President Obama calls for compromise, won't budge on tax cuts

[SunsetDreams]

President Obama calls for compromise, won't budge on tax cuts

Source: The Hill


Days after Democrats received a self-described "shellacking" at the polls, President Obama called for an end to campaigning and an embrace of compromise.

But he signaled no willingness to bend on the first challenge likely to face him from a Republican House as he advocated the permanent extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year despite the GOP's resolve to extend the tax cuts for all income brackets.

In his weekly address Saturday, Obama said that Democrats and Republicans not only agree on middle-class tax cuts but the need to rein in spending, and used this to try to drive his position on the tax cuts.

"At a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans," the president said. "We’d be digging ourselves into an even deeper fiscal hole and passing the burden on to our children."

Read more here: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/127983-obama-calls-for-compromise-wont-budge-on-tax-cuts

[Better Today]

1. The key word here is "permanent," he is already caving apparently on giving them

temporary extension which is just as bad, imo, because he's caving now and not after the Repubs actually take office. I'm guessing this means the lame duck Congress is going to be doing nothing, since Obama is already behaving as though his majority in Congress is gone.

[SunsetDreams]

2. It only is if you make it the key word, speculation and

assumptions are never fact.

[Better Today]

7. If you want to let these subtleties pass you by so you can be "surprised" by

his caving in, or conversely claim that he had no choice but to compromise at the last minute when it's clear now his intent to cave, then so be it. Your credibility and opinion will be measured accordingly.

[SunsetDreams]

8. Thanks, I'll take your assumptions under advisement :)

[Better Today]

10. You rename an educated concern as an assumption in order to create a strawman.

How discouraging to see that tactic.

[SunsetDreams]

14. "Strawman" is overly used, what is discouraging

is to see so many make assumptions and speculations about what someone is going to do.

We will just agree to disagree, because I can see this is going nowhere.
That and I will not contribute to making a long subthread over someone's assumptions, there is no point.

[Better Today]

18. Your lack of concern is noted, as is my lack of assumption.

I'll be pleased as punch to be proven wrong in my concern.

[emulatorloo]

4. And you know this how? I have seen a lot of "assumptions" and "speculations"

by the same "news" sources that so very often get things wrong.

[FrenchieCat]

26. He's not caved in.........but you have chosen to see it that way,

and your posting history shows that you always believe the worse when it comes to
this President, even when more often then not, it doesn't even come true.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. OBAMA SHOULD NEVER CAVE IN ON ANYTHING

Dems need to watch every move of the Repub House.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Let us wait and see what his actions are. Talk is cheap.

[SunsetDreams]

6. I agree, talk is cheap

[Better Today]

9. So long as we don't wait silently or supportively as though we aren't concerned

he'll cave again, then I say in the end, what choice do we have but to wait. It's how we wait that causes me to zero in on things like the term "permanent" as being concerning.

[SunsetDreams]

11. Did it ever occur to you, that it is Republicans who use the word Permanent?

Obama is simply repeating their argument, and shooting it down.

[BrklynLiberal]

13. Like he has done so many times before......?

:shrug:

[Better Today]

15. Wow, that's a reach. Obama is using the term in his address, why?

If not to begin a transition into the idea that compromise is a temporary extension? Why would he not simply remove that from his commentary? But no, he's choosing to use it.

Furthermore, if he's simply repeating their argument, instead of clearly defining his own, then he's still totally reacting to them, instead of leading, which still doesn't help, imo.

[BrklynLiberal]

12. Guess it is time to quote FDR again.."Make me do it".

Go Ahead, Make Me

I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Comment to a group of reformers. His point: Until they lead the way, they shouldn't expect leaders to follow

[Better Today]

16. But did Roosevelt have his cronies disrespect and disregard and diminish those that tried to make

him, as Obama and his cronies have in order to not be made to do anything...?

[BrklynLiberal]

20. Not a good enough historian to answer that..but I would guess the he might have.

We do have the well-known Gen Smedley Butler reveal an attempt to overthrow FDR.

Here are some articles about the FDR era...
http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/fdroosevelt/essays/biography/3

He sure did take control and make things happen...
http://www.answers.com/topic/franklin-d-roosevelt

In his address, he declared that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". The country "asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work".

No sooner was he ensconced in the White House than he embarked on a hectic programme of reform. He closed the banks for four days. Congress was summoned into special session on 9 March and in a 100-day sitting was sent a raft of measures. Greater powers were taken to control the economy. The Emergency Banking Relief Act gave the President and the Treasury greater powers over the control of credit, currency, and foreign exchange. By resolution of Congress, the USA went off the gold standard. Public spending was reduced — the Economy Act cut federal salaries — and tax revenue increased: the Beer-Wine Revenue Act legalized the sale of the drinks and brought them within the tax mechanism. (Prohibition was repealed with the successful passage of the 21st Amendment.) The best-known measures were those providing federal relief. The Federal Emergency Relief Act gave direct relief to the states and localities, the Agricultural Adjustment Act subsidized farmers, the National Industrial Recovery Act established the Public Works Administration to create work in construction as well as protecting the rights of labour, and the Civilian Conservation Corps was founded to provide work for young men in public works projects. The Tennessee Valley Authority was created to administer a massive works programme throughout the Tennessee Valley, providing work for thousands, building dams, and generating an unprecedented public utility in the form of electricity.

The measures provided the basis for Roosevelt's New Deal. Even after the famous first "100 Days", Roosevelt was not finished. Later measures followed. Greater regulation of the economy and the stock market was introduced. More public works projects were established. Labour rights were extended. The Social Security Act of 1935 broke new ground in making provision for relief to the unemployed, the disabled, the needy, and for retirement payments to the elderly. Within three years of taking office, Roosevelt had changed dramatically the relationship between the public and private sector in making provision for the citizen.

Roosevelt's New Deal measures helped restore public confidence but they attracted opposition from significant sections of the business community and especially many in the financial community. Some of the measures also fell foul of the Supreme Court. In May 1935, the court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act as unconstitutional, claiming that it imposed regulations on intrastate activity not permitted by the constitution. The Agricultural Adjustment Act and other acts were also later struck down.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/what_would_fdr_do.html

[Safetykitten]

17. "I don’t see how we can"....oh they will show you allright, and you will cave.

[Scurrilous]

19. K & R

:thumbsup:

[SunsetDreams]

21. ...

:hi:

[CBR]

22. K&R nt

[backscatter712]

23. Good on Obama. Understand that extending the tax cuts for the lower 98% is already a compromise.

Now it's the GOP's turn to compromise.

Because the numbers are on our side. Do we want to reduce the deficit and balance the budget? Or do we want to keep taxes low for the wealthy?

Extending the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% blows a $800B hole in the budget. That's the numbers.

It's time to remind the media, the GOP and the American people that we can add.

[SunsetDreams]

24. kick

[opihimoimoi]

25. He should definitely NOT CAVE and let the tax thingy EXPIRE for the Wealthy

We should not subsidize their wealth beyond this point...

Besides...they would not spend it as described(Trickle down crap)...more like Islands to buy, Jets and Boats to use...that shit

[SunsetDreams]

27. ..