Now what is that old whore-monger Dick Morris babbling about now? Surrender? He should talk.
And what does President Obama have to say on the matter? According to MSNBC:
President Barack Obama announced the parameters of a tentative deal with Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts, acknowledging that he still strongly opposes the extension of cuts for the very wealthy but saying that continuing a fight at the expense of the middle class would be “the wrong thing to do.”
“We have arrived at a framework for a bipartisan agreement,” the president said, after noting that it is “abundantly clear” that Republicans will block a permanent extension of tax cuts for the middle class without an extension for top earners as well.
“As much as the political wisdom may dictate fighting over solving problems, it would be the wrong thing to do,” to delay resolution until the next year, Obama said.
Some of the broad parameters of the deal, reported by NBC’s Chuck Todd, are:
— 2-year extension of ALL Bush-era tax rates
— 13-month extension of unemployment insurance
— 2 percentage point decrease in the payroll tax for one year.
The overall cost in lost revenue to the government is at least $450 billion in 2011 (or a tad higher than the yearly cost of the 2009 stimulus) and could climb as high as $600 billion depending on how much the economy grows over the next two years.
In the deal will be some extension of small business tax breaks as well and a “fix” to address inflation indexing of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) rates.
So how do we pay for it all? Do we borrow money from China to pay for the Republican tax cuts? I guess it is all a matter of priorities. What happened to the cuts in Social Security tax? I thought FICA was going to be reduced. Maybe just social security pay outs will be cut.
There is also more to come on the the estate tax. No mention of capital gains taxes.
Whatever deals he cut, President wasn’t going to leave the American people hanging.
