With a torpid job market and a fragile economy threatening his re-election chances, President Obama is changing the subject to tax fairness, calling for a one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for people making less than $250,000. Mr. Obama plans to make his announcement at the White House on Monday, senior administration officials said. The ceremony comes as Congress returns from its Independence Day recess, and as both parties and their presidential candidates head into the rest of the summer trying to seize the upper hand in a campaign that has been closely matched and stubbornly static. – Obama Poised for New Fight With G.O.P. Over Tax Cuts
official campaign photo
IN AN EAST ROOM kick off (live streaming here), the argument Pres. Obama should have made before the 2010 midterms is going to officially be announced as the economic foundation of his reelection campaign, in the hopes it will further define Mitt Romney as being a candidate protecting the rich.
What should be done, if our politicians had any priorities beyond the next election, is for all the Bust tax cuts to expire, including for the middle class. What that would do for the economy would be serious, the impact once the revenue started rolling offering a true down payment on Washington’s red ink.
However, the way today’s politicians continue to forward the same old politics as usual won’t allow for Pres. Obama to make that case, because Obama nor Romney or anyone else can say or make the case required: “We’re all in this together and the most important thing we can do, so we don’t have to tinker with entitlements that keep the elderly out of poverty, is for everyone to pitch in and pay their fair share.”
The days of Democrats being as bold as F.D.R. are over. That’s not exactly news, though, is it?
Democrats also joined Republicans to cut food stamps, so the F.D.R. ship has long sailed.
Unbelievably, Pres. Obama will likely get credit for taking a “risk” in an election year for this Bush tax cut measure. It’s truly astounding the smallness of “solutions” we’re being sold. I’d also say that people or families with a net income of $250,000 isn’t necessarily “rich,” especially if you’re trying to put your children through college, but that would fall on deaf ears too.
Today on CBS “This Morning,” Ed Rendell made that point, while also proposing the $1 million limit, because it sounds better than $250,000.
Between Pres. Obama not making the argument in 2010 he’s going to make this election cycle, due solely because his own political posterior is on the line, coupled with making everything about what’s politically marketable, is the reason we’re in the mess we’re in. Oh, I understand it all too well, because as a political analyst I know all about “framing” and “marketing the message,” as well as squeezing Republicans who have so lost their way they can’t even do basic economics, which former Reagan man Bruce Bartlett regularly reveals.
Our politics is now solely about salesmanship, not leadership.
Jeb Bartlett is nowhere in sight. Politicians are only about keeping their jobs, instead of doing their jobs.
Principle and sacrifice are antiquated notions, solidified after 9/11 when Pres. George W. Bush played cheerleader and asked the nation to go shop.
Well, there he goes again. Thank you Taylor for reminding us what a Democrat is/was/can be. There is no proof that these tax cuts work. Why continue pursuing bankrupt tax policies? Also, easy monetary policy is no longer effective; actually, it is counterproductive. Near zero interest rates are penalizing savers and reducing disposable income in the economy. All that is left is embracing a proactive fiscal policy of direct spending by the federal government to be paid for with higher taxes and deficit spending until our GDP growth rate can reach a sustainable escape velocity 3.5% – 4%. Only then can we revive the middle class and once again balance our budget and pay down out debt.
I liked the quotes you left here the other day. They really illustrate the difference between progressive politics of a generation ago and today. That anyone would even consider Obama’s tax proposal a “risk”, even assuming he were serious about it, demonstrates just how far our expectations of our leaders have sunk.
Why, thank you, Cujo. I can’t help myself, I’m just a liberal who believes in citizenship, democracy, and justice. Our country, this government, has one last chance to be of the people, by the people, and for the people. And, we’re burning daylight.
Call me crazy.
If it didn’t work for the 2010 mid-terms, why would it work in 2012?
In a country where the median income is an eighth of that (and hasn’t risen in three decades), and where many folks hate public employees unions for still having pensions, that will almost certainly fall on deaf ears.
Obama should have learned by now not to start fights that he cannot end. If he has to negotiate no matter what he says or swears he will cave, even if he has to do nothing.
So Pres. Obama is drawing another of his lines in the sand. And of all things the Bush tax cuts.
Why do I hear that little Yogi voice saying, “It’s deja vu all over again?” Also, if I’m not mistaken, an income of $250,000 per year puts one in the top 3% of earners. To declare this amount as “middle class” is highly inaccurate.