Politics Plus

Most who know me understand that I am not a big fan of Harry Reid (D-NV).  I call him the Nevada Leg Hound, due to his propensity for whining, humping Republican legs, rolling over and giving up.  I think that he should be replaced as Majority Leader with a Democrat woman or man that has a pair.  However, that said, I have to give him credit where credit is due when he gets one right.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has enough votes to pass President Obama’s plan to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone’s first $250,000 in income, according to his office … if Republicans agree not to filibuster it.

The development positions Democrats and Obama to attack Senate Republicans for blocking extension of nearly all the Bush tax cuts, unless wealthy Americans get their tax cuts extended as well.

Reid’s complicated maneuvers on the Senate floor Wednesday night suggest he’s defied the GOP’s expectations and lined up at least 50 members of his caucus to pass Obama’s plan. Caught by surprise, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was forced to block a parallel opportunity for a majority vote on extending all the Bush tax cuts…

Inserted from <TPM>

Ed Schultz discussed the matter with a panel of two reasonable people and one Republican.

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I have no doubt that Republicans will filibuster this.  So, if you are in the bottom 98%, remember this.  If the Bush Tax Cuts expire, Republicans will lie and say that Obama raised your taxes.  Remember that Republicans had the opportunity to extend them for all but the very rich when they filibuster to prevent a majority decision.

Jobs, Jobs Jobs is the Republicans’ so-called agenda.  And to Republicans Jobs, Jobs, Jobs usually means trying to regulate what takes place between women’s legs.  However, on comparatively rare occasions, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs means trying to kill Obamacare.  For something with zero chance of success, that’s wasteful of both time and tax dollars.  By my estimation, counting  today’s vote, fruitless Republican attempts to undo Obamacare have cost taxpayers over $48.5 million.

House Republicans generally avoided talk of replacement measures on Tuesday as they mobilized for an election-season vote to repeal the health care law that stands as President Barack Obama’s signature domestic accomplishment.

Instead, they lambasted the 2-year-old law as a threat to the nation’s economic recovery and predicted some Democrats would join them in repudiating it.

"This is nothing short of economic malpractice," said Rep. Nan Hayworth of New York, citing tax increases, government mandates and other items in the law. "We can and we must do better."

She did not elaborate, nor did any of the members of the leadership in their remarks to reporters after the meeting.

Republican officials said the general reluctance to sketch any sort of alternative resulted from a desire to focus public attention on the health care law itself. It generally fares poorly in public polling, both nationally and in surveys of independent voters.

In addition, they said that while many Republicans ran on a slogan of "repeal and replace" in 2010, the rank and file is far from united around any precise alternative… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <CBS>

The Republicans who opened their mouths were lying.

Ed Schultz provided more detail with Steve Israel (D-NY).

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As a side note, repealing Obamacare would cost thousands of new jobs.

For my estimate, I used the Sunlight Foundation Database to estimate that running the House costs approximately $274 million per year.  Even though the Republican leadership has kept the House out of session more this year than last year, the year is incomplete, so I used 2011 data to estimate that Congress is in session 175 days per year.  Thus, running the House costs approximately $1,566,000 per day.  Each vote on a major issue like Obamacare takes over a day of House time, due to the debate involved, but rounding down to just one day, the 31 attempts to undo Obamacare have cost over $48.5 million.

What is most obscene about this is that the money Republicans have wasted on this political theater could have paid a year’s average salaries for 1,156 firefighters, 967 police officers, or 890 high school teachers.  So much for Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

Although I covered the tax cut fight yesterday, it has, to a large extent, dominated the news since.  As expected, Willard Romney and the Republican party have been making ludicrous assertions, and it’s important that you know what they are and how to debunk them.  For example, Barack Obama is not raising taxes, as Republicans falsely claim.  The expiration of the Bush tax cuts in January, 2011 was originally built into the law itself, before Congress passed a two year extension.  To blame Obama for the expiration of a law that passed before he took office is absurd.

Taxes are supposed to be complicated and contentious. Yet, speaking from the White House on Monday, it took President Obama less than 15 minutes to make a strong and sensible case for letting the high-end Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of 2012. Citing well-documented facts, he pointed out that tax cuts at the top have failed to promote economic growth and have blown a hole in the federal budget.

Under his plan, Americans who make more than $250,000 a year — the top 2 percent of taxpayers — would see their tax rates go back up next year to the levels from the Clinton years, while those making less than $250,000 — the remaining 98 percent — would have their tax cuts extended through 2013.

In calling for cooperation from Congress, Mr. Obama said that the point is to “agree to do what we agree on”: extend the middle-class tax cuts. As a matter of fairness and responsible policy making, he said, the majority of Americans, and the broader economy, should not be held hostage again to another debate over the merits of tax cuts for the wealthy.

Unfortunately, it is not a message Congressional Republicans want to hear, committed as they are to preserving tax cuts for the rich at all costs… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

That makes sense to me.  Lets agree to extend the tax cuts for 98% of the people and let the voters decide whose policy we want for the top 2%.  Fat chance!

Lawrence O’Donnell dedicated two segments to the tax cuts. In the first, he discussed them, Republican lies about them, and Obama’s fiscal cliff strategy with Krystal Ball and Steve Kornacki.

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I fully agree that Obama must be willing to go over the cliff. In the second segment, Lawrence debunked Republican claims about tax cuts with Ezra Klein and Nick Hanauer.

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The 1% are NOT the job creators. They just take profit from the work. YOU are the job creators, because you create the demand! Businesses hire only when you you buy their products and services and create sufficient demand for the companies to profit, that they would otherwise miss, from new hires.  You can’t purchase and create demand, if Republicans empty your pockets.

In short, the entire Republican stance here can be used to fertilize your veggies!

Republicans will not agree to extend the tax for us, because they don’t care about us. Our tax cuts are useful to Republicans only to use in their blackmail as a hostage for much bigger tax cuts for the 1%.

On October 20, 2010, I sat in the Portland Convention Center and listenede to Barack Obama promise not to renew the Bush Tax Cuts for people earning over $250,000.  When he caved in, I felt thoroughly disheartened.  I understand that Republicans were using terrorist tactics holding the needs of millions of Americans hostage in several areas to allow them to protect 1% greed.  I realize that Obama’s motives for caving-in were good ones.  Nevertheless, I believe his decision was a mistake, because giving into terrorism just instigates mere terrorism.  Here we go again!

President Obama on Monday will propose a one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for people earning less than $250,000, his latest election-year effort to appeal to middle-class voters.

The president will make the announcement during a Rose Garden event, joined by families and workers who would benefit from the initiative, White House officials said.

The move is likely to set up another standoff with Republicans in Congress, who support extending the tax cuts permanently for all income levels, not just those earning less than $250,000 per year.

But the White House is calculating that forcing the GOP to reject the president’s proposal would put Republican lawmakers in a difficult position at a time when many Americans are struggling in a tough economy.

“President Obama today will push for extension of middle class tax cuts,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer wrote on his Twitter account Monday morning. “Will the GOP join him to provide certainty for 98% of Americans?” … [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

The answer to that question is obvious.  With the 1% getting 150% more than the bottom 80% combined, there is no way in hell Republicans will fail to protect the 1%.  To do so would be a violation of the Gospel according to Saint Grover, Supply-side Jesus’ apostle of greed.

However, Republicans are offering a counter proposal.

The Senate’s top Republican renewed an offer today to President Obama over the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, due to expire at the end of the year.

"What we ought to be doing is extend the current tax rates for another year with a hard requirement to get through comprehensive tax reform one more time," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaking on CNN’s State of the Union.

President Obama and aides have shown little interest in a one-year extension, saying the Bush tax rates should be extended for middle-class Americans but ended this year for the wealthiest… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <USA Today>

Now, let’s sort out the meaning of this deceptive Republi-speak.  When Bought Bitch Mitch says comprehensive tax reform, he means raising taxes on the poor and cutting taxes for the 1% and corporate criminals.  So the deal he offers, in short, that in return for us allowing a tax cut for the rich, Republicans will agree to mandate an even bigger tax cut for the rich and a tax increase for the poor.

Therefore, the only compromise we could see is another cave-in.  I seriously hope that does not happen.

The Bush Tax Cuts expire at the end of this year.  Mr. President, if you cannot extend my tiny tax cut without extending the huge tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, then let them all expire.  I’d rather have my taxes go up.