Democrats Propose Plan to Sidestep G.O.P. Anti-Tax Pledge

[alp227]

Source: NYT

Senate Democrats — holding firm against extending tax cuts for the rich — are proposing a novel way to circumvent the Republican pledge not to vote for any tax increase: Allow all the tax cuts to expire Jan. 1, then vote on a tax cut for the middle class shortly thereafter.

The proposal illustrates the lengths lawmakers are going to in an effort to include new federal revenues in a fix for the “fiscal cliff,” the reckoning in January that would come when all Bush-era tax cuts expire and automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs kick in.

Virtually every Republican in Congress has taken the pledge, pushed by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, never to vote for a tax increase — a pledge both parties see as a serious impediment to a tax compromise. But if tax rates snap back to the levels of the Clinton presidency on Jan. 1, any legislation to reinstate some of those tax cuts — but not all of them — would be considered a tax cut.

“Many Republicans are starting to realize something important: On Jan. 1, if we haven’t gotten to a deal, Grover Norquist and his pledge are no longer relevant to this conversation,” Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said this week in a speech at the Brookings Institution. “We will have a new fiscal and political reality.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/us/politics/senate-democrats-propose-letting-all-tax-cuts-expire.html?pagewanted=all

[bluestateguy]

1. And folks will get sticker shock when they get their smaller paychecks the first week of January

which should help gin up the pressure to get this done the right way.

[awoke_in_2003]

28. Those tax cuts weren't much...

for the middle class. They affected my take home less than $10 a pay period.

[cosmicone]

2. This should have been done the last time

the Bush tax cuts were expiring. It would have raised valuable revenue and reduced the deficit.

[harun]

12. Many of us suggested this last time around. Which is why we are not optimistic

it will happen this time.

[JoePhilly]

17. No, and No.

If Obama let them all expire last time, the media focuses on the fact that he raised taxes on those under 250k, something he promised NOT to do. That broken promise would have hit 98% of all voters. The media would have played clips of Bush #1 saying "read my lips", and then Obama making his promise, and declaring Obama a one term President simply on that broken promise. There is no question that this is what would have happened.

By extending them until the 2012 lame duck session, Obama can break that promise whether he wins or loses in November. So either the GOP agrees to extend them only for those under 250k, or Obama let's them all expire and he suffers ZERO political blow-back. The blow-back will go to the Congress, who will have to extend them for those under 250k immediately.

That's what's going on.

[freshwest]

21. The baggers were created to stop that from happening, and arrived in time. The media did its job.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

3. K&R. But years of experience show that "holding firm" is not going to happen.

Does anyone in Washington, DC wonder why various 2010 elections were lost to the Republicans? Somehow there were voters who didn't think that the losing Democratic candidates were sufficiently "holding firm" against their Republican opponents.

[freshwest]

22. No, I don't wonder. The media machine did its job very well.

[WinstonSmith4740]

4. I still say screw the republicans to the wall on this.

They will figure out a way to drag a tax cut for the wealthy into anything proposed after the first of the year. They'll just refuse to vote on anything that doesn't include the continuation of the full Bush tax cuts, and then blame democrats for increasing taxes, blah, blah, blah. We've been down this road before. Have they EVER done anything to lead anyone to believe they can be trusted now? This is like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. The Democrats, or at least the Obama campaign, seems to have finally started putting a spine together...it's not complete yet obviously, as this proposed end run shows, but it's on it's way. They should just keep hammering on this, introducing bills that will maintain the tax cuts for the 98%, and make the damn rethugs either filibuster or vote against it. And then let them go home to their constituents over the holiday and explain to them why they're going to get a big hit in their paychecks after the first of the year. The democrats need to get out in front of this and make the republican party OWN this bullshit. They need to get in front of the cameras every day and keep hammering home that THEY are trying to make sure 98% of us will continue to pay lower taxes, but the republicans are more concerned about cow-tailing to Grover Norquist than working to help the American people. Unless there is a massive wave in November that gets rid of a huge number of the republicans now in office, nothing will change. They CAN NOT be trusted, and will not work to make anything better for working class Americans. Fuck 'em. The democrats need to stop playing nice and go for the damn jugular.

[bikeboy]

5. it's simple

The Republicans just need to bring Gorge W back on stage explain why the tax cuts for the rich are important to us and why we need keep his sacred cow...just sayin

[AlbertCat]

16. bring Gorge W back on stage explain why the tax cuts for the rich are important

Bush's new book on Economics!

The 4% Solution
http://www.amazon.com/4%25-Solution-Unleashing-Economic-America/dp/0307986144/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342628283&sr=1-1&keywords=the+4%25+solution


Here's Rachel's take on it (at the end) and other things recently Dubbya

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48219392

[kjackson227]

26. I totally agree...

[DallasNE]

6. I Don't Trust This

Why not just pass what Obama has asked for which is to extend the tax cuts for one more year but leave out those making over $200,000/250,000 per year, which means the latter would expire on 12/31/12. I don't trust that the new Congress would honor an agreement struck by the old Congress.

[rtracey]

19. depends

on who controls the congress.

[PSPS]

7. It works for me. I like it.

[a2liberal]

8. Pledges are serious business!

That is, unless you're in the House Progressive Caucus pledging to not vote for a corporatist bill. Then, when push comes to shove they're meaningless. At least Repugs know how to stick to their guns about something...

[SunSeeker]

9. I like it. I like it a lot.

[docgee]

10. Um.. Fuck Grover Norquist

Why does anyone really care what he thinks. He can be completely marginalized as soon as no one pays any attention to him.

[polichick]

24. It's pathetic that so many Republicans give a shit what this guy says...

Who the hell elected him to anything?!

Republicans really need to get a clue - but then they'd have to leave that sociopathic party.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

11. This could work if Democrats take over the House with

a net gain of 25 seats in November and a Speaker Nancy Pelosi brings a bill to the floor under a closed rule.

But don't tax bills have to originate in the House? Wouldn't Speaker Boehner just bring to the floor a bill that includes new tax breaks for the top 2 percent? If tax bills could originate in the Senate, Harry Reid could send over to the House the kind of bill Patty Murray envisions. But even if Harry Reid continues as Majority Leader, Article 1 Section 7 of the Constitution says he can't originate tax bills. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriation_bill .

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. If all of our taxes go up on January 1st, and a new proposal offers a middle class cut...

What type of blowback do you think Republicans would face from the 97% of Americans who could have their taxes trimmed back but won't because Republicans refuse to support it? It's one thing to posture about it not being fair or wise to raise anyone's taxes, not even on the rich, while the status quo remains the current lower tax rates for all. That is simply obstinate posturing with no real people yet feeling a new tax bite. Try that when it is the Democratic Party that is leading the charge to roll back those taxes immediately for 97% of Americans while the Republicans drag their heels holding out for the wealthiest among us.

[Sgent]

27. Yes and no

the house would pass a bill to extend the Bush era tax cuts, but the Senate could amend it wholesale and replace it with their own language.

[jimmydwight]

13. I like it. Why didn't we do this last time. Don't give into them.

[JoePhilly]

18. Last time would have made Obama a one term President.

There was no way he could increase taxes on those under 250k. If he did, he'd have broken a critcal promise, one FAR more critical than the promise to raise taxes on the wealthy.

It would have been his "read my lips" moment. One and done.

[AlbertCat]

15. Uh.... didn't we realize this...

..... when the Bush tax cut came up for expiration the first time?????


And why aren't conserv. politicians asked, whom do they serve? The Constitution and America, or Grover Norquist..... or The Family?

[cilla4progress]

20. Lawrence O'Donnell spoke about this tonight

on The Last Word. He was very supportive of it. I'm thinking the process - submitting the tax policy in the Senate - must be viable. Maybe tax policy can by proposed in either chamber?

[Proud Public Servant]

23. I don't like it

I don't want to give the GOP "a novel way to circumvent the Republican pledge not to vote for any tax increase"; I want them to fully own that batshit crazy pledge, and to have to explain publicly, over and over, that they can't engage in responsible governance because Grover fucking Norquist told them not to. They deserve thumbscrews, not a loophole.

[Volaris]

25. what's funny to me about this, is that what the GOP call a cliff..

the rest of us know to be a ladder to prosperity. If they were too short-sighted to see that they were going to get fucked on the deal they cut that led to this, I have absolutely ZERO sympathy for them. I know a lot of us were pissed at this deal at the time it got cut, but I think the President is going to come out on top of this one. The other side lost this fight a year in advance, Norquist the Gnome is trying to turn it into a wash by threatening the Congressional Republicans with the idiocy of their own base, the President knows this, (good for us, BTW) and it seems Democratic Lawmakers are looking for a way to save the asses of those with the balls to tell the Gnome where to get off. If all goes to plan, this might just work lol