This was predictable.
As he has with the public option, Guantanamo, Israeli settlements, and other hot button issues, President Obama is planning to fold on his opposition to extending Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. They plan to agree to a year extension, kicking the can down the road on the issue. Obama could have issued a veto threat before the election, thereby crystalizing the issues and prevent Democrats from straying. But, as he has with so many other issues, Obama would rather cave than fight.
He'll do just about anything to avoid a political confrontation. So, if there is filibuster on his plan in the lame duck session, expect Obama to cave even more, and agree to a permanent extension of all of Bush's tax cuts. Constant caving only emboldens your opposition. A lesson he, apparently, refuses to learn.
According to people familiar with talks at the White House and among senior Democrats on Capitol Hill, breaking apart the Bush administration tax cuts is now being discussed as a more realistic goal. That strategy calls for permanent extension of cuts that benefit families earning less than $250,000 a year, and temporary extension of cuts on income above that amount.
The move would "decouple" the two sets of provisions, Democrats said, and focus the debate when tax cuts for the rich expired next year or the year after. Republicans would be forced to defend carve-outs for a tiny minority populated by millionaires, an unpopular position that would be difficult to advance without the cover of a broad-based tax cut for everyone, aides in both parties said.
"The concept of 'decoupling' is a hot topic right now," said one senior Democratic aide.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
No word on the whether, or how much, they plan to cave on the inheritance tax.
This contant exhibition of presidential weakness not only emboldens Republicans but makes Democrats wonder whether this man should lead our party in the next election.
Democratic voters are closely divided over whether President Barack Obama should be challenged within the party for a second term in 2012, an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks Poll finds.
. . . .
Among Democrats, 47 percent say Obama should be challenged for the 2012 nomination and 51 percent say he should not be opposed. Those favoring a contest include most who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton's unsuccessful faceoff against Obama for the 2008 nomination. The poll did not ask if Democrats would support particular challengers.
http://www.seattlepi.com/...