Change!: Obamacrats suddenly open to idea of extending all of the Bush tax cuts

1Nov/101

Change!: Obamacrats suddenly open to idea of extending all of the Bush tax cuts

Well, that is, in a manner of speaking. But in what I sense to be a new meme rising, and admittedly what also appears to be akin to a sinner's death-bed conversion on the eve of an election where the public seems poised to hand them their hats and show them to the door, Bloomberg news reports that the White House and leading Democrats are suddenly "open" to the idea of extending all of the Bush tax cuts:

The Obama administration is considering a plan that would preserve tax breaks for both the wealthy and the middle class as it faces likely Democratic losses in the Nov. 2 midterm elections, the Washington Post reported.

Administration officials are discussing “decoupling” the Bush-era tax cuts to allow permanent extension for families making less than $250,000 a year and temporary extension of cuts for those making more, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with talks at the White House and among senior congressional Democrats. The Republicans would then be under pressure to defend extending the cuts for the wealthy as they expired in a year or two.

Now, in all honesty I'll never understand why these tax cuts were allowed to "sunset" after a number of years in the first place. All it did was set up the coming messy class warfare battle. I recall it was part of getting the Democrats to sign on in the first place, so maybe they figured strategically it could serve them well later. But it could not have come up at a worse time for them, from an electoral sense. Especially given the statist nature of the Obama legislative agenda and what are sure to be calls for tax increases by his erstwhile blue-ribbon deficit commision.

Judging from the article, it appears that they are "strategerizing" again, by trying to address the cuts individually; planning to permanently pass the one below $250k but have the ones above that threshold expire just in time for the 2012 election. Just ducky...

Were I the in the Republican ledership I would reject this cynical ploy out of hand, sticking instead with the principled position on making all of the tax cuts permanent. I would continue to call out the Democrats for their misguided, unabashedly redistributionist, class warfare tactics. Opening each press statement by reminding the public that the Democrat's irresponsibly left town without settling this matter before the elections, I would see just how many narrowly re-elected Democrats had the stomach to stick with the White House in their Leninist attempt to pit the middle class against the more economically successful.

I'd fight this battle because, trust me, there are much uglier ones comin' down the pike that will involve all the same elements.

The time for laying down is through. The public will have made their wishes crystal clear by then. One of the promises the Republicans made on the stump was to make these tax cuts permanent. It seems to me, then, like a good place to begin taking care of business...

TCB Baby!