Posted on 11/21/2011 4:18:52 PM PST by Qbert
The imminent failure of the congressional deficit “supercommittee,” which had a chance to settle the nation’s tax policy for the next decade, would thrust the much-contested Bush tax cuts into the forefront of next year’s presidential campaign.
Those tax changes have repeatedly provoked fiery partisan debate since they were enacted during President George W. Bush’s first term. Now, with the cuts due to expire at the end of 2012 and their fate left unresolved by the supercommittee, both parties are already positioning themselves to exploit the issue for maximum electoral advantage.
President Obama, who campaigned on repealing the breaks for the wealthy, angered his base last year when he agreed to extend all the tax cuts beyond their original expiration, at the end of 2010. This time, the president has vowed to veto any effort to extend the tax breaks on upper-income Americans.
[Snip]
That makes December 2012 the next critical deadline in the budget wars, with Obama, safely reelected or acting as a lame-duck president, wielding a veto pen with the power to return tax rates to Clinton-era levels.
Democrats say they see the issue as an easy way to portray Obama’s opponent in the presidential election as a defender of tax cuts for the rich.
Republicans vying to challenge Obama argue the tax cuts should be made permanent, not just for the wealthy but for middle-income Americans as well. And GOP strategists say the White House’s position makes the president vulnerable to charges that he would impose what many Republicans are already calling the “biggest tax increase in American history” if reelected. “We’ll run against their tax increase,” said GOP anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, “and we’ll crush them.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I thought when obama extended them, they became “the obama tax cuts”
The purpose of each and every congressional committee is to buy votes while kicking the can further down the road.
All members both parties should be taken to GITMO and used as water boarding training dumiies.
Well Bush left a poison pill for the Dems to chew on. If they let the Bush Tax Cut lapse, which is certainly within their power, then the number of (mostly Dems) who are currently paying zero income taxes will be coughing up real cash to the IRS going forward. Nice goodbye gift from Obama to the “99%”.
UNTIL ALL OF CONGRESS cuts out the pork and handouts, we'll never see the end of the piling-on. Increasing Taxes will only result in a decrease in Revenues, as more will be un-employed, and businesses will move off-shore that haven't already.
Yup..I remember them (media) floating the one specifically. Damn near made me drive off the road at the top of every hour..
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