Posted on 12/05/2010 8:32:36 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
White House officials and Congressional Republicans said Sunday they were closing in on a deal to temporarily continue the Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels, while bitterly frustrated Democratic Congressional leaders began exploring whether they would have the votes for such a package.
A day after the Senate rejected President Obama’s preferred tax plan, officials said the broad contours of a compromise were in focus.
Rather than extending the tax rates only on income described by Democrats as middle class — up to $250,000 a year for couples and $200,000 for individuals — the deal would also keep the rates for higher earners, probably for two years. In return, Republicans said they would probably agree to extend jobless aid for the long-term unemployed.
Senior Democrats on Sunday said that they were resigned to defeat in the highly charged tax debate, and they voiced dismay.
“We’re moving in that direction,” Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat said dejectedly when Bob Schieffer, host of “Face the Nation” on CBS, asked him if the 2001 and 2003 tax rates would be extended even for the wealthy. “And we’re only moving there against my judgment,” Mr. Durbin added.....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Until January. The Democraps held a strong hand until then though. To let the tax increases come through and then try to recind them with Harry Reid as Senate leader will be just as difficult.
What can they do? The public service unions won’t even let anyone else pick up trash on the streets.
Exactly. Thats what lame duck Feingold voted for; by voting against both Democrap proposals.
Tax and spend is not just an empty slogan with leftists, its just hard to implement when people are paying attention.
“There’s a simple solution to the unemployment benefit problem:
Unemployment benefits should shrink.”
Cutting UI doesn’t actually ‘create’ jobs. There may be a few people at the margins who slack off but most of the unemployment problem is fundamental. Most of the people who lost their jobs were making quite a nice amount of money and UI certainly won’t compensate for that.
If we can create jobs, that would reduce the need for UI extensions in the first place.
To create jobs, we need more competitive tax policy, manage the overall fiscal situation and push for an effective educational/job retraining system.
Whether it is accomplished now or the next session is really not much difference, IMO. If it can get down now, it can also get done then, and in either case, the dems are in a no win situation and really have no other choice but to cave in.
My concern is letting them continue pushing through the rest of their agenda before the House is controlled by Republicans. At that point, the liberal agenda should be DOA.
One could make the case that the reason Obama and the marxists are so easily “caving” at this point in time to the tax issue is to insure the rest of their agenda is pushed through in the next two weeks.
I'm with you. If we want the Republicans to do "the right thing", it would be to get the Bush tax cuts extended. The economy and the country would have to endure great pain if they are not.
Getting it done, though, is going to require a "deal" of some sort, since the GOP can't enact the extension single-handedly. And, after the new Congress is seated, they still won't be able to act unilaterally.
Get it done. And hope the price isn't too high...
It is also hypocritical of the dems if they go along with this, they were ripping the repubs for not ‘paying for the lost tax cuts’ but they tack on more unemployment benefits that aren’t paid for?
C’mon.
“What can they do? The public service unions won’t even let anyone else pick up trash on the streets.”
Many people will need to learn new skills because the old jobs that they had for years won’t be coming back.
If Taxes go up on everyone, the Democrat Media Machine will insure everyone thinks it's the Republicans fault. Obama will remain untouched, once again.
Yes, but UI shouldn’t be a welfare program.
It’s meant to cushion the loss of a job. Not replace a job.
I’m not saying that, to be callous. Our workplace is outsourcing as fast as they can lay off the US workforce and send the jobs elsewhere.
But the reality is, everything this government is doing, is futile attempts to replace the laws of supply and demand.
House prices? Propped up.
Mortgage delinquent? Propped up.
Stocks falling? Propped up.
All of it, distorts and weakens the structures which have driven success and growth. UI is just one more way, the natural market forces are being interfered with.
Sure the loss of a job is when someone needs help. But it’s entirely too simple for some to react to that trauma by falling back on what is becoming a welfare program.
Those few need a nudge.
A gentle, slow, but irresistable nudge. Bit at a time, to get back out there and work.
What we should be focused on, is stopping the hemmorage of American jobs.
That’s the reason for (all) of this: we’re giving our jobs away to other countries.
It’s not complicated.
Well gosh.
Let’s let the media decide things then.
/s
They get paid to make decisions, why do they GET TO FARM IT out at more expense, as the commssion members WILL GET PAID FOR THEIR WORK.
Did the 1st Congress get paid for working and writing the Constitution?
If they continue to call up Special Commissions for every DAMN thing, THE ENTIRITY OF ALL THE CONGRESS NEED TO BE FIRED. Just hire Specials Commissions from now on.
Get used to it. We must compromise for the next two years. It has to be.
People have to look at this as a marathon, not a sprint. We need at least 2 more election cycles to really begin to see a material difference in the Congress, and as great as the gains of 2010 were, they are not enough to simply make things happen without any opposition.
At a very minimum, we need to get Premier Hussein out of the White House because he still has veto power over anything the House does pass. We have something like 23 Senate seats coming open in 2012, along with the Presidency, and that in my view is where our sights need to be set; there and beyond.
Ahhh....from “we won” and the Immaculation to “bitterly frustrated Democratic Congressional leaders” in only TWO years!
Let’s see if I can remember how to spell “schadenfreude”...
As tenuous as the economy is, we may not have the four-to-six months it would probably take to get a deal done next year.
If the tax cuts aren't extended now, you'll see a massive sell-off of the stock market by mid-month and a pulling of the plug on many annual business investment plans (which won't be reconsidered until 2012).
If we want the Republicans to do "the right thing" for the country and the economy, they ought to be getting an extension on the books ASAP.
Even with the idiot Obama running things, most people still blame Bush for the bad economy. That is the sad fact of the matter.
And, in the meantime, keep the momentum by doing the best we can with what we've got.
I don’t see Republicans lifting a finger, to change those incorrect perceptions.
Too many have become “bipartisan” milquetoasts, IMHO.
Compromise and attempts at harmony are the problem, not the solution.
I'd rather see the market tank than have the liberals push through their agenda in the lame duck.
Stall until the new congress convenes.
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