I completely agree with this NPR story, Liberals: Obama Doesn't Compromise, He Caves. "President Obama's team is deep in negotiations with Congress over how to find common ground on the fate of the Bush-era tax cuts. And liberals are afraid that the White House may be too quick to cede ground to Republicans without securing concessions in return. That concern is not unique to the tax-cut debate. People on the left have been concerned about Obama's negotiating style for some time now."
I said it back in March when he made concessions on energy and got nothing in return and some of you thought it was shrewd negotiating. Do you still think so?
I still have a big problem with the Senate Democrats making a big stand on the tax cuts now, it's entirely too late. They should have done this before the election when the stand off could have made Republicans look bad and had some consequences with voters. Doing it now, they don't have much leverage with the GOP who will just wait till the lame duck session ends. That won't make a difference in the Senate but since the Dems are in power they can blame them for letting the tax rates rise. Then they can pass what they want in the House and have it stall in the Senate and blame the Dems again.
Update: Ezra Klein writes Why did the Democrats falter on the tax cuts?.
1 comment:
Obama showed his hand in early 2009 when he did not order his Justice Department to agressively pursue prosecution of the Banks and Wall Street for the frauds they conceived and commited in the prior decade, and which brought our economy to the brink of collapse in late 2008.
If he had done so, it would have cleary demonstrated to the average American whose side he was on. It would also have laid to rest the Repub mantra that "government is the problem".
If he had done this one thing, there would now be no need for compromise with the Repubs on tax cuts for the wealthy or anything else.
As I wrote 18 months ago on this blog, Obama was missing his moment to change the direction of the nation, and to stand up to the most powerful, influential and destructive forces in the country. He clearly chose not to.
The post mid-term elections caves simply look like a very lame attempt to attract independent voters in 2012.
I think maybe he made a deal with the devil. The devil being Wall Street, which funded his campaign massively, especially in the early stages. If so, it appears he intends to fully honor the deal.
How sad.
TT
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