What would be an acceptable compromise on tax cuts to you?

[JamesA1102]

For me it would be:

- Middle class tax cuts made permanent.
- Those for over $250K extended only a year or two.
- Unemployment benefits extended for a year.

And a least one of the following:

- DADT repealed.
- The Dream act passed.
- Start treaty ratified.

[PeaceNikki]

1. Let them all expire. They were an unfunded trap by the GOP.

[alcibiades_mystery]

35. OK. Then no unemployment insurance extension, no DADT repeal, no DREAM ACt

No child care credits, no making work pay credit.

You get all tax cuts expired, and nothing else.

Congratulations!

[PeaceNikki]

41. sigh.

Well, when you put it like THAT... I realize it was a much bigger trap than it even appeared.

:(

[Ahpook]

2. I may be naive but to hell with a compromise

Fuck the rich and their cuts, period. Give the unemployment benefits back and mid class tax cuts.

[JamesA1102]

4. And how do you propose that happen

without enough votes needed to make it happen.

[AlabamaLibrul]

3. Let them all expire - the baggers get what they want in the defecit

and we start to turn it around on the true leeches of our society.

It'll never happen though.

[dbonds]

5. No compromise, if it takes it let all the tax cuts expire.

[tekisui]

22. Exactly. This is easy. They have to do anything.

[AndyTiedye]

27. That Would be Electoral Suicide

If taxes go up for everyone, we get slaughtered in the 2012 elections.

[bluestate10]

31. I do not agree.

We will get slaughtered if the economy is still badly stalled in 2012. Tax cuts have been shown to have nothing to do with economic growth. Voters would have forgotten about expiration in 2012 if the economy is humming and voters have more pay and less economic worries.

[jmowreader]

45. The Republicans won't let the voters forget

If the Democrats were to design a tax package that maintained the under-250K rates, raised the over-250K rates to halfway between the Bush II and Clinton rates and factored in a lot of credits and deductions that made the average person's taxes actually go down, the Republicans in 2012 will run one ad every half-hour that screams "the Democrats raised your taxes."

You know they will. Don't deny it.

[KansasVoter]

6. Only Middle Class, No other. Any other and I am done!

[tabatha]

7. They tried that and it failed.

I say let all expire.

[KansasVoter]

10. I agree if no other choice.

[alcibiades_mystery]

36. See post #35

Congratulations!

[Greyhound]

8. Keeping them below $250K IS the compromise. n/t

[earthside]

16. You are Correct! n/t

[obxhead]

9. Single payer or repeal of NAFTA.

Yes I understand that is not even on the table.

[social_critic]

11. Those three bottom items don't have anything to do with taxes

Don't mix subjects, it muddies the board.

I would re-form the tax system to make it simpler. Just tax 20 % of everything we make, with a simple deductible for charity, mortgage interest, real estate taxes, and house maintenance expenses up to 1 % of the house appraised tax value, plus add a deduction of $30,000 per tax payer. Also, allow income tax averaging for 5 years, because some of us make more money one year, then we lose our jobs and make almost nothing, then get our jobs back, and so on.

As for the three proposals, they're meaningless. The pentagon can let homosexuals out of the closet if it wants to - it doesn't take a law. Inmigration reform should be a lot more comprehensive, I don't like laws to favor just a small group, they should be passed to reform immigration across the board. And the start treaty won't get ratified as long as the GOP is full of neanderthals. The president will just have to start pulling nukes out of the warehouses on his own.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

18. washington mixes topics all the time in bills

and it is one of the biggest annoyances to me there is. riders. they are used as bargaining chips and hindrances to make sure bills DO or DO NOT get passed and i think they should be illegal...

sP

[social_critic]

43. Maybe they mix it, but here it works less effectively

People don't open your post if they think the title describes the content.

[JamesA1102]

19. But that is how deals are made in congress

so it is not "muddling the board". There is no way that the changes in the tax system that you propose can happen in the lame duck session. Plus DADT is a matter of law and can only be repealed by Congress.

[tularetom]

12. Keep the tax cuts and prosecute the bush administration war criminals

[TwilightGardener]

13. I have the same list as you. Look to the silver lining, I say.

[hfojvt]

14. a year or two extension is just a fraud.

If they cannot be repealed now, or allowed to expire then the same thing will just happen a year or two from now. Especially if, as seems kinda likely, that two years from now the Republicans control the Senate too, and perhaps also have the White House.

I am not even a huge fan of making the "middle class tax cuts" permanent, since that provides the bulk of tax cuts to the people making $80,000 - $250,000. Really the cuts need to be reversed for all households making over $100,000 if Democrats only had the courage to do it. AND taxes need to be further increased on people with incomes over $1,000,000.

[MrSlayer]

15. There really isn't one for me.

I want the Republican tax cuts to sunset as they were meant to.

[taught_me_patience]

17. Let them expire for those making more than $1 million in income

[tekisui]

20. There is no such thing a 'a year or two'. They either are allowed to

expire, or they are renewed, at which point they become the Bush/Obama tax cuts for the wealthy.

All of the tax cuts can be allowed to expire. A 'middle class' extension would tolerable.

The rest of your list has nothing to do with tax cuts.

[knotwurstforware]

21. Obama does not need to compromise

I reject your framing of the argument. Starting from a weak position enables Republicans to pounce like a predator. We simply cannot afford extremely wealthy people to continue to rip off our government. Its time to repatriate what they have stolen through profiteering.

[davidinalameda]

23. Middle class tax cuts made permanent

unemployment benefits extended

DADT repealed; START ratified; DREAM passed for those who were brought to the US as children and have been here for the majority of their lives

[the redcoat]

24. The problem is this: There's no factual support for this compromise

I would consider the 2 year 2% cuts if they could show the benefits. Some of you may, but I don't, automatically hate rich people, so I wouldn't oppose them if there was an actual reason for them.

But the reality is:
Over 20 times the number of jobs were created in the 8 years in the 90's before the 8 years of cuts.
The cuts did not distribute their benefits evenly, and the rich got more help when they didn't need it.
Corporations just posted huge profits not consistent with what the bottom 98% is seeing.
Unemployment actually went up .2% after corporations just made these profits.


This is not a compromise, it is manipulation/ignorance of reality.

Taking away things people should be entitled to and then offering them back as a compromise is not what a compromise is about. You don't pay for groceries with the money you just stole out of the cash register.

[JamesA1102]

28. The reality is

that no one has enough votes to get their way, so a compromise is needed. You may not want to accept that but it is the way things are whether you like it or not.

[bluestate10]

34. Obama does not have to compromise. He could let all the cuts expire.

and have his spokespeople go on news services and say that he tried to keep his promise to the middle class, but republicans blocked it along with his attempts to extend unemployment benefits. But, Obama's spokespeople are so lame that they will somehow hand republicans a campaign issue. Obama should either hold the cuts for the middle class or allow all of them to expire, people would have forgotten in 2012 if they have jobs and are earning more money.

[alcibiades_mystery]

39. He could do that, but he'd lose unemployment insurance, DADT, Dream act

and a number of other provisions that help the working class.

You say, well, go to the media and say X!

That's a nice sentiment from the distance of the keyboard. But what you're really saying is that you're comfortable rolling the dice with 2 million jobless people and their families; you're comfortable risking that they won't have any income at all for food, heat, rent, anything, as early as three weeks from now. That's essentially your position, however you want to finesse it.

I'm glad Obama is strong enough not to succumb to all the fire from the left, and sensible enough not to gamble with the lives of 2 million people.

[JamesA1102]

42. That's fine if all you want to do is score political points

and not really help people.

[MindandSoul]

25. I'm not a fan of any compromise on the taxes. . .but if we have to have one. . .your list is good!

[gkhouston]

26. None. If the Republicans are hell-bent on raising everyone's taxes, let 'em. n/t

[bluestate10]

37. I agree. This is a good fighting point for Obama.

Get what he wants, or let all cuts expire. Then Obama focuses on the economy like a fiend to have it humming by mid 2011 and forward.

[bluestate10]

29. For me.

Tax cuts for singles up to $400,000 left as is. Tax cuts up to $550,000 for couples left as is. Remove the tax cut for everyone else.

DADT, the Dream Act and START are separate issues that have been bundled in by republicans. They should be considered on their own merit. I really feel that the courts, with the Supreme Court going along 5-4 will end DADT within a year - so Obama accepting repeal of DADT as a rider for giving in on tax cuts is senseless.

[AndyTiedye]

30. Perhaps we Could Have DIFFERENT Tax Cuts

Tax incentives for putting Americans to work (instead of the current incentives to ship jobs overseas).

Something everyone could benefit by would be a rebate of sales tax paid on American-made merchandise.


Tax cuts like these are more fiscally sound in that they reward behavior that saves the government money.

[tkmorris]

32. I'd take that

I don't like it a lot mind you, but I would be willing to settle for it as a compromise. To get there it might help if we didn't start negotiating by giving things away. Make them fight for it.

[Owl]

33. None. NO compromise.

[alcibiades_mystery]

38. START Treaty's gonna pass anyway...it's not part of the negotiations

I think you'll get a two year across the board extension in exchange for DADT going to a floor vote, the DREAM Act going to a floor vote, the child care tax credit, the Making Work pay credit, and maybe one or two other important policy provisions.

That's a good deal, since we'd get none of that without the tax cut extensions.

People saying that DADT and the DREAM Act are "unconnected" are being very naive. They're connected if the GOP puts them on the table, as it is clearly doing. That's how all horsetrading works.

[DainBramaged]

40. None, let them all expire, call their bluff

[alcibiades_mystery]

44. The gambling metaphor is apt

You're gambling with millions of people's lives, but I guess that's OK with you. It's alright if that's your position, but let's not pretend that it isn't, in fact, a giant gamble.