Tax Cut Deal Reached, May Not Hold

PresBo, probably reacting to the "shellacking" Democrats took in November, looks to be more willing to compromise, to acknowledge that other people matter. In this case, we're talking about the "Bush Tax Cuts" that will expire in less than a month. Democrats wanted to extend most brackets but let taxes rise on high earners. Republicans are holding out for extending all the cuts, regardless of brackets.

Obama blinked, and now says that he has worked out a deal with the GOP leadership.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20024842-503544.html

Anyone waiting to see how the midterm election would change the course of the Obama Presidency, look no further than yesterday. The president started his day with a call for a bipartisan approach on infrastructure and education initiatives, hoping to rally American to a new "Sputnik moment," and ended with a truly bipartisan agreement on taxes.

With a temporary extension of all the Bush tax cuts, 13 months of additional unemployment insurance, a renewed 35 percent estate tax, and a two-percent payroll tax cut, the plan has something for everyone to love and most to find something to hate.

If you'd like to see the White House's press release on the deal, you can find it here:
http://blogs.ajc.com/jamie-dupree-washington-insider/2010/12/07/white-house-on-tax-deal/
The President has long promised to be "bipartisan", but this is literally the first time that he's actually taken a step in that direction. And predictably, the Democrats don't like it.


No, they don't like it at all. House Democrats, seemingly led by Nancy Pelosi, are railing against the deal and threatening to kill it.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/132381-hoyer-house-dem-leaders-not-on-board-tax-deal

House Democrats signaled Monday they will fight the tax-cut deal President Obama announced a day earlier with Republicans.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday there was "no consensus or agreement reached by House leaders" on the deal Obama negotiated with the GOP, while Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized GOP provisions in the agreement.

Many Democrats are even taking this as more than a sign of hated compromise and claiming that this means Obama is damaging his own chances at reelection.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/132307-angry-left-sees-refusal-to-fight-as-crippling-2012-reelection-bid

President Obama could be crippling his own reelection effort by making a deal with Republicans to extend all of the Bush-era tax cuts, Democratic strategists and liberal groups said Monday.

“President Obama has shown a complete refusal to fight Republicans throughout his presidency even when the public is on his side — and millions of his former supporters are now growing disappointed and infuriated by this refusal to fight,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Heck, even some Republicans in the House oppose the deal, albeit for different reasons.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/132367-voinovich-slams-tax-deal-vows-to-vote-no-on-everything

Republican Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio) teed off on a tentative deal between Senate GOP leaders and President Obama to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years.

Voinovich said he would vote against the proposal and called for tax rates to reset to the levels they were at in the 1990s. He said that would give Congress an incentive to take up tax reforms.

“I’m going to vote to no on everything,” Voinovich said Tuesday about the proposal to extend all tax rates by two years and federal unemployment benefits by 13 months. “I want to not extend them. I want to force us to do tax reform.”

So don't count your chickens before they hatch, this "tax deal" was reached between PresBo and the Republican leadership, and we have NO guarantee that the rank and file members of either party will go along.