Sanders Outlines Plan To Sink Obama Tax Compromise

[ProSense]

Sanders Outlines Plan To Sink Obama Tax Compromise

Brian Beutler

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is making the loudest filibuster threats in the Senate right now, vowing to do all he can to block President Obama's tax cut compromise.

Here's how: "Find a handful of Republicans who are willing to vote no on this agreement and then come back and come up with a proposal that is much stronger and much fairer," he told reporters today.

"What I'm saying as a progressive should appeal to conservatives all over this country," Sanders added. "I think we have a winnable fight here. I think the American people are with us and I intend to do everything that I can to defeat this proposal."

No doubt a few Republicans will break from the GOP, but it will take a full 41 members to guarantee that the plan goes down. So far, Sanders won't say if he has any allies on the right.

"I'm not into naming names," he said, "but let me tell you something: Obviously I come from a more progressive state than most. But I will be willing to bet -- and you ask them -- dollars to donuts, that in R states all over this country there are people saying, 'Wait a second, it is insane to give tax breaks to billionaires when the rich have done phenomenally well in recent years.'"

This should be interesting.

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. It *is* ridiculous to give tax breaks to billionaires

If Sanders can engineer a way to kill the compromise while still getting us unemployment extensions and other immediately necessary credits, then good on him. If he can do it without putting a DADT vote off the calendar, even better. I wish him luck. There's more than one way to skin a cat, for sure.

[ProSense]

2. Why

didn't they do this before the election?

If Senator Sanders can pull this off now (and it has to be better than the President's deal---do we know what other votes were secured?), then this shouldn't have been put off until now.

Still, this is going to be interesting to watch, and time is not on the Democrats' side.

[Beetwasher]

11. Yup

n/t

[Beetwasher]

10. Agreed, I Hope Bernie Pulls It Off

Time is running out though.

[Phx_Dem]

3. Good luck with that Bernie. And why did you wait until now to COMPROMISE with the GOP?

[gateley]

4. My criticism is that earlier today, Bernie said on a show (paraphrasing) that

the American people are fully aware of how much better the top 2 percent have done. I disagree. Too many people I know just assume "yeah, they always make more money, nothing new" -- they're not aware of the widening gap, the resulting loss of jobs, etc. So instead of assuming they all get it, they need to be educated a la Rachel with the charts and graphs. Seeing it all presented that way REALLY hits home.

ETA: Randi and others have given the actual number of wealthy taxpayers who will be benefitting from this, contrasted with the far greater number of people who aren't in that stratosphere. It's amazing that all this fighting is for so few people in relative terms.

[flamingdem]

12. Rachel's chart with the gigantic circle for the top 2% drives the point home

Now how to reach middle America with that visual!

Not an easy task.

[gateley]

17. After I posted this, I was watching CNN and John King 'went to the board' and

showed the figures. I've never seen MSNBC do that (although most people who watch MSNBC know the deal). It would be nice if the network news did it and even local news. Other than that, I don't know -- people aren't involved enough to pay close attention. :shrug:

[Larkspur]

5. Go Bernie!!

I'd like to see Obama hold a rally in Vermont in a boneheaded attempt to pressure Bernie to back down from his filibuster threat.

I bet Obama would be greeted with boos and protest signs.

[onenote]

6. Can I get some of what Bernie is smoking?

I like Bernie, but he's dreaming if thinks that he can find republicans who will vote against this agreement and then turn around and support something more to Bernie's liking. Really. There may be repubs who wll vote against the agreement in hopes of forcing an even worse deal, but he's not going to find one republican who would support passing a bill that doesn't have tax cuts for the rich. (Okay, maybe one: Voinovich). How many repubs voted for the bill that would have extended the tax cuts just for those making under $250K? None. How many voted for the bill that would have extended the tax cuts just for those making under $1 million. None.

Oh, I suppose that Bernie and a few other Democrats could get a few repubs and block cloture on a bill embodying the compromise. But then what? What bill ever would get cloture invoked at that point?

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Uzybone]

8. lets see it happen

maybe Senator Sanders has some magic in him. We shall see.


It does sound as quixotic as a repeal of HCR though.

[Lorien]

9. We're with you Bernie!

a man of principles who Fights for US!

[Arkana]

13. Good luck with that, Senator Don Quixote.

[TwilightGardener]

14. Hey, go for it, Bernie. Of course, I'm not sure why this didn't happen

by passing the vote you all had on Saturday (the one that didn't even get all Dems on board), if you thought that there were enough Repubs willing to deny the wealthy their cuts.

[CakeGrrl]

15. Hee hee

What will be the reaction here?

A) Lambaste Sanders for working with the Republicans, because "NO COMPROMISE!" seems to be the prevailing rallying cry of DU?

B) Chastise him for not doing this before?

C) Applaud him for having more guts (if not smarts) than the President to get this better deal from the Republicans, because all they needed was the right person to ASK them?


Hmm.

[Clio the Leo]

16. When you start agreeing with Jim Demint....

.... poor Bernie. I can appreciate his position though.