White House privately acknowledges close to deal with GOP on continuing Bush tax policy

Washington Post:

White House and congressional Republicans officials privately acknowledge the two sides could reach an agreement in which all of the tax cuts are extended, but only temporarily, perhaps for two or three years.

That's consistent with what Robert Gibbs said on ABC this morning:

The president’s principles are clear, and that is for the middle class their taxes can’t go up at the end of the year when a series of tax cuts expire. His other line in the sand, quite frankly George, is that many Republicans would like to see the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires extended permanently.

If you're not paying close attention, Gibbs' rhetoric sounds principled, but what he's really doing is creating a justification for continuing current tax policy -- which is a complete and total cave to the GOP position and represents an utter defeat of President Obama's tax policy.

It would be one thing if we had a deal that extended middle-class tax cuts permanently, but only extended the high-income tax cuts for two years. But a three-year continuation of all the tax cuts doesn't change a single thing about current tax policy and effectively is no different than making current tax policy permanent.

In all, it represents nearly $4 trillion in new debt over the next decade, $700 billion of which will go to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. And it appears the Obama administration is preparing to spin this continuation of Bush tax policy as a victory for their principles.