“When Democrats Retreat, You Better Watch Out Or You Will Get Run Over”

Filed in National by on January 22, 2010

Those are John Cole’s words, which go a long way in describing my feelings about the chances of HCR getting better and not worse.  Yesterday, in one of John’s typically snarky posts he asked:  My only question- which house blue dog will be the first to introduce a bill extend the Bush tax cuts to show their bipartisanship?

Four hours later we get this:

Two House Democrats in tough reelection races are asking Congress and President Barack Obama to extend the Bush administration tax cuts.

Reps. Bobby Bright (D-Ala.) and Mike McMahon (D-N.Y.) asked members in a “Dear Colleague” letter Thursday to support extending the tax cuts, which passed in 2001 and 2003 and are set to expire this year, for at least another two years. Specifically, Bright and McMahon are asking lawmakers to sign a letter to Obama asking him to include the tax cuts in his budget plans for 2010.

Maybe if we lose another election we’ll have Dems calling for Obama’s impeachment?  This is crazy.

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  1. anon says:

    It’s all over. Tax cuts for the rich will be added to the budget. Showing weakness and running to the center on HCR guaranteed it.

  2. a.price says:

    It is really insane. Democrats are spineless wimps. Republicans are organized bullies with control over more than half of the media… but they have tricked the american sheeple into thinking they are an oppressed minority. Liberal media my ass. I have never seen a republican called out on any net work, and they are only fellated on Fixed new and every nationally syndicated Am radio show, and half the papers in the country. Maybe the population of this country can’t handle being talked to/treated like adults.

  3. anon says:

    The question is, who will be the first blogger to say “We have to pass a tax bill, no matter what?”

    Hopefully we have learned something.

  4. anon says:

    It’s all over. Tax cuts for the rich will be added to the budget.

    Actually, Nancy Pelosi and the House progressives are your new best friends if you are against TCFTR.

  5. cassandra_m says:

    The trick to stop TCFTR is to make its proponents actually come up with a plan to PAY for the damn things and get it CBO scored. Without a plan to pay for these tax cuts, these fools do not get to claim any mantel of deficit hawkishness. Make the people who want this mess do some serious heavy lifting to get there.

  6. anon says:

    The trick to stop TCFTR is to make its proponents actually come up with a plan to PAY for the damn things and get it CBO scored.

    I’d rather just tell them “No.”

  7. cassandra_m says:

    But making them figure out how to pay for it extracts a couple of pounds of flesh and pretty permanently shuts down the stupid.

  8. anon says:

    No, because they WILL come up with a list of bogus spending cuts to pay for their TCTFR. Then they will say Dems are against both tax cuts and spending cuts.

  9. anon says:

    Making them cry publicly for tax cuts for the rich would be a nice pound of flesh. Even better if they vote against middle class tax cuts because it doesn’t include TCFTR.

    Worst case: The bill includes TCFTR, Repubs vote for it, and run as tax cutters.

  10. cassandra_m says:

    If they are bogus, they won’t get past the CBO.

    Then any spending cuts they propose they have to sell to their colleagues. Majorities of them. It won’t happen. If these people can’t be bothered to push HCR over while it sits at the 1 yard line, they’ll never get so far out on a limb as to propose the kind of cuts — and they will be prodigious and painful — that will pay for these cuts.

    Really — they won’t do the work. Full Stop. Just like the repubs who couldn’t come up with real alternatives to the recovery bill or HCR or anything else.

    Edit: The amount of money spent on these unpaid for tax cuts is more than the HCR would have cost. By alot. If they could not vote for this revenue neutral item that actually accomplished something, they will never come up with enough spending cuts to pay for tax cuts.

  11. anon says:

    If they are bogus, they won’t get past the CBO.?

    It doesn’t matter. We are talking about Republicans here. Their narrative will be that Dems refused to make spending cuts and chose to raise taxes instead.

    IMHO the best political strategy is also the best economic strategy – Pass a bill with extremely modest spending cuts, middle tax class cuts, and no TCTFR. Then loudly boast about Democratic spending cuts and tax cuts.

  12. cassandra_m says:

    It does matter. Because they still need to sell it. They’d still have to come up with enough spending cuts to make the case. And the Bush tax cuts cost 2.5 times more than the House version of HCR.

    They just won’t do it. There is too much work in getting there and they won’t take the political risk to get there. Which is why they sent that weak letter to the President. They want, but they won’t do the work to get there.

    Really, I’ve been in charge of a lot of working groups in my life and the easiest way to kill a dumbass idea made by a persistent dumbass is to tell him to go make it happen. And then sit back and watch how long it takes to die on the vine. Republicans won’t take any of the risks to detail real spending cuts, either. So I would throw down the gauntlet and dare them to pick it up.

  13. anon says:

    Because they still need to sell it. They’d still have to come up with enough spending cuts to make the case.

    You have got to be joking. Since when did Republicans ever have any trouble selling tax cuts not backed by spending cuts? This is the core thing they lie about. It always works, and we never challenge it.

    White working class Americans gobble that crap up. Republicans have some kind of Jedi mind trick that convinces working people that tax cuts for the rich are tax cuts for them too, or will somehow get them a better job or something.

  14. cassandra_m says:

    But then you missed my original point — which is to make them walk the plank for the spending cuts. If you don’t do that then this doesn’t mean anything.

  15. anon says:

    But they won’t walk the plank. They will send out fundraising letters claiming Dems are raising taxes and rejecting Republican spending cuts. All the networks will pick up this narrative. They always kill us with it. We will be left in the dust to squawk about CBO scoring and “no controlling legal authority.”

    The only hope we have of changing the narrative is to dare Repubs to vote against spending cuts and middle class tax cuts. If the budget lacks either of these, we lose the narrative.

    But if the budget provides spending cuts, and also contains middle class tax cuts (without TCFTR), Republicans have a hell of a dilemma. Actually this is Obama’s campaign promise, so there is reason to hope.

  16. cassandra_m says:

    The largest middle class taxcuts in US history happened as part of the stimulus package. There’s been minor cuts already in the budget.

    You make them walk the plank by telling them to submit their request for tax cuts in the form of revenue neutral legislation. That is a very specific request. Which gives you something to make them walk the plank on. Otherwise you get to legitimately pillory them as not fiscally responsible. really, this isn’t hard and this is the kind of crap they do all of the time. A little turn about — which will leave blood — is well past time.

  17. anon says:

    I’ve always wondered if Repubs would vote against middle tax cuts that didn’t include TCFTR. I think a lot of them would vote against it. That would probably pull the veil away from voters’ eyes for a generation.

  18. anon says:

    The largest middle class taxcuts in US history happened as part of the stimulus package.

    And Repubs voted against it, because we gave them the cover of spending increases. So nobody holds them accountable for voting against the tax cuts.

    But what if they were presented with a budget that had no spending increase, and tax cuts for the middle class but none for the rich?

    That is the scenario I have always wanted to see, but Democrats were never able to deliver.

  19. Lizard says:

    Townhall.com ^ | January 25, 2010 | Bruce Bialosky

    When Creigh Deeds was losing the governorship of Virginia to Bob McDonnell, there was talk of him being a lousy candidate and how he gave the race away. That was despite the fact that he had vanquished the former chair of the National Democratic Party, Terry McAuliffe, who had the ability to raise endless sums. Now all of a sudden he was a “rotten candidate.”

    Martha Coakley had won a statewide election as Attorney General in 2006 with over 73% of the vote. She had won a competitive primary on the road to what seemed like a cakewalk to the U.S. Senate. Then she suddenly became a “lousy candidate” and was swamped by Scott Brown.

    It might be there is a bigger issue involved. It might be an unfettered repudiation of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Axis. The only question left is whether these blind ideologues will realize they have been rejected by the American people.