Obama gets his tax compromise, pulls off triangulation hat trick

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Alright guys. Time to rock and roll. Obama got his tax compromise, even after House Democrats got all uncomfortable about it towards the end there. The process was a little tense, but eventually the House passed it as-is, 277 to 148. Obama learned the art of triangulation well from Master Sensei Bill Clinton, and will now be in the good graces of the GOP for approximately ten minutes. Savor them, Barack, because you’ve earned them. You only had to sell out the estate tax and a number of your people in your own party to do it. But sometimes, to Get Things Done, you have to do some selling out. This is why Superdrag isn’t on the radio anymore and Weezer is still going strong. Weezer Got Things Done. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Dec 2010 20:37

We’re not going to hold this thing up at the end of the day.
Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen • Admitting what’s been obvious from the outset – the Obama tax compromise will eventually pass. The GOP knows this. Obama knows this, and House Democrats, who perhaps have been most dead-set against it (barring Bernie Sanders) are starting to turn around and begrudgingly accept it. By offering up the compromise he did when he did, Obama knew what he was doing. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Know how we know the Obama compromise is smarter than it looks? Because you have guys like Charles Krauthammer basically calling him a genius. Krauthammer, a pretty solid conservative guy, suggests that Obama is smarter than his own party, because the tax-cut plan he just put in place is really a massive stimulus in everything but name; yet he’s also smarter than the GOP, because he got them to agree to a massive stimulus by making them think it was a tax cut. “Obama is no fool,” Krauthammer writes. “While getting Republicans to boost his own reelection chances, he gets them to make a mockery of their newfound, second-chance, post-Bush, Tea-Party, this-time-we’re-serious persona of debt-averse fiscal responsibility.” And that, friends, is a pretty entertaining take on the whole mess. But will it go through? source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Look, the fact of the matter is that, for a decade now we have had the tendency to think that we can keep on having all the services we want and … can keep cutting taxes as much as we want and that somehow things are going to magically balance out.
Barack Obama • Discussing the country’s current tax situation – basically a suggestion that we’ve been living like we can have our cake and eat it too. Obama, on the other hand, doesn’t think that’s true; he suggests his compromise would play out as “a central battle as part of a larger discussion about how do we reform our tax code so that it’s fair” and a way to deal with the deficit in “an intelligent way.” Obama is playing for long-term gain, and if he’s successful, he’ll make a stronger long-term mark. Of course, that still means it needs to pass, which Obama’s confident will eventually happen (even if it didn’t yesterday). source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

So, fun fact on the Obama compromise: A lot of the stuff here could be considered short-term stimulus. While the Bush tax cut extension itself wouldn’t be, because it’s just extending a current tax rate, about half of the things in it (Social Security and business tax breaks, unemployment benefits, individual tax credits) could be. The overall result, which includes the Bush Tax Cuts would lead to a $600 billion to $800 billion total cost for the government. But hey, lower taxes for everybody! (And the Social Security tax break is, let’s face it, a not-terrible idea. As long as people notice that less money is getting taken out of their paychecks. Which they didn’t before.) source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink