White House and Hill Republicans have outlines of tax deal

[Faygo Kid]

Source: The Hill

White House negotiators and congressional Republicans have the outlines of a deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts and federal unemployment benefits, which would end a partisan stalemate on Capitol Hill.

Under the prospective deal, all the Bush tax cuts would be extended for two years and unemployment benefits would be extended for one, according to congressional sources. Also under consideration is an extension of the Make Work Pay and college-tuition tax credits that were part of the 2009 economic stimulus package.

But nothing is final yet.

Sen. Jon Kyl (Ari.), who is representing Senate Republicans in talks with the administration, downplayed talk of a deal — as did the White House. . .

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/131781-white...

---

Not enough of a cave by the White House. I expect a three-month extension of unemployment benefits in exchange for a two or three year "temporary" extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Only if Alan Simpson approves, of course. I would be so outta here if I was younger, but at my age, I can only hope and pray that Social Security and Medicare survive another few years. At this rate, I have my doubts.

[wordpix]

1. the rich get $700 billion in tax cuts while the poor get $18 billion in UI benefits

No wonder no one wants to talk about it.

[Name removed]

66. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pimpbot]

2. NO compromise

Give the rich more tax cuts and penalize middle class federal workers? Give me a break. The dems need to grow a spine and say NO to the republicans.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. -puke-..I mean REALLY !!! .... -PUKE!-

"Thank you sir. May I have another?"

Is there ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL that the repukes want, to which Obama will firmly say "NO"?

[Nancy Waterman]

5. Maybe the Senate Dems will stand firm

Givng the rich this bonus just because the GOP are whining is ridiculous.

[wordpix]

6. obviously some of the Dem money grubbers are whining, too

Apparently the Dems taking corporate/richie campaign dough-nations don't want to vote against their puppetmasters, either.

[No Elephants]

24. Funniest post so far this week.

[jtuck004]

17. +1

[Lorien]

22. Nope. The only "opposition" Obama says no to is US. nt

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. Two years = permanent. n/t

[wordpix]

7. DEFINITELY permanent if repukes win the presidency again, which is looking evermore possible. WTF?

[Bonhomme Richard]

10. Beginning to look that way and....

howdy from the northwest hills.

[wordpix]

13. Hello, Bonhomme Richard...getting cold, yes?

[Andy823]

8. One problem I see.

A "temporary" extension of tax cuts for the rich for "TWO" years, will put this right back where we have been all this year because once again it will be an "ELECTION" year! The same damn thing will happen as did this year. Republicans will DEMAND a permanent tax break for the rich, and democrats will once again be stuck having to vote for this before an election, and we know what happened this time when they "SHOULD" have done that!

I say one year for unemployment benefits, and if we "HAVE" to cave in, make it only ONE year for the extension for the rich, or put something in the bill that says the temporary extension will end with NO DISCUSSION after two years, if that has to be what it takes to get something done. Personally I say let them all expire, force the republicans to vote NO, and let them take the blame. Come back next year and bring a bill to the floor for tax cuts for the middle class again making it retroactive, and once again force republicans so vote on it, over and over every month, or more, until it passes! Of course I am not a politician, but I say it's time to make republicans pay for all their little games and for democrats to show the people who voted for them that they can stand up to the slime in the republican party! If I were president this is what I would be saying to congress!

[wordpix]

12. no, no, it's 2 yrs. for tax cuts for the rich @$700 billion vs 1 yr. of UI benefits@ $18 billion

This is a fair compromise. Right?

[Angry Dragon]

16. Make them give a guarantee for how many jobs they will create

spelling

[jtuck004]

18. How about $100 billion for every percent decrease in unemployment?

On second thought, that would just create a boom in home health care aide jobs...

Heard a winger on Olberman (or another channel) say the tax cut was a good thing, that it could create jobs.
Because then the wealthy would add on to their homes, and they would have to hire help.

Servants.

And he said it without a trace of irony. I wanted to grab some irony - maybe a 7 irony.

[Lorien]

20. Yeah, how have those tax cuts for the wealthy worked for us so far?

I always tell wingers that if tax cuts for the rich worked to create jobs for the middle and working classes, then the Eisenhower years would have caused an economic collapse while our best economies would have been during Reagan and Bush 2. Didn't quite work out that way, did it?

[jtuck004]

21. Yup. I figure that's a bet we would never have to pay off on. n/t

[ProudDad]

54. macdonalds would spring up on every corner... (n/t)

[abelenkpe]

9. sickening. nt

[Iowa]

11. All of us who predicted they would cave were right. Scumbags.

[Elmore Furth]

14. Obama, GOP in quiet talks to extend tax cuts

Now the rubber meets the road.

By Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray
Thursday, December 2, 2010; 9:36 PM

The White House and congressional Republicans have begun working behind the scenes toward a broad deal that would prevent taxes from going up for virtually every U.S. family and authorize billions of dollars in fresh spending to bolster the economy.

Negotiations have accelerated in recent days as Congress has confronted deadlines for extending a series of tax cuts that expire at the end of the month, renewing emergency jobless benefits and keeping the government funded into next year.

The talks mark the dawn of a new era on Capitol Hill, with resurgent Republicans holding far more leverage and commanding a more prominent role in crafting legislation. The private discussions, which parallel a more public set of talks, have left many Democrats grousing that President Obama is being too quick to accommodate his adversaries, who are still a month away from taking control of the House and expanding their presence in the Senate.

Republicans are demanding that Democrats extend Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels at least temporarily, not just those that primarily benefit the middle class. They are also pressing Democrats to approve a measure to keep the government funded through September, possibly avoiding a fight with the White House over spending that could provoke a government shutdown.

The negotiations, which involve Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) , pre-date a bipartisan meeting Tuesday at the White House over the year-end legislative agenda, according to congressional sources. Conducted by phone and through other back channels, they are running parallel to more public bargaining sessions led by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and White House budget chief Jacob Lew.






Obama, GOP in quiet talks to extend tax cuts

[awoke_in_2003]

15. One more thing...

that I do not have to eat crow about.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. If the Dems and President Obama allow this they will be committing political suicide

[applegrove]

23. I am hopefull that Obama will run on ending the tax cuts for the rich in 2012.

[closeupready]

26. Don't you get it? It doesn't MATTER what he runs on - he DOESN'T FOLLOW THROUGH.

On promise after promise. He does not. Follow. Through.

[shanti]

67. exactly

which is why i don't believe he will be a two-termer. he's broken too many promises to be believable anymore.

[No Elephants]

27. Yep. Public option and no mandates, too! Fingers crossed!

[w4rma]

25. So the middle class tax cuts aren't made permanent either? I'm voting against Obama in two years.nt

[mazzarro]

28. Wondering How The WH Will Eventually Spin This

disgraceful capitulation - hmmmmm!

[HowHasItComeToThis]

48. SHOWING THAT GOLDMAN SACHS OWNS HIM...... DAMN

[onehandle]

29. Obama, GOP in quiet talks to extend tax cuts (ALL Tax Cuts)

Source: Washington Post

Friday, December 3, 2010: The White House and congressional Republicans have begun working behind the scenes toward a broad deal that would prevent taxes from going up for virtually every U.S. family and authorize billions of dollars in fresh spending to bolster the economy. Negotiations have accelerated in recent days as Congress has confronted deadlines for extending a series of tax cuts that expire at the end of the month, renewing emergency jobless benefits and keeping the government funded into next year.

The talks mark the dawn of a new era on Capitol Hill, with resurgent Republicans holding far more leverage and commanding a more prominent role in crafting legislation. The private discussions, which parallel a more public set of talks, have left many Democrats grousing that President Obama is being too quick to accommodate his adversaries, who are still a month away from taking control of the House and expanding their presence in the Senate.

Republicans are demanding that Democrats extend Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels at least temporarily, not just those that primarily benefit the middle class. They are also pressing Democrats to approve a measure to keep the government funded through September, a move aimed at avoiding a fight with the White House over spending that could provoke a government shutdown. In return, Obama is seeking Republican support for as much as $150 billion in new spending on the economy, including an additional 13 months of emergency jobless benefits and another year of his signature "Making Work Pay" tax cut for working families.

The latest round of jobless benefits expired Tuesday night, leaving 2 million people facing the holidays without income support. With the unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent, failure to renew the benefits could do widespread harm to jobless families and, according to a White House economic report released Thursday, destroy 600,000 jobs over the next year as those families curb spending.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

---

President Boehner:

[Me.]

30. Quiet As In Secret?

Despite public opposition?

[Deep13]

31. traitor nt

[ProSense]

32. This is an article from yesterday and pure speculation

Gibbs said there was no deal.

[PSPS]

34. Obama caving is as much 'speculation' as the sun rising in the east in the morning.

[ProudDad]

53. I'll up the ante

$100 against $2000 that Obama signs a bill that has a tax cut extension for the rich in it...

[whistler162]

33. Rumour has it that Obama is in highly secret negotiations

with Martians to take over the earth!

SInce it is now in print it must be true!

[bowens43]

35. of course he's going to cave.

That's what Obama does. The man has no spine and no convictions. He is probably the weakest Democratic president we have ever had. I will NOT vote for him 2012 if the rich get their tax cuts.

I can't believe that I bought into this guys bullshit and lies. Never again.

[democrat_patriot]

36. Than bow to your new Republican overlords.

Vote Republican then.

I can get this response over at FR.

[okieinpain]

39. thank you for your post. why people keep making bad comments

about president obama being a weak president I'll never know. lets see health care reform, financial reform, a major pull out from irag, stop the u.s. from sliding into a depression all despite unparalleled opposition from the repugs and dems, that he is doing too much or not enough and that's just off the top of my head. but yet he's weak and spineless.

hell and I'm not even a big fan of the dude.

[democrat_patriot]

46. Lately I feel I'm at FR.

It's disappointing.

[ProudDad]

57. Let's see

"Health Reform" that gave away the store to the health insurance corporations and big PhRMA...

Financial Reform: Oh, yeah, I didn't remember Glass-Steagell being reinstated...

Major Pullout from Iraq -- set into motion by George W Bush and, thank GOD, NOT rescinded by Obama...Major buildup and open ended war in Afghanistan to take up the slack though -- oh, and a larger war department budget...

Stop the U.S. from sliding into depression: the vast majority of the People of the United States are IN a depression in case you haven't checked lately. He DID continue the bailout of the banksters that George W Bush began (and hired the same bastards who were in charge under bush to do it!) so he did rescue the uber-rich of Wall Street from their "Depression"...

That's just off the top of my head...

[okieinpain]

59. well there you go he's a worthless bastard, who should be tired

and feathered. I mean hell dems should have elected hilary or dean I mean they would have done a way better job right.

[ProudDad]

61. Here's your cognitive disconnect...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[pattmarty]

41. Sure you can. They want ALL the cuts extended, and Obama wants all.......

.......the cuts extended. See? The same here as FR.

[titaniumsalute]

43. Voting for Obama is like voting for Republican overlord

I can't see the difference between voting for Obama or voting for McCain a few years ago.

[fascisthunter]

50. why vote republican when we have a democratic president doing their bidding

and you defend it, so I find your post to be ironic.

[ProudDad]

56. That's because we're working with

the two-right-wings of the Corporate War Party...

Thanks for the verification...

(I won't go over there -- their lousy looking site hurts my eyes)

[pattmarty]

40. Hear, here!

[Kweli4Real]

44. Why do people insist that PRESIDENT Obama lacks spine?

When truth has it that he is far more true to HIS guiding principle - the seeking of bipartisanship as the proper function of his office - than any one of us keyboard critics.

It seems that we, here at DU, have bought into the media-driven conventional "wisdom" that compromise equals "caving", when nothing could be farther from the truth. Compromise moves the ball towards the goal.

In this case (and from this article), if extending the tax cuts for all Americans, even the wealthy (temporarily), results in new stimulus spending, e.g., extension of U/C benefits, or a federal infrastructure jobs program, or even a decoupling of the middleclass tax cuts from those for the wealthy; I would happily say go for it.

And while I'm at it ...

I wonder if anyone has considered the ramifications if PRESIDENT Obama were to take a forceful, uncompromising stand on an economic issue and the measure fails because the blue dogs fail to support the measure? (That's really not so hard to imagine because they have done so since Day One of the Obama presidency)

Wouldn't that do far more damage to an Democratic agenda, not to mention the Office of the President, than any "caving" that he may have done?

[mazzarro]

45. And Teapublicans Don't Have To Consider Any Consequence

of their intransigence to all legislation? Why is it that it has to be the democrats that must consider the consequence of standing firm on their principles and goals while teapublicans don't? We keep encouraging them with our fears of standing for our principles and they have in turn moved the political spectrum to the far right. Now democrats do not have any principles to speak of on the national political scene.

[Kweli4Real]

49. Because ...

the teaparty is not the POTUS.

Maybe, we are talking two different things? I was talking about the ramification of PRESIDENT Obama taking a stand and then being sold-out by the blue dogs, or other less than principled democrats.

If the Democrats could be counted on to take a stand, supporting PRESIDENT Obama, or better yet - to the left of PRESIDENT Obama, then PRESIDENT Obama can set his sights much, much higher,

But alas, this is not the case. So PRESIDENT Obama cannot risk taking a stand and losing ... regardless of how much many on the left would demand that he do so.

[ProudDad]

62. IF Obama were a principled supporter of We the People

instead of a captive of Vampire Capitalism (as he was trained by Harvard Law to be)...

He could do what Lyndon Johnson did when he arm-twisted some Dixiecrats and Republicans to get the Poverty Program, Civil Rights legislation and Medicare passed...

He called them up and said, "Say, Bubba, I really need your help on this... I understand you're really interested in <insert Earmark project here> in your district. Well, Bubba, you scratch mine and I'll scratch yours... Sometimes I have a problem and my veto pen just does shit that I don't want to do... Thanks for your help on this, Bubba"

The pResident has the power of the Veto pen and the bully pulpit -- media time on demand...

You underestimate the potential power of a truly Progressive President if one could ever make it through the corporate filter on the process...

Work locally, forget the Feds...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[peace frog]

37. Who could have predicted..

actually, many did predict. I never expected otherwise.

[FailureToCommunicate]

38. "...the dawn of a new era" Gimme a break.

[NorthCarolina]

42. Imagine what would be possible if the people had advocates in DC as strong and steadfast

as the wealthy do.

[JustAnotherGen]

47. Sputing off here

But if this is truly the 'deal' in the works - Obama just lost 2012.

1. Two more years of tax cuts for everyone? The deficit is going to continue to rise - especially with no end in sight for Afghanistan and our continued presence in Iraq.

2. We have ten years of proof that the 'wealthy' getting this welfare are too lazy to create jobs. If they were even remotely CAPABLE of creating jobs - we wouldn't have the unemployment rate that we do. If the theory is giving rich people tax breaks creates job is the 'accepted reality' - then guess what? Unemployment is still going to be above 9% in two years.


President Obama must not want to win in 2012 - becuase even though WE the INDIVIDUALS of the Democratic party are morally superior to our Teapublican counterparts . . .

Their LEADERSHIP is stellar/completely outshines our leadership in 'painting a picture for the public'.

[ProudDad]

58. I'm afraid that the sheeple won't remember this in 2012

And Obama will become the campaigning creature he was in '08...

And the repubs will run Sarah Palin...

Who will have a damn good chance by then...especially among the actual 25% unemployed and underemployed...

[JustAnotherGen]

60. I stand corrected

25% unemployment sounds about right.

[Zhade]

51. FUCKING TOLD YOU SO, you delusional loyalists!

Once again, we were right about Obama breaking yet another promise. When will you wake up?

[TomCADem]

64. Giving Republicans A Free Pass, And Only Blaming Democrats Again? Pathetic

Once again, we continue to push the right wing narrative of blaming President Obama for the actions of the Republicans. Here only four Democrats voted against letting tax cuts for those making over $250,000 expire. President Obama has pushed for letting them expire. Yet, you blame President Obama and give Republicans a free pass?

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/r...

[Hosnon]

52. White House FAIL.

The GOP aren't stupid. In 2012, if they retain the House and/or at least 41 Senate seats they will just force the exact same compromise. The only way this makes sense is if we are very confident that (1) the Dems take back the house, (2) the Dems get a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and (3) Obama wins reelection.

And UI extended for half as long? Give me a break.

[TomCADem]

65. Once again, Beyond The Right Wing Rhetoric Blaming Democrats and Giving The GOP A Free Pass

Here is the actual roll call. Here only four Democrats voted against letting tax cuts for those making over $250,000 expire. President Obama has pushed for letting them expire. Yet, you blame President Obama and give Republicans a free pass?

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/r...

[ProudDad]

55. That's about the right ratio for USAmerica

Huge tax breaks for the rich for "two years" (until the Republicans gain control of both houses and make them permanent)...

And an extension of a tiny bit of help for the unemployed for one year...

The rich get $140 Billion, the disadvantaged $18 billion...yep, just about right...

Yep, that's about right for the Corporate States of America...

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

63. 1) Bend

a) A little further now

2) Over

b) Right there

Yup, reads like an outline to me.