{"id":3561,"date":"2010-12-07T02:09:16","date_gmt":"2010-12-07T10:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3561"},"modified":"2010-12-07T02:19:44","modified_gmt":"2010-12-07T10:19:44","slug":"editorial-exploring-the-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/07\/editorial-exploring-the-cave\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: Exploring the Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tom122007_Painting_Painting\"Most of us were expecting Obama to cave-in on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, and I feel thoroughly disappointed that he did.\u00a0 At the same time, I want to be fair and examine the problem from all sides.\u00a0 In his capitulation speech, Obama said several things that were true.\u00a0 It was clear that Republicans would not give ground.\u00a0 Republicans care nothing for the suffering of middle class workers.\u00a0 Had Obama held fast, as he said, millions of workers, whose real wages have gone down, over the last ten years, because of Bush\/Republican policies and current Republican obstruction would get a pay cut next month.\u00a0 Republicans used the unemployed as a human shield.\u00a0 Republicans care nothing that many workers their policies displaced will lose their homes, be unable to provide for their families, or have their Christmas dinners in soup kitchens.\u00a0 Had Obama held fast, as he said, these things would take place.\u00a0 Obama was also correct, when he said that, if he held fast, the economy would lose over a million jobs, threatening the bare beginnings of a recovery.\u00a0 So Obama had reasons for making the choice he made.\u00a0 I believe he thinks he is doing the right thing.\u00a0 I also believe he is wrong.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start with his speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/embed><\/object><\/span><\/p>\n

And here is the breakdown of the deal:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

BREAKING DOWN THE TAX CUTS<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Highlights of the proposed bipartisan agreement: <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rates: Extends all income tax rates for two more years for all taxpayers. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Estates: Applies a 35 percent tax on estates worth more than $5 million.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unemployment: Extends unemployment insurance for 13 months, <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

providing benefits to 2 million long-term unemployed workers <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

in December and 7 million over the next year. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Payroll: Cuts payroll taxes by 2 percentage points for 2011. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Credits: Extends increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit, <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

the child credit and tuition credits adopted in 2009. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Businesses: Allows businesses to write off 100 percent of their capital investments during 2011. The current write-off is 50 percent.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <San Jose Mercury News<\/a>><\/p>\n

The cuts for millionaires and billionaires remains totally unacceptable, as does the estate tax provision.\u00a0 Extending unemployment is key, buy why only thirteen months?\u00a0 When this issue comes back a year from now, what will Republicans want when they use the unemployed as a human shield again?\u00a0 The payroll cut and tax credit extensions are positive elements.\u00a0 If I understand it correctly, the business write-off just accelerates the deduction of 50% of capital investments by one year, so I don\u2019t think it will matter much at all.\u00a0 I have heard it said that this is the best deal he could get, and I agree that it was, but in this case, best just isn\u2019t good enough. Though he may save many hostages from Republican terrorism, it will serve only to encourage more of the same. I\u2019ve heard buzz that the next Republican hostage will be Doc Fix, attempting to gut Medicare and Medicaid.<\/span><\/p>\n

The biggest consequence of this cave is the total shredding of Obama\u2019s waning credibility.\u00a0 The touch stone, around which Obama centered his campaign, was the promise to end the Bush\/Republican policies that have created an ever widening gap between the super-rich and the rest of us.\u00a0 I don\u2019t consider this a betrayal.\u00a0 I think of it as spinelessness.\u00a0 This issue will return in the 2012 campaign.\u00a0 Obama will run, once again, on ending Republican tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.\u00a0 How can we believe him after this?<\/span><\/p>\n

Although, it may be futile, we must oppose the passage of this deal.\u00a0 Fortunately, my favorite Democrat, who isn\u2019t one, has stated his intent to filibuster.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/span><\/p>\n

I urge you to join me. Tell your Senators to oppose the tax cut deal<\/a>!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of us were expecting Obama to cave-in on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, and I feel thoroughly disappointed that he did.\u00a0 At the same time, I want to be fair and examine the problem from all sides.\u00a0 In his capitulation speech, Obama said several things that were true.\u00a0 It was clear that Republicans […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","category-politics","category-19-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}