Tax Cut Deal: Dean, Ex-Obama Advisers Lament President's Plan First Posted:

[sasha031]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- Obama's decision to craft a deal with Republicans on the Bush tax cuts may have been, as administration officials insist, the product of economic and political necessities. But it has created deep reservoirs of distrust with the president's ability to handle high-stakes negotiations and has compelled even former staffers to level blunt criticisms about the White House's politics."I think the president made a huge mistake in supporting any extension of tax cuts," said Steve Hildebrand, the deputy national director of Obama's presidential campaign and a strategist who has long grown sour on Washington. "We can't afford it as a country, and we should recognize that. We need his leadership and bipartisan congressional leadership on it. And the whole idea of negotiating with Republicans who won't negotiate in good faith, it is not the direction the president should be taking."

"We clearly have to deal with the deficit; it is probably the biggest problem facing the country," said former DNC header Howard Dean. "But you can't deal with the deficit from a political point of view if you say to Democrats, we are going to cut Social Security and Medicare and, by the way, give tax cuts to those who make a million dollars a year."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/tax-cut-deal-lament_n_793105.html

[Hell Hath No Fury]

1. I find it deeply ironic that --

an ad urging Obama to fight and not give in on the Bush tax cuts as displaying as I read and recommend this.