Will Obama really end tax cuts for rich in 2012? [View All]

[Donnachaidh]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/12/will_obama_make_good_on_vow_to.html


The fact that many liberals and Dems answer that question in the negative is perhaps the primary reason the White House is having so much trouble selling them on the tax cut deal. Obama has promised to do this, but libs and Dems just don't believe him.

Here's a case in point. As I reported earlier today, the White House is circulating a chart designed to prove that Obama and Dems got far more from the tax deal, despite extending the tax cuts for the rich. But now MoveOn, which is organizing against the tax deal, has responded with a chart of its own demonstrating the massive bonanza Republicans win over the next 10 years if you assume the tax cuts for the rich won't really be repealed in two years:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/assets_c/2010/12/moveonchart-30860.html

The serious point that this chart gets at is that liberals and Dems just don't believe the tax cuts for the rich will ever expire, no matter how firm Obama's vow to have this fight again in 2012. As Ben Smith put it today, the extension of the high end cuts constitutes "moving a structural shift in the American tax system toward permanence, while the other large measures are much more temporary."

The deal's supporters will argue that Obama will of course want to have this fight. Arguing for an expiration of the high end cuts is the single best pushback Obama will be able to muster when Republicans start calling for spending cuts to reduce the deficit. What's more, 2012 is an election year. If he didn't take up the fight he'd be reneging on a campaign promise he made twice, once in 2008 and again in 2010. Opponents of the deal argue: Yeah, right. Obama and Dems are really going to raise taxes during an election?

More at the link ---