big Dog pinch hit, you know things are deadly serious. Bill Clinton spoke today in favor of the Obama tax deal, and if anybody can twist arms in favor of getting this thing done, it's him. I honestly didn't expect Obama to play the Clinton card, but it means he's 100% committed to getting this deal through Congress. Here's some of what the former President had to say: I have reviewed this agreement that the president reached with Republican leaders, and I want to make full di...

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...

Phineas Baxandall: In The Public Interest: Sunshine for Subsidies: Does 2010 Finally Mark the Rise of Public Scrutiny?
Although much has gone wrong during this year's wrangling over state and federal Budget Deficits, 2010 may go down as the year that America finally shined a light into the dark Budget corners where billions are spent on government Subsidies. At the state and federal level, spending on subsidies -- mostly through the tax code -- has outpaced The Economy for decades, partly because they are typically invisible during the Budget process. Most spending on subsidies takes place through the tax code...

Tax Cut Plan Draws Ire from Left and Right
(Credit: CBS) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday night unveiled the Legislation that would put into place President Obama's tentative Tax Cut deal with Republicans. Reid scheduled the first "test vote" on the bill for Monday afternoon, even as Grassroots organizers on the left and the right pressure Congress to oppose the deal. "This bill is not perfect, but it provides the economic boost middle-class families and small businesses in Nevada and across America need," Reid said in a...

Black Caucus opposes Obama's tax plan
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Friday announced that they are overwhelmingly opposed to the deal President Obama has struck with Republicans on extending the Bush-era Tax Cuts and are proposing their own alternative that essentially hews to a plan House Democrats passed this month. Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) was joined by CBC members Bobby Scott (D-Va.), Donald Payne (N.J.) and Donna Christensen (V.I.) in announcing the CBC's position on the pac...

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...