Robert Reich: The President’s Last Stand Is No Stand At All: Why the Tax Deal is an Abomination [View All]

The President’s Last Stand Is No Stand At All: Why the Tax Deal is an Abomination

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

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It’s politically nuts. Polls showed most Americans are against extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

It would have been a defining issue for the President to use to show whose side he’s on (the middle and working class) and whose side the Republicans are on (not the middle and working class). And given that the House turns over to Republicans in January, the President probably won’t have another chance like this one.

It loses him even more of his “base” — by which I mean people who think of themselves as Democrats and are committed to the ideal of equal opportunity and don’t want the nation to become even more of a plutocracy.

It makes him look weak — Republicans got everything they wanted. And when a President looks weak, he is weak.

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