Jed Lewison, in his front page Kos story this morning brought this to my attention:
President Obama, this morning:
"My number-one priority is making sure that we make the middle-class tax cuts permanent, that we give certainty to the 98 percent of Americans who are affected by those tax breaks," Obama said.
If this is Obama's actual priority, I am dismayed. It means that the same endless obstruction by the GOP and the Blue Dogs that prevented the ending of the tax cuts for the rich being passed before the election will now continue on into the seating of the new Congress.
Obama needs to change his number one priority to ending the tax cuts for the rich.
Update: I noticed, after I posted this diary that there is a diary on the recommended list that speaks to the issue of why letting all tax cuts expire is a good thing. My diary does overlap with that excellent diary but my emphasis on wishing Obama to rethink his priority does offer something in addition to that diarist's thoughts.
More over the fold
The bill that is hung up in Congress has been trying to end the tax cuts for the rich while preserving the middle class tax cuts. The opposition has said that either there are tax cuts for all or no tax cuts. Right now, the Democratic led Congress can agree to those terms and pass ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy if they give in to the Republican demand that they also end tax cuts for the middle class. They should do that. Right now.
Yes, I know that the middle class needs those tax cuts to make ends meet and keep our staggering economy going. But the middle class is funding far more than their share of the cost of infra-system while the rich are getting a free ride on their backs.
Let's make it a two step process while we still have an entire two years until the next election and at least a year and a half before the raise in middle class taxes could take effect.
First -- take away all the temporary tax cuts on all the people. We should have the votes to do that if the GOP doesn't prove beyond any doubt that they lied when they said they'd support that bill. Heck, we can probably pass that without any GOP votes which would be sweet.
Then -- come right back and bring in a middle class tax cut bill that isn't temporary and is paid for by the increase in taxes on the wealthy. A simple, uncomplicated bill for middle class tax cuts could go into effect, negating the previous bill that ended the middle class tax cuts before those increases for the middle class could go into effect.
Force the GOP to vote against tax cuts for 98% of the people and then try to explain that to their supporters when the next election comes around. Let's prove once and for all which party cuts taxes and which one increases them. Yes, the GOP will spout the old line that the Democrats raised taxes. But the Democrats can come back with the fact that they cut taxes on 98% of the people. Even though our population generally stinks at math and get glazed eyes when the concept of mysterious percentages are spoken, they can usually manage to understand 98% vs. 2%.
We know the Democrats do a better job reducing the size of government and cutting taxes for the majority of the people than the GOP does. Let's let the middle class GOP supporters finally learn who is on their side when it comes to taxes.
Write or call President Obama and tell him to change his first priority.