Tax Cuts for Wealthy May Get Reprieve if Democrats Blink

[Purveyor]

Wealthier Americans stand to gain from an election-year fight over extending trillions of dollars in tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush.

While Democrats and Republicans alike want to keep the 2001 and 2003 tax reductions for families earning up to $250,000, President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats want to end the break for those who earn more. Republicans, contending a recovery from recession is no time to raise taxes, insist on continuing the Bush-era cuts for high-income people as well.

As Congress returns this week, the looming fight over one of the biggest battles of the session will play out in a midterm election season that will determine who controls Congress and ultimately who makes long-term decisions over taxes.

For the Democrats, reluctant to break Obama’s promises, the pressure may be strongest to blink in this standoff and let the tax cuts stand another year. All of the cuts will expire Dec. 31 if Congress fails to act, an outcome neither party can afford.

“Anybody who wants to obstruct right now is in paradise,” Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in an interview yesterday.

Ohio Republican Senator George Voinovich said he is willing to let all the tax cuts expire.

MORE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-13/tax-cuts-for-high-income-americans-depend-on-democrats-blinking.html

[Hosnon]

1. This will be the nail in the coffin for me regarding Democrats.

If they fail to extend unemployment benefits but extend the Bush tax cuts, I simply won't have the motivation to support/vote for them.

[griffi94]

2. but then the other side will win

lol.

[Hosnon]

3. Haha, right? If this isn't the other side winning already then I'm 8' tall.

I don't think anything in recent political memory has made me so down... it's fundamentally wrong and it makes me want to just disengage.

[ProudDad]

24. You mean like Obama carrying out all of the policies

that John McCain ran on? :rofl:

[FrenchieCat]

17. Perhaps you need to take your ire at the Republicans and its media,

instead of threatening as to what you will do to Dems.

If you don't think the GOP and the Media is working on this issue
day in, day out....and this is a big reason that the media is pushing
for the Republicans to win, then perhaps you were just born yesterday.

There is a way we can start now to make sure these Bush tax cuts are not extended,
but your way ain't the answer....simply to threaten the only ones that
can actually allow the tax cuts to expire.

The timing is prime.....they are set to expire 12/31/10.

That's why it is important to those with money that Republicans take over. Doh.

[Hosnon]

18. They are set to expire - which is the central point.

It will take action by Democrats and President Obama to extend them.

If they do so - without an agreement to extend unemployment - I don't know what else to do.

P.S. Please take your condescension elsewhere - you know zip about me.

[totodeinhere]

22. What I object to is the idea that the Dem's might blink and let the GOP get what it wants again.

I'm tired of this crap. The Dem majority rolls over all the time. It's got to stop.

[Hosnon]

30. Agreed. And the number one reason I'm a Democrat is because it's the party that looks after

the non-rich. At least relatively.

[bluestateguy]

4. If they pass a so-called one year extension, those taxcuts will never go away

In 2011, you'll have a House with perhaps 200-210 Republicans and a bunch of cowardly Blue Dogs who won't ever make the change.

[inna]

28. +1. I could totally see that happen. "We'll only extend it for a year". Right.

[brentspeak]

5. The chances of a Reid/Pelosi-led Democratic congress holding firm against the GOP are slim

History repeats and repeats and repeats

[joe black]

6. I'm shocked,

Shocked I tell you!

[flpoljunkie]

7. And, surprise, surprise, Evan Bayh does not want tax cuts for rich to expire at end of the year

Bayh: Eric Cantor Is ‘Exactly Right’ That Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthy Should Be Extended

Even before taking office, President Obama made it clear that he intended to extend the Bush tax cuts for the lower- and middle-class, while allowing them to expire on schedule for the richest Americans in 2011. Conservatives, however, have been apoplectic about this decision, arguing for making all the tax cuts permanent “right now,” and fearmongering about the effect the expiration will have on small businesses.

Today, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) appeared on CNBC to make his case for extending all the tax cuts. “We’re all about trying to keep the current law as it is and not allow this administration to raise these taxes,” because of a desire to “commit ourselves to help small business,” Cantor said.

Most Democrats are on board with the President’s plan to allow the cuts to expire for the richest Americans. “President Obama has indicated that he wants to extend those tax cuts for those with $250,000 in income and below,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND). “So I think Congress will work very hard to get that done.” Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), however, said that Cantor’s position is “exactly right”:

We don’t need to raise taxes now. Eric is exactly right. If we’re going to deal with those things, we ought to wait until the economy has a full head of steam going, jobs are being created, several hundred thousand a month, then you can deal with some of the long-term issues. That ought to start with spending restraint, then we can deal with some of the long-term issues. We don’t need added uncertainty, added burdens on business right now.

Video also at link below.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/07/12/bayh-cantor-bush/

[KeyWester]

10. the good news..

is that as of right now, there is only one lame duck Dem senator backing this idiotic plan.

I dare a 'running for office' Dem to go for this.

[flpoljunkie]

12. Be that as it may, Reid needs 60 votes to do anything. Would Bayh vote against cloture?

That is the question.

[karynnj]

15. Maybe what they have to do is put only the cuts below $250,000 in the bill

and let the Republicans try to pass an amendment with the tax cuts on the wealthy. The first cloture is to discuss the bill - which they want at least as much as we do.

The Republicans would then be faced with filibustering the bill to restore Bush tax cuts. This would be a great vote before the election - for us.

Then there could be an amendment to add restore the cuts for those above $250,000 and the estate tax. That is an issue where there is far more support for NO than for YES. It also could even lose a straight up vote. Making this an amendment means that we don't need 60, anything over 41 could (with a filibuster) defeat it. I doubt we would need a filibuster, which gives it additional credibility as fair. Remember that the Bush 2003 bill was rammed through with 50 votes and Dick Cheney. They did not even have all the Republicans.

Then we need to pass the bill out of the Senate. Here, I doubt the republicans would like filibustering a bill that cuts taxes for about 99% of the country.

The ONLY way we lose is if we have a bill that restores everything.

[tritsofme]

23. If Republicans were looking to block it, they would filibuster the motion to proceed.

And block debate altogether on a bill that did not include an extension for the wealthy. They would not be ignorant to the inevitability of defeat based on the math you just described.

The 2003 Bush tax cuts were passed through a reconciliation bill, and only needed 50+1 votes in the Senate for passage, so not really an analogous situation. Actually Congressional Democrats' failure to pass a budget this year means no reconciliation instructions to the relevant committees, and we get no shot at a "filibuster proof" bill this year.

I think Republicans will try to block any bill that doesn't extend all of the tax cuts, and if Democrats don't blink and let the tax cuts expire, the Republicans will shamelessly proceed to tout "the biggest tax increase in history" or some other such nonsense. Win win as far as they see it. It would be pretty bad if the 10% tax bracket disappeared along with some of the other popular middle class tax cuts, which is what makes the whole "cave-in" scenario a realistic possibility if push comes to shove.

[karynnj]

27. I say that is why we need to LET them filibuster it

This is not unemployment - where they don't care that people have no unemployment insurance. We need to frame it that it was the Republicans that passed the bill that included the taxes expiring - and we need to make people understand that this was because even in 2003, making them permanent was too expensive.

I think we should be able to peal off a vulnerable Republican or two.

[flpoljunkie]

29. Am afraid there are too many Dems who want to extend Bush tax cuts for the rich.

And, would join in filibustering an amendment to restore tax cuts for the rich. Evan Bayh has already said as much--just this past Sunday.

[HughBeaumont]

8. Gaaaaah . .. TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH DON'T FUCKING CREATE JOBS!!!

Does this have to be shouted from the treetops? It's BUNK, a fantasy, fairy tale bullshit, a mound of Republican manure so high you'd be able to see Russia from MY backyard on top of it!! This would require no legislation, you let them sunset, THE END. Stop letting the ultra-wealthy and their bitchboys hold this country hostage.

[sce56]

9. +1

[w4rma]

11. Do they understand how much these piss regular Americans off? They live in bubbles. (nt)

[bergie321]

13. If they get extended

I will not vote for another Democrat ever again.

[libmom74]

14. tell me again

why I should support these guys? I thought it was all about the deficit, I mean that's why we can't extend UE benefits, right? But yet the wealthy can't be made to pay slightly higher taxes even though it would greatly reduce the deficit? Seriously? I don't want to hear about the big bad Republican boogeyman in November and how I have to vote for the Democrats because at least they're better than the Repukes, because I'm starting to wonder how they are better. I'm hearing a lot of words but the actions seem to be geared to making life better for the top 1% and Wall Street, doing nothing about climate change and the escalation of war in Afghanistan. :argh:

[TheKentuckian]

16. Honestly, all the cuts need to expire and that money needs to be invested back into the country

Tax cuts are 90% bull or more as stimulative spending, and that was supposed to be the purpose.

We can't reinvent our energy and fuel systems, truly get started on light rail, keep public employees in their jobs on the state and local levels, at least get our roads and bridges up to code, maintain and expand the safety nets, and do the decades over due repair and updates to our water and sewage systems jacking around with piddling efforts that defund the government.

[ThoughtCriminal]

19. Extending the tax cut will not win even one vote

anywhere. Does anyone really think that any of the tax cut supporters are likely to EVER vote for a Democrat - even one that votes for an extension?

Not a chance.

[NorthCarolina]

20. Is there anyone here that truly believes that these cuts will be allowed to expire

without some other legislation being passed to replace the cuts with the equivalent, or better? I don't.

[totodeinhere]

21. So let me get this straight. They are going to extend tax cuts for the wealthy, but they can't seem

to extend unemployment insurance for working people. There is something very wrong with this picture.

[ProudDad]

25. Uh...

They weren't hired by their corporate capitalist masters to "extend unemployment benefits" for working people...

They were hired to enhance and extend the great migration of wealth upward TO their corporate capitalist masters...

[ProudDad]

26. Let 'em all ex[ire

Veto, Barack, Veto...