Pelosi, Schumer abandon tax break for Americans earning up to $1 million

[flpoljunkie]

Good. The $366 billion in lost revenue is a big f*cking deal.

Pelosi, Schumer abandon tax break for Americans earning up to $1 million

Posted by Suzy Khimm on July 9, 2012 at 3:39 pm

Well, that was quick.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) both pushed for an extension of the Bush tax cuts to households earning up to $1 million, breaking from President Obama’s proposal to make the cut-off $250,000. But hours after Obama revived the issue by pushing for a one-year-long extension, both have backed off.

“She applauds the president, and the focus should be on Republicans opposing this at any level,” says Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi’s communications director. In a press release, she accuses the GOP for “holding middle-class tax cuts hostage to tax breaks for the wealthiest.” Similarly, has also united behind the president: “[Schumer] still believes that the millionaire strategy is the best one. But he believes more that party unity at this time is even more important…He’s going to be a team player for the president.” Politico quotes a source close to Schumer as saying.

Pelosi and Schumer’s $1 million threshold proposal had attracted considerable criticism from liberal advocates: They pointed out that the higher threshold disproportionately helped the top 2 percent of American households while costing the government $366 billion more in lost revenue over the next decade, as compared to the $250,000 cut-off.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/09/pelosi-schumer-abandon-tax-break-for-americans-earning-up-to-1-million/

[CTyankee]

1. somebody has been looking at focus grouped questions...

this "tax the rich" strategy is hitting paydirt with the voters out there. Hell, I think it coulda worked from the start of Obama's presidency if only he had pushed it.

Oh, well, at least now we're seeing this come to fruition. The voters are clearly pissed with the Congress being buddy-buddy with the rich. They've clearly HAD IT!

I'm so glad...

[Wilms]

2. Well, gee. How nice of the two of them.

Guess they figured a way to tighten their belts and suffer the Clinton tax rate.

[flpoljunkie]

3. The $1 million threshold does make the point the Rethugs will accept no tax increase of any amount.

[Wilms]

4. There's better ways to make that point.

And I haven't come across anything saying that's what they were doing.

And if it really was, I suggest they reconsider all the three-dimensional chess gaming and get on with acting like Democrats. A perfect opportunity was blown while she was in charge.

[LiberalFighter]

5. The Democrats that it at the $1 million level need to be put in a room

And have their nuts busted for resisting the $250k proposal.

Personally, I think there should be more than just the 2 current tax rates for that income level. So if they don't like the increase make it 1% more than current from $250k to $500k, 2% more than current from $500k to $1m, 3% more than current from $1m to $2m, and 4% more than current over $2 million. It probably should be higher than my examples.