From Alan Grayson To Kent Conrad, Many Ds I Respect Think This Is A Good Deal [View All]

[stopbush]

I've been really pissed about the Rs driving this tax cut debate, and I'm not happy about giving more $ to the mega rich.

But then I turn on the TV machine tonight, and many Ds are supporting Obama, Ds I respect like Grayson, who said this was as good a deal as BO was going to get.

Lawrence O'Donnell had a number of progressive economists on who said the same thing and who pointed out more than a few things Obama got in this bill that they would have never thought he could get.

Maybe the Rs were blinded by the tax cuts for the rich and accepted some major progressive things just to make sure their rich buds got their tax cuts.

I was for Obama making a stand. I was for letting all the tax cuts expire (easy for me to say - I have a job). But maybe Obama robbed the Rs of some of their thunder. After all, why didn't the Rs just let it all die, then come back next year and use their majority in the House to get er done? They could have painted the Ds as impossible to work with in the lame duck. They could have had bragging rights going into 2012 that they - not the Ds - cut taxes for everybody. Instead, they compromised with the illegitimate Kenyan!

They didn't do that because they knew that if the tax cuts expired they'd need to write all new legislation and go through the whole legislative process again, only this time, they'd need to meet a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

I need to see how this shakes out. My initial reaction was that we caved again. The commentary I've heard since has me questioning whether this was really the huge loss for the Ds that we all seem to think it is.

One thing I learned tonight - the two-year extension on the tax cuts for the rich will add $140B to the deficit, NOT $700-B.