Obama And The Bush Tax Cuts: Once Again, With Feeling

Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a freelance journalist and blogger. He considers Bob Dylan and Walter Sobchak to be the two great Jewish thinkers of our time; he thinks Kafka was half-right when he said there was hope, "but not for us"; and he can be reached through the twitter via @eliasisquith or via email. The opinions he expresses on the blog and throughout the interwebs are exclusively his own.

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3 Responses

  1. Anderson says:

    I still don’t understand why the only federal taxes that can ever *ever* be raised are for those making over 250K (or 1M, depending on how people are feeling). Seriously? The politics are good for Obama and, moreover, income inequality has made getting revenue from the wealthy more important than ever. But still. How can he argue that he’ll defend entitlements–not to mention raise other discretionary spending–without raising any taxes outside the top 2-5%? Sigh, Bush really did win on taxes in the long run.Report

    • Stillwater in reply to Anderson says:

      Bush really did win on taxes in the long run.

      I think the Democrats shot themselves in the foot on that one, if I recall correctly. Initially, I think the Bush plan was to cut taxes on the top end only. Democrats felt the middle class ought to get some a that juice and put a middle class cut in there as well. The GOP quickly realized (probably in advance) that tying them together worked in their favor, something Democrats only woke up to after Big O got into office.Report

    • agorabum in reply to Anderson says:

      Maybe because in a economic recession, a slogan of “I will raise all of your taxes” is not really a winner. For now, the policy has to be raise taxes on the rich, cut subsidies for corporate fat cats, don’t let the republicans win.
      After the election, the next tax increase can be on everyone making over 185k.
      But you’re not going to see an increase on the middle class without the republicans agreeing to go along, and they’re not going to do that.Report