Just wanted to point something out about this deal.
This deal is expected to cost about $1 Trillion.
The "making permanent tax cuts for those under $250,000" we were all fighting for? $3 Trillion.
And if you buy Schumer's, Manchin's, and Nelson's definition of middle class as those under $1,000,000, then it would be $3.6 Trillion.
The Republicans want to waste $4 Trillion on preserving all of them permanently.
And none of those figures (except for the deal) include any additional stimulus or unemployed benefits, which will not be possible under any situation with a Teabagger House.
Say we won on the $1,000,000 compromise option. Would that really be a victory in terms of policy? We made permanent 98-99% of the Bush tax cuts and saved only $400 billion?
Is that really a victory?
Quite frankly, I'm with Feingold and Voinovich on this one. We cannot afford to make ANY part of the tax cuts permanent, middle class or not. They all need to expire at some point.
Now, what can Obama and the Democrats do to salvage the situation in 2012? Veto ANY extension of the Bush tax cuts after the election in 2012 and find 1/3 in either house willing to do what's right and sustain that veto.
If they do that, the overall impact saves $2-3 trillion and gets us out of the Bush tax cuts bullshit altogether.
That would be a much better victory to me and that needs to be fueled by the Democratic base making it explicitly clear that these tax cuts CANNOT ever be extended for anything ever again.
Of course, it depends on Obama getting re-elected and Obama's re-election depends on an economy that's coming back from the greatest recession in 70 years.
You're free to disagree but just wanted to raise the point out that there is a path to take this and make it come out better in the long run than the original plan.
Judging by the diaries here, I'm prepared to be flamed away as a reflexive Obamabot. Come get me.