The Republicans are right about one thing: the "stimulus bill" is now much less of a stimulus bill than it ought to be. We will -- once Franken is in the Senate and Gregg is gone, perhaps with his replacement being more reasonable -- have to come back for a second cut, once it becomes clear that the amount of stimulus left in the package is too small.
This, and the Republican obstructionism on the bill, is oddly liberating. Once we're talking, for example, about yet another one-year Alternative Minimum Tax fix being part of the bill, we're no longer in the realm of stimulus. Indeed, we now have two bills in one: a stimulus bill and a tax-policy bill. So, that's great: let's treat half the bill like a tax policy bill -- and, once it's in conference, let's get rid of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy now.
Politically, it's a good time to do this: we're not going to get Republican votes anyway, and the principle that "this is solely a stimulus bill and nothing else belongs there" has already been destroyed. Furthermore, the wealthy have had some bad PR of late, what with the "no one can live on $500,000/year" and such. Obama didn't want to get into repealing the Bush tax cuts now, but thanks to Republican obstructionism, we're already contemplating eliminating some tax cuts that would be more stimulative, as well as some critical spending.
So, it seems to me that Obama should look at this bill with fresh eyes and recognize that the Republicans have, in effect, been asking him to jump ahead to the idea of whether it truly makes sense to have the Bush tax cuts in our budget for even a day longer. Another temporary AMT fix -- or even a permanent fix -- would be popular and makes sense. The targeted tax cuts in the House bill, even if I'm not the biggest fans of them, at least make some sense. The Bush tax cuts? Those never made sense, and if anyone ever did think they made sense, they should have outgrown the notion by now.
We're not going to get more than three Republican votes in the Senate anyway, and those three are all we need. So, let's go for what we want to do anyway. Use this hybrid stimulus-tax bill to change some tax policy for the better. And if the Senate Republicans don't like it -- perhaps they still have time to crawl back and support the House bill.
Update: For those who have forgotten, Obama's team has heretofore said that he'd allow the Bush tax cuts to expire naturally after their ten-year lifespan ends in 2011.
We now -- at least if we frame it the right way -- pretty clearly have a choice between letting the Bush tax cuts survive two more years or fixing the AMT. Let's fix the AMT.