On Bush tax cuts, Democrats have to man up, not give in

The initial reaction of President Obama and many political pundits to the results of the midterm elections is that Democrats in Congress and the White House have to work harder to find common ground with Republicans to improve the economy and create jobs.

On the first issue that will come up in the lame-duck session of Congress, the president and some Democrats have suggested compromising their previous position that the tax cuts should not be extended for those with taxable income in excess of $200,000 (for single filers) and $250,000 (for joint filers).

The compromise suggested is to make the tax cuts permanent for the 98 percent of taxpayers not in this group and temporary for one or two years for the richest 2 percent.

In making this concession in advance and signaling a willingness to adopt the same approach for the host of issues in the next two years, the president and other Democrats make the same mistake they made in dealing with health care, the stimulus package and financial reform — making concessions before negotiations have begun and without any commitment by Republicans to support the final package.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20101115/COLUMNIST/101119867/-1/sports?p=1&tc=pg

I'm sure that Obama knows as well as anyone that you don't start a bargaining process b y putting forward the proposition you hope to end with. Therefore he wants to end up further to the right, while retaining the right to say "I tried to compromise on a temporary extension of the tax cuts for the rich, but had to accept them as permanent because the Republicans wouldn't meet me half way."

Same deal with health care. If he had wanted to end up with a public option, he would have started with single-payer. But the deal was down with the insurance companies before the "bargaining" ever started. Furthermore, he made concessions, supposedly to lure in Republicans, and ended up retaining the concessions even when no Republicans took the bait.

He got the bill he wanted.

He will also get the bills he wants on taxes and SocSec. Too damn bad what he wants and what the common people need are so far apart.

the author lost me at the subject line. No thanks.

And, unrecced for that alone.