Reply #25: It occurred to me that that's built into the Jobs bill already

[frazzled]

When I listened to the press conference today it dawned on me that there's a poison pill in there for the Republicans. The bill asks to extend tax breaks on middle-class Americans. At the Joint Session speech the other night, the President was goading the Republicans about, c'mon, they're under pledges not to raise taxes, so they HAVE to be for this.

The biggest problem for the plan to let the tax cuts expire only on the wealthiest Americans is that it's one bill set to expire for everyone. The Republicans always thought they had the upper hand because enough Democrats won't be willing to let them expire for everyone, and there was no easy way to separate out the two groups when considering this alone. By including the extension on middle-class-only within this jobs bill, Obama, it seems to me, has them by the short hairs. Perhaps I misunderstand, but this is what I concluded from listening.

That aside, the capping deductions for the wealthy and the hedge-fun manager income taxing alone will net nearly the full amount ($400B of the $450B) needed to pay for this Jobs Bill.