Robert Reich: Why is the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers Helping the Republicans? [View all]

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Why is the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers Helping the Republicans?
Monday, November 26, 2012


Why is the White House trying to scare average people about the consequences of the “fiscal cliff?”

If the President’s strategy is to hold his ground and demand from Republicans tax increases on the wealthy, presumably his strongest bargaining position would be to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire on schedule come January – causing taxes to rise automatically, especially on the wealthy.

So you’d think part of that strategy would be reassure the rest of the public that the fiscal cliff isn’t so bad or so steep, and that at the start of January Democrats will introduce in Congress a middle-class tax cut whose effect is to prevent taxes from rising for most people (thereby forcing Republicans to vote for a tax cut for the middle class or hold it hostage to a tax cut for the wealthy as well).

But today (Monday) the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers issued a report today warning that if Congress allows the Bush tax cuts to expire January 1 and the Alternative Minimum Tax to kick in, the middle class will face sharply-rising taxes. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/36593702879