One of the most absurd things Obama said today during his press conference was that this fight over ending the wealthy tax cuts was the "public option debate all over again." Here was his exact quote:
"This notion that somehow we are willing to compromise too much reminds me of the debate that we had during health care. This is the public option debate all over again. I pass a signature piece of legislation where we finally get health care for all Americans, something that Democrats have been fighting for for a hundred years. But because there was a provision in there that they didn’t get, that would have affected maybe a couple of million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people, and the potential for lower premiums for maybe 100 million people, that somehow that was a sign of weakness, of compromise."
Sorry Mr. President, but this is NOT the public option debate all over again. "Elections matter." is what Obama said to the Republican leadership back when he first took office. And this is why this is NOT the same as the public option debate.
Throughout the 2008 campaign, Obama campaigned on a health care plan that included the following (article):
- if you like your plan, you can keep it.
- create an insurance "exchange" with income-based premium subsidies, called the National Health Insurance Exchange
- provide subsidies that will allow people to purchase affordable low-cost health care coverage
- expand Medicaid and the SCHIP program
- small businesses eligible for tax credits to help with costs
- insurance could not base premiums on pre-existing conditions and health status
- may consider individual mandate for adults, required for children
- favored a public option
If you read that commonwealth fund article published in October of 2008, you will not see anything about a public option. Obama did say on several occasions that he favored a public option like Medicare on the exchange. But it was never a core tenet. If it was, it would have been mentioned in that article written one month before the election. If you see the list above, you will see that he essentially got exactly what he campaigned on. We ended up with state-based exchanges as opposed to a national exchange, and he did go with the individual mandate. Other than that though, his promise was mostly kept.
Democrats in Congress and on the ground fought for the public option and rightfully so. However, once it was clear that it was going to vote without a public option, we rallied around it. Most Democrats were in favor of the Health care bill by the time it came to a vote. Some purists remained opposed, but for the most part this was celebrated as a victory, and it was. It was the the largest changes to health care in the U.S. since 1964 and it provided (near) universal health insurance for the first time.
Now on to the tax cut deal. Obama's tax platform during the 2008 campaign was clear, and has been repeated thousands of times. Keep the current tax rates in place for individuals making less than $200,000 or $250,000 for families, and let the tax cuts expire for those making over $250k. This was clear. He said it in the early days of 2007, he said it in the last debate in 2008. He said it at an event I was at in Cleveland two days before the 2010 midterm election.
Now, he has agreed to a plan to extend all of the Bush tax cuts, add in an estate tax cut, and then throw in some social security killing payroll tax cuts, all for some unemployment benefits that Republicans supposedly would not vote to extend.
This plan does not represent Progressive Democrats getting 95% of what we want, and then complaining bitterly about the 5%.
This is progressive, and moderate, and even some conservative Democrats getting slapped in the face, and Republicans getting 110% of what they wanted.
This was 74% of Americans being against wealthy tax cuts, and 53% in FAVOR of Obama's original plan.
But its worse than just these two years of tax cut extensions. Obama has just validated George W. Bush's 2003 tax cut policy by agreeing to extend it for another two years to "create jobs." Get that?
Obama just validated George W. Bush's economic policies.
Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. Those are the only things that stimulate the economy now. Payroll tax cuts, estate tax cuts, middle class tax cuts. Keynesian economics are dead in America. Neither party, save Bernie Sanders and a few others, believe that government spending can help the economy. Even the stimulus act was over 1/3 tax cuts.
Here is the difference between the two parties (if we do indeed follow Obama's lead): Republicans are for big tax cuts, Democrats are for slightly smaller big tax cuts. How are we supposed to win the public's hearts and minds with that message.
So no, Mr. President, this is not the public option debate all over again. This was selling away our party's principles. It was also selling away our country's future.
(I'm going to start doing Likert scales in my polls, first one below:)