Republicans have argued that the midterm elections have given them a mandate on what they are calling one of the most important issues facing America, the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.
“The American people want us to stop all the looming tax hikes and to cut spending, and that should be the priority of the remaining days that we have in this Congress,” incoming House Speaker Rep. John Boehner said Thursday. Boehner added that a House vote Thursday to extend the cuts for all but the highest-earning Americans amounted to “chicken crap.”
According to a new CBS News poll, however, Boehner is off-base in his claim that Americans “want us to stop all the looming tax hikes.”
The poll finds that 53 percent of Americans want the Bush-era tax cuts extended only for households earning less than $250,000 per year. That roughly matches the proposal put forth by the White House, which wants to extend the cuts only for incomes less than $250,000 for families and $200,000 for individuals.
Just 26 percent of Americans say they support extending the cuts for all Americans, even those earning above the $250,000 level, which is the GOP proposal.
My drill sergeant was fond of telling privates that they could “fuck up a wet dream.” I think that is an apt description of the Democrats handling of the tax issue, unless, like me, you’re slowly coming to the ralization that they are equal parts incompetent and equal parts slaves to the money party.
Linkmeister
They’re unquestionably terrified of playing hardball. Not to excuse them, but any party which ranges from Al Franken to Ben Nelson does have a lot of shades of viewpoint to try to keep happy.
geemoney
Dear FSM, but do you have to keep opening this door to the I told you soers all the time now?
Go back and read your post about all the good stuff that the administration has done, and take your advice about how things are going, on average.
Sheesh.
Ajay
I think its time Obama changed his party affiliation to R. It will be much easier to run the show.
srv
I’m really looking forward to two years of Emo John.
*Hey, could someone do an Emo Tunch? I’d be all over that in the store. The Stuckians can have Lily.
maye
there’s nothing else to add.
FlipYrWhig
OK, I’m confused. Why post this now after a day of good news and progress on this front?
Just Some Fuckhead
Jesus John, the Mighty Obot Warriors just vanquished your last fail thread and here you are starting up another war. Tell me it’s the drugs. You’ve got a monkey in your nose, doncha???
Keith G
@Ajay: They would never let him in. They demand their folk have at least a little fire in their belly.
Omnes Omnibus
What am I missing here? Did all the cuts get extended?
mr. whipple
@FlipYrWhig:
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
DonkeyKong
A Black President and a congress full of drooling racist assholes were picked to live in a house were people stopped being polite……..and started getting real……The Real Wold DC.
Omnes Omnibus
@FlipYrWhig: Cold meds?
Wilson Heath
Which “that” should be the priority? The spending or the tax hikes?
Baud
To be fair, 53% is not a huge majority, and how many of those are willing to commit to supporting Democrats and blaming Republicans in two years if middle class tax rates go up because they couldn’t reach a deal?
maye
Ms. Pelosi didn’t get the cave and fold memo. More likely she did, but pretended she didn’t.
Sasha
Like I said in the previous thread: Does anyone here appreciate the fact that Obama and the Dem leadership have the GOP over a barrel?
The GOP has threatened to block all legislation until taxes are resolved. The House Dems pass a tax cut bill that the vast majority of the electorate would be completely happy with. Reid is hinting that he will force a vote in the Senate of same.
What are the GOP’s options?
They can fight/filibuster the bill … and then be plastered as opposing and/or blocking a tax bill that serves everyone because it doesn’t service Wall Street better, as well as go on record for being responsible for the “biggest tax increase in history” (and apparently, even if the tax bill doesn’t pass, the electorate wouldn’t care).
They can postpone the bill and work on other legislation … and look like fools for backing down (and it won’t stop the fact that a perfectly palatable tax bill sits there, ready to be passed, as the sunset deadline runs out).
They can support the bill … and hand the Democrats a major victory, leading to vicious infighting like when the Dems passed HCR (which might happen anyway if the bill goes to the floor and GOP defectors decide it’s better to support the cuts as is than let all of them expire).
Or they can negotiate and save face.
If Obama and the Dems can get most everything they want passed in the lame duck session (DADT, DREAM, extension of Obama stimulus cuts, START, unemployment extension, etc.) in exchange for a two-year extension, allowing the Bush cuts to be an issue for the 2012 election, I would consider that to be a win-win. Dems can tell their supporters they got a bunch of very good progressive stuff passed in the lame duck session, making the 111th Congress one of the truly most productive in history, and the Bush cuts will only last two more years. The GOP can tell their base that the Bush cuts got extended as planned and downplay the rest.
FlipYrWhig
@Baud: It seems like in an IRV kind of setup the preferences would probably be
1 Extend tax cuts for dollars $1-$250K, not $250K-infinity.
2 Extend tax cuts for dollars $1-$250K, and $250K-infinity.
3 Let all tax cuts expire.
People who support 1 might not support 1 so adamantly that they’d rather end up with 3 than 2.
Felonious Wench
Not getting the angst, John. Speaker Pelosi seems to have given the House Republicans a good whack to the crotch today. Reid is saying the Senate will vote on this as soon as tomorrow.
Call me blond, but I don’t follow.
General Stuck
Beat us daddy, beat us hard like you mean it
obots
FlipYrWhig
@Sasha: I replied on the other thread, did you see it?
Angry Black Lady
Rachel Maddow put it appropriately: “if the democrats can resist the urge to fold inexplicably, they will hold a really good hand.”
General Stuck
@Felonious Wench:
I think he’s into wildypirate’s stash. Either that, or jane is sitting on his face about now.
FlipYrWhig
@Felonious Wench: Maybe it’s like a Bob Somerby piece, where the only thing more offensive than not understanding it his way is coming to understand it his way, but too late.
jeffreyw
Thread needs some Xmas cheer bad.
pj
Why doesn’t Harry Reid simply use the same process the Repubs used in the first place? Didn’t they use reconciliation and a sunset provision? Pass the bill through reconciliation and make the 2012 elections a referendum on tax cuts for the wealthy. Why not?
Cacti
Okee-dokey Mr. Boner.
Which of our nearly 1000 foreign military bases should we close first?
Jager
@maye:
Republicans must be amazed (as i am) that a short, 70 year old, San Francisco Liberal woman has bigger balls than that “strapping buck” in the oval office.
Delia
Historical aside: The immediate cause of the French Revolution was the enormous national debt which had been accumulating, in that case, for about a century. Coupled with the adamant refusal of the upper classes (the First and Second Estates, that is, the nobility and upper clergy) to pay any taxes, which were all left to the Third Estate, that is, everyone else, from upper bourgeoisie and lawyers to artisans to parish priests to peasants and unskilled laborers. This refusal time and time again necessitated the calling of the Estates Generale, after which one damn thing led to another, and pretty soon you had a revolution.
I find that somewhat amusing to contemplate when thinking about our current goopers and their solicitude for banksters and other minions of weath.
Here’s one for Tom
The Oath of the Tennis Court
Shawn in ShowMe
“Me raise objection after progress made!”
Bizarro John Cole
Nick
I stood outside our Congressman’s office with a group of MoveOn protesters today on a busy street. Like 5% of the people who walked by signed their petition.
How many of those 53% (which is lower number that I’d expect to be honest) would be willing to spend some time pressuring their Republican Senator to support the bill and threatening to not vote for him or her if they don’t, or how many are like “whatevs! I hate teh gay/teh mooslims/teh messicans” and vote for them anyway?
I’m pretty sure less than 48% of Illinois votes support tax cuts for the rich. Didn’t stop them from voting for Mark Kirk to go the US Senate and let the country burn for them over a Democratic candidate who would have been a vote against tax cuts for the rich.
I mean I know hardcore Republicans who want these tax cuts ended (and would still vote Republican, even if they opposed it, and I know Naderites who think $250,000 is too low a bar.
FlipYrWhig
@Delia: Ah, but that was before Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.
Delia
@FlipYrWhig:
Although, when it comes to eliminating social safety nets for the poor and middle classes, it appears that they do.
mr. whipple
@General Stuck:
Dood.
General Stuck
@mr. whipple:
what? Jane can sit on my face anytime, I like her. I might keep one eye on the door though
Montysano
@Sasha:
Just who will do this “plastering”? Fox News? Tweety? These fuckers have behaved like maniacs since 1/20/09, and paid absolutely no price for it. And what is this “record” that you speak of?
parsimon
@General Stuck:
Oh, come on. I really don’t get these insults to a front page poster wringing his hands over the quite plausible possibility that the Dems will fold, conceivably unnecessarily.
People wring their hands from time to time. It is allowed, for cripe’s sake.
Felonious Wench
@mr. whipple: The visual of that about did me in, especially considering John’s illness.
General Stuck
@parsimon:
That was no insult, or not a big one.
Sasha
@FlipYrWhig:
Yes, and I replied back.
WyldPirate
@Sasha:
Good FSM but the Obots are totally delusional tonight.
One purely symbolic victory in the House and you think that the Dems have carried the day. Sheesh.
Y’all are in for a let down. It’s as if the antics of the Senate over the past two years–including those from the ConservaDems– never happened.
The votes are note there in the Senate for the 250K and under cut. Period. Full stop. Obama has already signaled what he will settle for. Period. Full Stop. A deal is being made. Period. Full stop.
The rich folks are going to get their cut. Done deal.
Bror
Well, the problem is, as other commenters have said, that there isn’t one Democratic party. Ben Nelson living in a completely different reality than Pelosi, both his own opinion, his constituents, and potential funding. Most Democrats is in a position where the party voices are tugging in one direction and the money is pulling in another, whereas for the republicans both pull in the same direction.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama is not as much negotiating with the republicans, as he is with the conservative part of his party. We don’t know what the vote count in the senate for only extending the middle-class tax cuts, but it’s probably tough. It seems like we are seeing the same fight as with the health care reform where the left requires the non-defined democratic party and the president to do things that are impossible due to individual preferences among especially senators. Anyone who believes that Obama could strong arm Lieberman and Nelson to do stuff, is pretty naive.
Suck It Up!
@Jager:
enough with the sexist, racist garbage. you all sound like a bunch of high school dorks trying desperately and failing miserably at trying to be funny.
namekarB
Am I one of the few that groans every time I hear that “ONLY” those earning over 250K would not get the tax break?
Truth: The 250K cap applies to everyone, even Bill Gates. The tax cut extension is for the FIRST 250K of income, thus everyone in the USA gets the same treatment.
But we never hear that. All we hear is the bleating about extending for everyone. Both Democratic and Republican proposals give the 250K limit on taxable income to everyone but the Republicans’ proposal takes it a step further for those making more than 250K.
This is about how Republicans have framed the debate into somehow hoodwinking us dolts into thinking the tax cuts don’t include all. Wrong.
Reframe the debate.
Sasha
@Montysano:
Would the GOP really filibuster a tax bill that the vast majority of the electorate would gladly approve of as polls have suggested time and time again? Especially if the only explanation is “We refused to extend a cut that benefits everyone because we demand a tax cut the benefits Wall Street even more”?
It would be very, very hard to completely spin that one away, and I don’t believe the GOP leadership would risk it.
Suck It Up!
@Bror:
there is no IF here. Its a fact. We’ve seen time and time again how flaky conservative Democrats have been. We’ve seen them threaten to filibuster with Republicans, we’ve seen them break promises on their votes or teased supporters for months at a time about which way they’ll vote. Obama didn’t go seek Republican votes just because he wanted to but because he cannot rely on the Senate Dems for every vote.
WyldPirate
@Sasha:
good gravy have you been living on the flipping moon?
the republicans have filibustered EVERYTHING. They are going to the mat in a steel-caged death match for the rich folks. that is their constituency/owners.
They don’t care.
Jager
@Suck It Up!:
Pelosi is a short, San Francisco liberal, 70 year old woman with balls is she not? Sexist to say that? I don’t think so. Republicans are suprised at how timid Obama seems are they not? Racist, to hint they think of him as a “strapping buck” wrong again, they call him much, much worse than that.
marcopolo
@namekarB: This!
The wording from the article highlighted above is the wording that just about every farking article on this topic uses and it is infuriating. Every damned household will see their taxes cut on income below $250K for couples or $200K for individuals.
The stoopid, it burns.
Sasha
@WyldPirate:
Wow. Runners on base, one run down, bottom of the ninth, and you want to forfeit the game instead of rally.
The antics of the Senate over the past two years lead to HCR. Imperfect admittedly, but definitely improvable and infinitely superior than the existing status quo. Same thing with tax cuts. Probably not an ideal deal but one that is better than the status quo and ultimately serves progressive ends.
I’d love a grand slam, but if the winning run is bunted in, I’ll live with that.
May I suggest cheering for your team to win rather than razzing the players? (Assuming you’re not akin to a Cubs fan whose identity is wrapped around being a noble — yet whining — perpetual loser.)
DonkeyKong
Why is it that when the Democrats hold a full house and the Republicans have two four of diamonds, one joker, a dog eared philly’s trading card and a bridge toll receipt, it’s the Democrats that are sweating?
Sasha
@WyldPirate:
Then they literally go on record as failing to extend tax cuts to the non-rich because the rich are not served more. Like I said, hard to spin away. Easier to let it pass and try to fight for the rich next Congress.
Sasha
@DonkeyKong:
It’s not the that the Democrats are sweating, its that everyone is saying that the Democrats are sweating. Plays to the narrative that Dems are weak.
Nicole
@namekarB: No, you’re not alone. It makes me nuts. Because it would be so easy for Dems to say, “We want to give everyone a tax break, but the Republicans won’t go for it unless their rich friends get an extra tax break just for rich people. So they’re blocking everyone getting a tax break if their rich buddies don’t get extra breaks the middle class can’t get.”
But, you know, class warfare.
burnspbesq
@namekarB:
If you’re a Republican, couples who earn <250 and individuals who earn <200 are irrelevant. They aren't even considered fully human.
danimal
Question for the Reid-haters. Is it possible that Harry Reid understands the real positions of the Senate Democratic caucus and represents their views effectively?
I wish the Senate Dems were more progressive, but I see little evidence that a majority of the Senate is progressive on taxes. A plurality of the Democratic caucus, almost certainly, but there just aren’t enough progressives to push the Senate in a liberal direction on taxes, or much of anything, really. Instead of whining about Harry Reid’s perfidy and ineffectiveness, perhaps getting more progressives elected would solve the problem.
Restrung
@pj:
Shit. Ding, ding ding. Cheney had to vote on that in the senate.
Ooops.. shhh.
DonkeyKong
The Democrats are sweating…………it’s offical now.
Cain
@Delia:
It won’t happen, cuz dem advisors will caution all of us to pay the taxes cuz the economy is the most important evah and we should not do revolution cuz it will hurt businesses and allow republicans to win teh election. yay.
cain
Binzinerator
@Baud:
To be realistic, 53% would be one of the largest percentages of the popular vote in a presidential election in more than two decades.
One has to go back to George Bush the Elder in 1988, more than 2 decades ago, to match Obama’s popular majority of 53%.
For perspective, Reagan took office in 1981 with 50% plus change.
Goopers have been running on 50% as a landslide “mandate” for the last decade. Fuck, even less than 50% (see George Bush the Dumber, 2000).
53% is a huge majority in politics. Nowadays, anyways. A whole generation of voters have seen elections where even a 50% tally has been beaten over the loser’s head and half the nation’s noses have been rubbed in it by republicans as a divine mandate of the people.
An entire generation has experienced the absurdity-as-normal where even 50% has been made out by republicans to be a huge fucking planet-wrecking landslide of a mandate that gives the winner unalienable rights to do what ever the fuck he wants on what ever day of the week month or year he wants because he unequivocally represents the will of the all the people.
By gooper rules, that is.
(Fortunately most of these young people who constitute this generation overwhelmingly reject gooper policies. The young I think, for all the failings and inadequacies we heap upon them, are yet the most sensitive to the hypocrisy, stupidity, callousness, racism, gayhate, misogyny and inhumanity of the GOP. You go girl! You go boy! May you rail against this bullshit long after I am gone, and may you always have the clarity and courage, even it only can be in your heart, to call it wherever you see it.)
Where was I? Ah yes.
For Republicans even if you actually lose the popular vote you can claim absolute hegomony– See the 2000 election results.
Sorry Baud. I know you didn’t mean it that way. The bad ju-ju skimming underneath is not directed at you.
You are being rather rational and commonsense. 53% isn’t a huge majority.
But god-damned if the GOP wouldn’t sell their own mothers into white slavery for those kinds of “majority” numbers.
Comrade Luke
I look forward for David Broder to write a column calling for moderation on the part of the GOP, as he did wrt the Dems in 2008.
ogliberal
What infuriates me is that the Senate Dems and WH won’t do what would be the most obvious – extend under $250K cuts permanently and extend the cuts for dollars earned over $250K for 2-3 years. That would look like – and would actually be – a bipartisan compromise that could make even David Broder happy. It’s easy to explain – the folks who need the most help, the very large majority of Americans, the folks who spend money that fuels the economy, get a permanent (not really permanent, any future Congress could change it, but words matter) tax cuts while the “job creators” get a temporary cut on the bucks they earn over $250K for 2-years, after which we look and the economy, the deficit, and determine whether or not they need another extension. But the GOP will never go for that. They will never go for separating the under 250K bunch from the over 250K bunch because that would mean spending the 2012 election season fighting for extending tax cuts for people making over $250K. That’s a losing political battle. So make them make that argument by giving them a temp tax cut for dollars over 250K while making the under 250K cuts permanent. I’d bet that would poll wonderfully…would probably get 75% approval.
Will the Dems do it? Nah. They’ll give the GOP exactly what they want – a temp extension for everybody so they can have this same argument, one they’ll probably win again, in 2012.
I can’t see how even ConservaDems could oppose what I described above. And it should even appeal to folks like the Ladies from Maine, Scott Brown, and outgoing Senators like Voinivich. But they will oppose it. And the WH and Dem leadership in the Senate will capitulate without much of a fight, all to get 2-3 GOP votes on extending unemployment benefits and START, both pieces of legislation that shouldn’t even be controversial or partisan. (and there is no guarantee they’ll get those – President Snowe ended up voting against essentially the same HCR bill she voted out of committee)
Drives me bananas. But I’m like Cole – I bitch but I’m happy Obama is my president and will knock down doors to vote for him in 2012.
ogliberal
@Binzinerator: I don’t know if it was the same poll but I saw numbers that had the combined “extend for all but over $250K” and “let them all expire” exceeding 60%. The numbers cited here only account for 79%. How many of the remaining folks would like to see them all expire?
mclaren
Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, time out. What about Dougj’s claim that Pelosi & company found a way to schedule an up-and-down vote on the tax cuts that nukes the Repubs?
ogliberal
@mclaren: How many pieces of good legislation did Pelosi get through the House that never even saw the light of day in the Senate?
I don’t even think the House is represented on the negotiations team that was put together. We need to come to terms with the fact that we’re getting a temp extension of all of the cuts (what’s going to happen with the estate and cap gains/div taxes?…haven’t heard those discussed, just income) in exchange for maybe – maybe – a couple GOP votes on non-controversial unemployment extension and START legislation. Woo-hoo!
scarshapedstar
Actually, no, it doesn’t. Granted, the American people don’t understand marginal income tax rates, so who knows what the fuck they want, or if CBS understands this distinction.
But the White House wants to cut taxes on all Americans. Not just the ones earning less than $250,000, but Bill Gates as well.
The Republicans want to give Bill Gates a special additional tax cut. I don’t know how many times this must be said.
Fuckin’ facts, how do they work?
FlipYrWhig
@danimal:
I think it’s not only possible, it’s probably the whole reason why he has his job in the first place, because he’s seen as able to bridge several fractious constituencies — at least better than anyone else can.
DecidedFenceSitter
@scarshapedstar: “Fuckin’ facts, how do they work?”
Generally by not being reported. I’ve heard exactly one news show on NPR delineate the difference in the two taxes being “tax cut for all Americans and a tax cut for all wealthy Americans.”
I hold with the folks who believe that the Republicans and Conservadems in the Senate will filibuster. They have their constituencies which include large monied interests who can make or break them the next election cycle, whether through direct contributions or through television and radio ads in a campaign. On top of that, these interests have, at a minimum, influence, or, at a maximum, total control over the media sources.
(Fun fact: For news and similar media we the population who consume them are the “product” that newspapers and TV shows sell – the consumer base are the advertisers. The news is simply the way that corporations “makes” its product – an audience for advertisers.)
Do I want to be wrong? Ayup. Do I expect that I’m wrong? Nope. The Senate is just too parliamentarian in outlook with a non-parliamentarian structure for me to have much faith in the Democrats being able to get stuff done. And I have less faith in the media to report accurately on that.
Pug
Today’s disappointing jobs numbers will make the Democrats even more eager to surrender than they were yesterday.