White House Gives In On Bush Tax Cuts

Whatever happened to audacity? Win or lose, stick to your guns and make the Republicans vote against middle class tax cuts. Make them vote to protect unaffordable cuts for the rich while they rail against government deficits.

Word is that the White House will agree to extend all cuts for a year or two. Do they think that Congress will then be more responsible?

As E.J. Dionne Jr. of the Washington Post put it "Any wholesale extension would be a shameful and abject capitulation that would just prove how easy it is to bully Democrats."

And posted here a few days ago: "During the lame duck session, Democrats should not capitulate, nor even compromise. It certainly does no good to have a short extension of the Bush tax cuts; that just puts them in the hands of a more Republican Congress. Why not just let let all cuts expire as the law specifies and introduce in this session a slightly reduced tax reduction for the middle class?

Let the Republicans vote against that. With the richest 1% of Americans now taking home about 25% of all income (compared to 9% in 1976), let the Republicans justify more benefits for the rich."