Tax-Cuts Fight: Will O44 Punt?

01 December 2010 |permalink | email article

President Obama and Republican leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell praised each other for collegiality and pledges of cooperation at a much anticipated White House meeting on Tuesday. But they made little headway on issues that divide the parties which suggests any chance of real bipartisanship, as this blog predicted, is somewhere between slim and none.

Obama told lawmakers he needed to do more to make sure that the two parties could work together, but the White House said the GOP did not offer a similar pledge. Additional talks will take place in Washington and Camp David toward resolving the impasse over tax cuts set to expire Jan. 1. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Jacob Lew, head of the Office of Management and Budget, will meet with four lawmakers – two from each side – “to break through this logjam,” Obama said while distancing himself from the outcome. 

As The Daily Beast noted, the president missed an opportunity to draw a line in the sand in the debate over the tax cuts. Instead of a dramatic gesture opposing tax cuts for millionaires which he once strongly championed. A few savvy journalists now sense Obama’s willingness to compromise and extend all tax cuts for two years. Should this happen will the middle class and progressives stand up and fight back?

The Cost of War

Obama made clear last May that the U.S. role in Afghanistan would remain long after troops are withdrawn, a process planned to begin in July 2011. Pentagon spending as of February was $6.7 billion in Afghanistan compared with $5.5 billion in Iraq. The Afghan campaign will cost nearly $105 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, including most of $33 billion in additional spending that Obama requested. Early last month the U.S. sent Abrams M1 heavy armor tanks to Afghanistan for the first time. It reminded me of seeing the last Soviet T-62M tank crossing a border bridge in 1989 after a futile nine-year war to subdue that country. Isn’t there a lesson in blood and treasure here for Obama and the party opposite to grasp as this country drowns in debt?

Read ‘em and weep

“I’m going to run to the finish line.” – Lame-duck Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in a legacy shaping mood. as veteran Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters observed, “trying to convince Californians that his roller coaster governorship has been a success, even though three-fourths of them consider it to be a failure.”

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