Salon: Democrats might have a winning political hand if they don't blow it, which they probably will

[Amerigo Vespucci]

http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2010/07/26/bush_tax_cut_threat/index.html

Monday, Jul 26, 2010 12:56 ET
Extending the Bush tax cut disaster
What's another two trillion added to the deficit? Republicans just don't care



The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal all published stories this weekend summarizing the looming political battle over extending (or not extending) the Bush tax cuts, but even taken together, they don't add too much to the essential dynamic outlined here last week: Republicans are crazy, but Democrats might have a winning political hand, if they don't blow it, which they probably will.

Republicans want all the Bush tax cuts extended, on the rich and the middle class, basically forever. This would add another two trillion dollars to the deficit over the next ten years. I don't know what could possibly expose the utter hypocrisy of the Republican deficit hawk stance better than the simple math of that last sentence, but it seems fruitless to belabor the point. The general public doesn't seem to like the idea of big government spending, but they don't want entitlements cut, and they hate the prospect of higher taxes even more. If the American electorate is crazy, who am I to deny Republicans the right to pander to their insanity?

Some "moderate" Democrats express a slightly more defensible view, which is that the weak economy right now makes it the wrong time to raise taxes even on those Americans who make more than $250,000 a year. Let's wait 18 months or two years before taking any action. Any good Keynesian could be expected to have sympathy for such views, since tax hikes are by definition anti-stimulus, but there's a big gaping hole in this political stance, too. If the economy is so weak that we're willing to entertain a vastly expanded deficit by extending tax cuts, then maybe we should consider some extra government spending right now, when it could do some real good, considering that the long term impact of a short-term fiscal stimulus would be much less devastating down the road than extending all the Bush tax cuts indefinitely.

The Democratic gameplan is to make extending the tax cuts a political gambit in the runup to November. If Republicans attempt to filibuster an attempt to let the tax cuts for the wealthy expire while maintaining them for the middle class, it should be easy to paint the GOP into a corner. Maybe. But the worst case scenario -- a political stalemate that runs through the election and afterwards, with the result that taxes automatically rise on everyone on December 31 -- does not seem all that unlikely.

[Bitwit1234]

1. The problem here is the Democrats don't take advantage

of these gifts. Every single one of the Democratic representatives and senators in congress should get on TV when ever they have a chance and tell it like it is. About how much these tax cuts added to the deficit. How much more they will add. And then ask republicans how they can mess their pants trying to get tax cuts for the rich, unpaid for in any budget, and wouldn't extend unemployment benefits to the needy Americans because THEY WERE NOT PAID FOR. It is a shame Bonehead and McConnell can't be cornered constantly and asked this question.

[rurallib]

2. one problem is half our electeds are republican lites.

[zipplewrath]

4. My thought too

The presumption of the article is that the primary obstacle is the GOP. I suspect there are many conservative democrats that are the real problem.

[WingDinger]

3. But, tax cuts are Jacks magic beans. common knowledge dontcha know.