In a sense, it would have been better if senate dems or Obama had stopped the GWB tax rate extensions. That likely would have kept unemployment higher (hey, they have some skin in the the game even if they pay 0 income tax), and made the modest improvements in the economy even more modest (and I would expect the higher tax rates to motivate them to spend more).
But they were not thst stupid, and now “raising taxes on the rich” seems to poll better than before November 2010.
I like it, you are thinking like me.
Actually it would have been even better if Republicans had tricked Democrats into raising those taxes by themselves (with Republican opposition) much earlier, ideally sometime in 2009 because the spending/tax credit sugar jolt ended summer 2010 anyway and those tax increases would have been blamed for it, plus whatever negative effect they had.
I honestly think that is why Democrats never pushed the tax increases ‘on the rich’ into law, they knew that not only they would get blamed for a bad economy, but the taxes would get blamed for it too. Think about it, they could have easily raised those taxes with only 50 Senators using budget reconciliation. Ever wonder why they didnt? The answer doesnt fit the simple Hannity narratives.
Democrats losing (giving up really) on taxes allows them to continue to make ‘the Bush tax cuts’ the cause of every USA problem forever. As Republicans get more and more power they will get more and more of the blame for things bad.
I don't think that is quite true. To help win 2010 election Republicans took the position that they are Defending medicare from cuts while defending all tax payers including the rich, from tax increases. That is a very unifying position ('we are in this together') that gets votes but doesn't cut the deficit. By not proposing any specific cuts, and defending Medicare benefits, many 2010 voters assumed they could balance the budget cutting ACORN and legal fees for terrorists and child molesters.
Now Republicans having some power are trying to actually cut spending (or sending up test probes anyway) appear to be saying “ America is so broke we have to take away your entitlement (while still taxing you for it), and it is necessary to cut tax rates further especially on ‘the rich’ to fix the economy.“
The second position is not nearly as popular as the first and would have polled just as badly last year as this year, especially with Democrats assault. In fact we might be better off now if Republicans had run on their actual position (the second one) and didnt do as well 2010 election cycle.
I know certain hosts on talk radio claimed that ‘tax cuts/increases on the rich’ is a subject that the majority of people will consistently agree with them on, leading listeners to be shocked like now when the issue is bundled with entitlement cuts, (or elimination to some degree). But I am not.