Can the White House win in 2012 by losing on the Bush tax cuts now?

White House Defends Lopsided Unemployment-For-Tax-Cuts Deal
WASHINGTON -- The White House hatched a deal with congressional Republicans Monday to reauthorize rich people's Tax Cuts for two years in exchange for just 13 months of extended Unemployment Insurance and other Tax Breaks. Some people wondered why the White House wouldn't demand the same length of time for Unemployment and tax cuts. During a Conference Call with reporters on Monday evening, a senior administration official said a 13-month reauthorization would be the longest-ever extension of...

Tax cut deal and surprise stimulus - the cost
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Compromise on the Bush Tax Cuts announced Monday night between President Obama and Republicans could cost between $700 billion and $800 billion if ultimately signed into law as is -- no sure thing given opposition from many Democrats. About half of the measures in the announced package might be considered new short-term stimulus, meaning they may add to the Deficits for two more years, but could help maintain the Economic Recovery and help spur economic activity a...

Obama pitches White House-GOP deal on wealthy tax cuts and jobless benefits
In what may be a hard sell for many Democrats in the House and the Senate, President Barack Obama on Monday evening discussed the White House-brokered deal with the Republican leadership of the Senate to extend by 13 months Unemployment Benefits for up to the 99 week maximum, though at the cost of conceding to the GOP on their desire for Deficit-increasing Tax Cuts for the wealthiest of Americans.  For the video of the President’s remarks, please click on the link at the left of the p...

Rev. Jesse Jackson: Money GOP wants for rich should be spent on the needy
People are suffering. More than 20 million are looking for full-time work. More than 40 million are in Poverty, the highest levels since the Census Bureau started keeping figures. More than 50 million are without health coverage. More than 40 million are on food stamps, the highest ever. About 1 million will lose their homes to Foreclosure in 2010. We lost 13,000 Manufacturing jobs last month, and the decline of wages and benefits for Working Families continues. Meanwhile, inequality is at rec...

Obama Paper Tiger?
Excerpt from Jennifer Rubin of WAPO Obama sells out the left: a Republican win on taxes As they’ve (Republicans) been demanding, all of the Bush Tax Cuts are extended for two years. The Estate Tax that was due to pop back up to a rate of 55 percent was retained, but with a $5 million exemption and at a rate of 35 percent (better than Republicans privately expected). For that huge concession, the president extracted… a 13 month extension in Unemployment Benefits. Now it’s true...

Ezra Klein: Can White House win in 2012 by losing on tax cuts now?
The Compromise the White House is negotiating on the Bush Tax Cut is looking more and more like the White House's opening gambit in the 2012 Campaign. The White House has stopped negotiating for ideal -- or even acceptable -- tax policy and moved to negotiating stimulus policy. The Bush tax cuts will pump about $100 billion into The Economy over the next two years. They're not the most stimulative way to spend $100 billion, but they're more stimulative than not spending it, or than raising ta...

5 Ways to Look at Obama's Grand Bargain
The White House tax Compromise is huge: a two-year extension of the Bush-era rates plus $56 billion in Unemployment Insurance extensions, $120 billion in Payroll Tax cuts, $40 billion in Tax Credits for lower-income families and Students; and new incentives for business to buy capital goods next year. It mixes orthodox Republican policy with progressive stimulus into a stew that political observers have called noxious, pathetic, shrewd, irresponsible and shocking. I'm somewhere between shrewd, i...

What tax deal could mean for you
The White House is working to get Democrats to support a last-minute deal on taxes that President Barack Obama hammered out with Republican leaders. The Compromise would extend the Bush-era Tax Cuts for two more years, keeping Income Tax rates at their current levels for everyone, as Republicans insisted. Obama and other Democrats wanted Tax Rates to rise only for individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and for families making $250,000 or more a year. Payroll taxes - Wage earners wil...

Senate Democrats criticize tax deal - Manu Raju
Several Senate Democrats on Tuesday morning criticized the White House and Republican tax deal, saying that President Barack Obama gave up too much to a recalcitrant opposition party. The initial pushback suggests that the White House will have to woo a handful of reluctant Senate Democrats to back the wide-ranging Compromise in order to get the measure over the finish line before the Tax Cuts expire at year’s end. And as Republicans are poised to gain new power in the House and Senate ...

Republians declare victory on tax cuts for wealthy with broken promise to reduce deficit
Obama Compromises with Republicans on Bush Tax Cuts, which will grow the federal Deficit. Republican lawmakers broke their campaign promise to balance the Budget on Monday after succeeding in striking a deal with President Obama on tax cuts for the wealthy. The compromise will put an extra $104,000 into the pockets of Millionaires and add $800 billion to the deficit, according to reports. The compromise deal also included an extension of Unemployment Benefits for 13 months and a 2% reduction in ...

Jared Bernstein: A Plan Comes Into Focus and It's All About Jobs
As you probably know by now, a framework is emerging from the negotiations between the administration and the Congress on what to do about the expiring Bush Tax Cuts. As this plan takes shape -- and I'll be the first to admit there's stuff to like and dislike about it -- one thing is clear: it's a much stronger plan on our number one priority -- JOBS -- than anyone expected. Our administration and our friends in Congress fought hard to block the two-year extension of tax cuts for the top 2% of...

Podesta Sleepless
CAP topper/liberal icon blesses tax pact — but worries about the future. Progressives need to be clear and honest about what just happened on taxes and The Economy. Since the Midterm Election, it has been clear that the Congressional Republican Leadership was perfectly prepared to see middle and Working Class Tax Cuts expire and extended Unemployment Insurance end unless Millionaire Tax Cuts were extended. All the talk about decoupling and extending Middle Class Tax Cuts from the cuts for ...

The Tea Party's uneasy truce | Alex Slater
The Tea Party movement has described itself as 'an insurgent campaign' against the government's tax and spending policies. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA/Corbis Where is the Tea Party? That is the question that's beginning to permeate the political landscape in Washington in these waning days of the 111th Congress. And it's a fair question. After all, the Tea Party billed itself as a permanent movement, an unstoppable force, a new coalition that was here to stay. And let's not kid ourselve...

Obama extends Bush tax cuts
Provide feedback to the multimedia producers. Thank you. Your feedback was successfully sent. Video will begin in 5 seconds. What type of connection do you have? Your video format settings have been saved. US President Barack Obama says he reached an agreement with Republicans to extend all Bush-era Tax Cuts for two years. WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama's liberal supporters are furious, but his willingness to extend all of the George W. Bush-era Tax Cuts is part of what White House officials...

This pact may spell 1 & done for prez
Charles Hurt - Inside Washington WASHINGTON -- President Obama made the first decision of his 2012 re-election bid yesterday, but may have done himself irreparable political harm. His decision to swallow the Bush Tax Cuts for people earning more than $250,000 a year was a giant leap toward the middle. After the years of bashing former President Bush's economic policies -- and specifically the Tax Cuts for the upper income brackets -- yesterday's decision could not have been easy for Obama. ...

Senate Democrats line up to oppose Obama tax deal
Source: Politico Several Senate Democrats on Tuesday morning criticized the White House and Republican tax deal, saying that President Barack Obama gave up too much to a recalcitrant opposition party. The initial pushback suggests that the White House will have to woo a handful of reluctant Senate Democrats to back the wide-ranging Compromise in order to get the measure over the finish line before the Tax Cuts expire at year’s end. And as Republicans are poised to gain new power in the House an...

Questions for Biden: Why a tax-cut deal?
Senate Democrats will get their first crack at questioning the Obama Administration Tuesday about its tax-cut deal with Republicans – and it won’t be pretty. Vice President Joe Biden, who has been a key player in weeks of private negotiations, will attend the Senate Democrats’ weekly luncheon to sell the deal. The reaction from senators as they leave will provide strong clues as to whether the administration’s deal is dead on arrival or stands a chance. Continue Readi...

Economic Outlook: The long and the short
Published: Dec. 7, 2010 at 10:03 AM U.S. President Barack Obama announces a bi-partisan deal to extend expiring Tax Cuts for two years and to extend Unemployment Benefits in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House in Washington on December 6, 2010. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg Everything but a pink slip in Washington comes with the endearing tag line that it will create jobs, Tax Cuts included, of course. President Barack Obama said Monday that the Compromise with Republi...

How Things Change.
One galling aspect of the tax deal framework proposed by the White House and Senate Republicans is that emergency Unemployment Insurance became a policy option that had to be bargained for, rather than a given during tough times: In October 1983, with Republicans controlling the White House and the Senate and the national Unemployment Rate at 8.8 percent, extended benefits were reauthorized for 17 months. The benefits provided up to 24 weeks of help for workers who exhausted state aid. ... Thos...

The Tax Deal: Who Won?
Supposedly Zhou Enlai was asked about whether the French revolution succeeded, and he replied, "It's too soon to tell." That's my view of the tax deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans. The most important policy question at stake is the future of the upper-income Bush Tax Cuts. If Obama had made absolutely clear that August that he would not extend them under any circumstances, then Democrats could have forced Republicans to stand against the popular tax cuts for f...

Econ 101: Compromise And Other Euphemisms
First, three thoughts. 1. Let’s be really, really clear about what the GOP were saying by demanding all-or-nothing on the extensions. Roughly translated, it was: “We are more than willing to see taxes go up on absolutely everyone, even those who are barely scraping by at current tax levels, if the alternative is raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans by 3%.”  Think about that for a second. 2. Everyone who voted for a Republican who ran on the “OMG, won’t som...

Obama Sells Out the Lefties
Welcome to the world under Obama's bus, lefties: There really is no other way to say it: the Republicans won, the Liberal Democrats lost, and the president sided with the Republicans. The subject, of course, is an agreement to extend all the Bust Tax Cuts. The president tonight announced a "Bipartisan framework" for agreement on, among other things, to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years. A Republican House aide tells me tonight it is "a damn good deal." And so it is, from the perspective of...

White House Fact Sheet on Tax Cuts and Unemployment Extension
People ought to read this: The framework agreement announced by the President secures vital tax relief and investments in our workers that will create jobs and accelerate Economic Growth. The plan has three key accomplishments: Working Families will not lose their Tax Cut. A typical working family faced a Tax Increase of over $3,000 on January 1st. That’s avoided under this framework agreement, and working families won’t see their tax cuts go away next year. Focused on high impact...

Champions of the Already Haves
The deal is down. Liberals irate. The press trolling for firebrand denunciations of the president. So it is worth noting the obvious that could otherwise be lost in the noise. This was a negotiation in which the wealthiest Americans were represented by a unified Republican Party that put the rich above most Americans, the afflicted and the country. Unified Republican Senators promised to block any action on anything unless the Tax Cuts on the rich were extended.. Republicans voted against exte...

A good deal (under the circumstances)
NO REASONABLE person interested in improving the American Economy and insuring against Debt troubles would draw up the policy Compromise that seems to have been reached in Washington this week. But no reasonable person starting from scratch would design America's sclerotic political institutions, in which a single Senator can derail the plans of the majority party and a determined minority can bring the business of governance to a standstill. In this imperfect political world, the agreement to t...