Bush Aides Admit The Tax Cuts Were A "Trap" For Obama

[sabra]

Source: Howard Kurtz, The Daily Beast

<snip>

But in Washington, where anything beyond last week’s news cycle is considered ancient history, the jury-rigged nature of the Bush plan—and the fiscal sleight-of-hand involved—have been all but forgotten.

“We knew that, politically, once you get it into law, it becomes almost impossible to remove it,” says Dan Bartlett, Bush’s former communications director. “That’s not a bad legacy. The fact that we were able to lay the trap does feel pretty good, to tell you the truth.”

As the vote approached in the summer of 2001, the Senate had just flipped to Democratic control when Jim Jeffords defected from the GOP. Had the tax breaks been made permanent—or even extended beyond Sept. 30, 2011—the fledgling Bush administration would have had to muster a 60-vote Senate majority under the so-called Byrd Rule, named for master parliamentarian Robert Byrd. (The final version, cutting taxes by $1.35 trillion, garnered 58 votes.) And by moving up the expiration date by nine months, the Bush team saved $100 billion and made the bill’s deficit-busting impact appear smaller.

As an added bonus, the “sunset” provision, in Beltway-speak, was a political time bomb: At some point in the way distant future, Democrats could be accused of raising taxes if they tried to undo the Bush breaks and return to Clinton-era levels of taxation.

“I wish I could tell you I was that smart,” Andy Card, Bush’s former chief of staff, told me. But the approach wasn’t all that “Machiavellian,” he says. Rather, the Bushies wanted the law to be permanent but couldn’t muster the votes to trump the Byrd Rule. “I was doing a lot of shuttle negotiating between offices on the Senate side. There were many late nights.”


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bush-aides-admit-the-tax-cuts-were-a-trap-for-obama-2010-12

[MinneapolisMatt]

1. Typical.

Jerks.

[texastoast]

2. As long as they protect their big corporate johnny boys

Republicans are fine with screwing the little guy in America.

I for one didn't vote for them and shouldn't be feeling like I had to vote for a lite version of them.

[Skinner]

3. Man I hate them.

Pure evil.

[spotbird]

4. Fool me once...

Why not take our medicine now. All indications are that Obama is going to let them set this trap again.

[ronnie624]

45. They plot their vile strategies at the expense of our county's health.

I'm not really a believer in 'evil', but if there is such a thing, it surely looks like this.

[ET Awful]

5. I knew that when they did it. There was no other reason to have it sunset

other than to have it sit and fester as a stinkbomb for the next administration.

[chimpymustgo]

15. It was CLEAR AS A BELL then, as now w/ the "TEMPORARY" extension. They are evil. We are complicit.

[lunatica]

6. It's getting painful to hear any news anymore

The Bush people just keep winning.

[RandomThoughts]

9. Or that is what is reported in the news.

Many ways to frame a story.

Doesn't mean that is the whole story, or the story in perspective.

If they were losing, do you think they would tell you? Their only way to make you think they have any power is to try and get you to think they win.


Also why you don't side with someone because they are a winner or loser, but because you think and feel it is a better thing to do.

[lunatica]

16. Bush people winning makes us the losers

We're losing our jobs and our homes and our country is hardly recognizable and our Constitution is in shambles. The country is falling down and all they do is keep bleeding its lifeblood. And they brag about it. They give themselves high fives and they party it up because they're winning.

[RandomThoughts]

27. I really try not to brag.

:shrug:

Maybe that is part of the difference.

[shanti]

26. in some respects

it's more painful now, than it was with bushit in charge, because it's one of our "own". :(

[MiniMe]

7. It wasn't a trap for Obama, it was a trap for the next Democratic President or Congress

Obama wasn't in the picture at all at that time.

[cascadiance]

22. It was just as much a trap for Obama, as the "fake" birth notice in old Hawaiian newspaper

was done with full knowledge that they needed to make him eligible to be president at the time!

These wingnuts know EVERYTHING in advance!

:sarcasm:

[ProSense]

8. So they knew in 2001

that a Democrat was going to win in 2008, and specifically Obama?

Their gloating is also ridiculous since they wanted to make the tax cuts permanent at that time.

It's obvious that Bush aides are still talking crap, but this just goes to show that they're really jerks who could not care less about the suffering of middle-class Americans.

[Frisbee]

13. They didn't know a Democrat would win...

but knew that if a repuke won, they would try to make them permanent, or at the very least, extend them. If not, then the trap is set. I'm not saying this is necessarily the way it happened, but for someone thinking it through, it certainly would have been obvious it was a can't lose proposition for the 'pukes.

[ProSense]

19. Here's something to consider

"it certainly would have been obvious it was a can't lose proposition for the 'pukes."

Had they gotten a permanent extension, this wouldn't be an issue. A temporary extension may have kept the door open for negotiations, but didn't guarantee a permanent extension.

Thus far, the only sure things we know are: the House ditched the permanent tax cuts for the rich; tomorrow, the Senate is voting on plans that do not include tax cuts for the rich, and the WH is still in negotiations.

[old mark]

10. So did we misunderestimate W's gang. or was it just expedient to make them temporary?

It must have been obvious they would increase the defecit...


mark

[Godhumor]

12. No, I think a lot of people think this way, actually

Once something becomes law it is incredibly hard to roll it back A temporary life of 9 years is as good as permanent.

[spin]

11. Great! No one we elect gives a shit about our country ...

the important thing is to lay traps for the opposing party.

I realize that this was a Republican game, but all too often Democrats play similar games.

This bullshit must stop or we are DOOMED!

[wilt the stilt]

14. I made this argument to a friend the other day

A president should not be allowed to put in a tax provision that doesn't stop with end of his administration period unless it is passed into law and not through reconciliation. It is a broken system.

[tularetom]

17. I knew at the time this wouldn't be "temporary"

If a republican was in the WH in 2010 he could just propose to extend them again and set congressional democrats up for a barrage of "tax and spend" campaign ads the next election cycle.

If as it turned out a Democrat was elected in 2008, they could start a preemptive campaign of tax increase accusations putting him in a box when it came to letrting the tax cuts die.

Of course this is exactly what has happened. Many of us could see it coming. Why couldn't the political geniuses in the Obama administration?

[glinda]

18. Well that is something to brag about.

:sarcasm:

[yellowcanine]

20. The question isn't whether it was a trap or not. The question is, were the tax cuts good public

policy to start with and the answer to that is NO, unless one thinks that going from surplus as far as the eye can see to deficits as far as the eye can see is good public policy.

[TwilightGardener]

21. Feels pretty good to "lay a trap" that fucks up our country, does it?

I hope burning in hell feels equally good.

[harmonicon]

23. well, no shit

Who didn't recognize this at the time?

[Monique1]

25. I remember

before Obama became president some of Bush's aides said that things were fixed that if a Democrat would succeed Bush - there is no way they will have a second term because the economy was fixed. I sure wish I would have saved it. Read it here too.

[juajen]

36. I agree with that, actually. I believe they have manipulated

the stock market, money, decreased hiring, eliminated raises and spending until it was advantageous for them. We all know who has control of the money in this country, and it "ain't" democrats. Sure we have some, but the majority of the money in this country is controlled by republicans. I am not sure why we are even allowed to vote, except to quell a rebellion. Of course, they also control the voting machines or at least the machines that tally the votes. Almost immediately after the election, they were saying that things were improving, not because of democratic moves, but because Wall Street was buoyed by the successful election, and declaring a mandate for the pugs. Some country we used to have! Why are some of you upset that many of us just want to stay home and stop voting?

[harmonicon]

40. No one had to say anything.

I remember thinking when this was proposed; "10 years!? That's just long enough for Bush to be out after two terms and for the next person to get fucked by repealing what people have gotten used to!". Despite that, it's still a bit disappointing that only less than 2% of the population makes over 250k a year - I don't think enough people realize that. The "middle class" doesn't exist. Most people are poor, a few are rich, and a very few own both the poor and the rich.

[valerief]

24. Well, pretty soon no one will be paying income taxes anyway, because

we'll all be offshored out of jobs. Well, except Hedge fund managers. They'll still gripe about the pittance they have to pay, too.

[cbdo2007]

28. Here's what Obama needs to do....

Eliminate taxes for everyone except the top 5% and have it expire in 6 years.

Then, we'll be so far in the hole that Repubes will be forced to raise taxes on everyone.

[Ian David]

29. IT'S A TRAP!

[PassingFair]

34. "Who Could Have Foreseen?"

t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:jTaZ0z45QFxrgM:

[Duer 157099]

30. And in a decade, the same will be said about HCR

Payback time!

[Kall]

31. It's hardly a trap

If it was a trap, they designed it extremely poorly. When about 26% of people are in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, it's not a trap unless you're a Democratic President with a) the spine of a jellyfish, or b) a Republican ideological inclination.

[liberation]

32. For such a group of dipsticks...

Bush a his gang have certainly managed to outmaneuver the supposed chess grandmasters at almost every turn.

Sweet zombie Jesus that just screams "pathetic" to me...

[soryang]

33. He should have changed the tax immediately in 2009

No Congress can bind a future Congress on tax matters. The Wall Street corporatist goons in the White House knew exactly what they were doing. They gave up their best chance to redress the imbalance and unfairness of the tax code when they let it slide to 2010.

[wordpix]

35. Bartlett & Card will go down in history as 2 who fucked up the country's economy

Thanks for confirming, dipshits. :puke:

[EFerrari]

37. Sociopaths. n/t

[rug]

38. So was TARP. So was Iraq. So is Afghanistan.

This is not news. What would be news is chucking their whole paradigm. What's happening now is akin to asking the burglar to help you get back inside your house.

[blackspade]

39. They suck.

[MH1]

41. Well duh.

[fascisthunter]

42. Sociopaths

they will pay for this.... the lower classes are many. These people need to be threatened and then brought to justice for their crimes.

[Thor_MN]

43. "Democrats could be accused of raising taxes if they tried to undo the Bush breaks"

Damn it to hell!!! F'ing media!!! Democrats do not have to do anything for the Bush Tax cuts to expire!!! NOTHING can extend them, they are over at the end of the year. The GOP created the sunset, the GOP is taking the cuts away!!! From the minute DoubleDip signed the bill, the 2011 tax rates went up, by GOP design. BUSH RAISED YOUR 2011 TAX RATES!!!

If Obama extends the rates for 95% of the people, they are OBAMA Tax cuts, not extension for dumbass's cuts.

[jmowreader]

44. Christ! What a load of BULLSHIT!!!

Please remember: in 2001 the Republicans thought they were going to hold the majority in both houses of Congress, plus the presidency, permanently. They were probably thinking their fine fiscal leadership, in which massive tax cuts, spending cuts and deregulation would create a wonderful fiscal nirvana that would give them about 80 seats in the Senate and...oh, 390 seats in the House.

In a situation where this was true, there wouldn't be any huge debate. Instead, the Republicans would have simply whipped up a permanent extension of the tax cuts Bush installed in 2001, leave the rates the same, and get 24/7 news coverage about how the new happy life engendered by the new tax cuts would send the masses out into the streets for spontaneous demonstrations of gratitude.

Besides, in 2001 Barack Obama was a skinny black guy in the Illinois State Senate. How would they have known to "set a trap" for him? "Hey Scooter, in 2010 some guy who's now a state senator is going to be president. Let's fuck him good." No.