Posted on 12/06/2010 3:38:58 PM PST by kristinn
Obama will be speaking to the nation shortly to put the best spin on his caving in to the Republicans on extending the Bush tax rates. The cable networks are standing by to cover it live.
Here's a teaser from CNN on the deal:
President Barack Obama presented congressional Democratic leaders Monday with a proposed deal with Republicans that would extend Bush-era tax cuts for two years and unemployment benefits for 13 months while also setting the estate tax at 35% for two years on inheritances worth more than $5 million, a senior Democratic source told CNN.
The deal also includes a temporary 2% reduction in the payroll tax to replace Obama's "making work pay" tax credit from the 2009 economic stimulus package for lower-income Americans, the senior Democratic source said. As currently crafted, the deal would prohibit amendments by either party, according to the source, who spoke on condition of not being identified by name.
SNIP
According to the senior Democratic source, Obama and Biden told the congressional Democrats that the proposed deal was the best they could expect.
SNIP
What is HNIC?
House N in Chief.
You’ve GOT to be kidding me. Good Lord, are we Greece already, or what? Maybe Zimbabwe?
NO DEALS! Defund, defund, defund in 2011.
Worse we are Californianewyorkmassachusettsnewjersey...
Don’t forget all-blue Connecticut...
NO! Zero peed in her pink lace panties!
President Pinhead drives the train off the track and it’s ‘’Look what you did!!’’ He has no choice but to extend the tax cuts and thank God someone got to him to do it.
I don’t like the proposed agreement on the estate tax, either. But, the alternative being floated by the Dims (the most prominent of which was setting the waiver at $1,000,000, which would necessarily affect a very large number of estates) was fatal to average families. Most large estates have already been set up in trusts, anyway; so there would be some protection there. Personally, I don’t think ANY estate should be taxed, because chances are it already HAS been taxed during its accumulation. But the fact is the Dims still control all branches of government, so there really was not a whole lot we could have done at this stage; after January 4, 2011, we’ll be in a better position to do some things, though we’ll still be a minority in the senate and Obamigula will still be in the Oval Office.
Yours is, of course, the conservative view. And, indeed, it seems to be the prevailing view in the Republican party.
But, as you say, the Dems still control all branches of government. And, if I'm not mistaken, the estate tax in 2009 was 55%. It was going to be reinstated in any event, so 35% actually represents a cut.
I can live with that...until the GOP gains full control of the government in 2012.
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