Dems not sold on Schumer's plan to extend tax cuts for incomes up to $1 million

[ProSense]

Dems Torn Over Schumer Plan To Raise Taxes On Millionaires Only

Brian Beutler

At an undisclosed White House meeting yesterday with Senate Democratic leaders, President Obama pushed back on a controversial, but politically potent tax cut plan that has knocked Republicans off message in recent days.

Pushing hardest for the new approach was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the third ranking Democrat in the Senate and the Dems' new point man for combining message and policy. He proposes to create a new tax bracket above the $1 million income threshold, and let Republicans decide whether to fight to the death to give those people a tax cut. It's the one compromise that polls well and wrongfoots the GOP at the same time.

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But Democratic leaders (other than Schumer) and Obama himself oppose the plan for a few reasons. At the meeting yesterday, according to a source familiar with the discussions, "the concerns expressed were about the cost and the risk of redefining the middle class as those making over one million."

(Estimates suggest that lifting the threshold from $250,000 to $1 million could cost as much as $400 billion over 10 years.)

A Senate Democratic aide said that, for these reasons, the idea hasn't really gained wide traction in the caucus. And a third source noted that a number of progressive members don't want to start negotiations by giving up what they really want: a vote to let the Bush tax cuts expire above a threshold of $250,000 a year.

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Edited title.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Somehow, defining "middle class"

as reaching up to 250k per year already seems pretty ridiculous.

[BeyondGeography]

2. The Democrats suck

I'll elaborate, if need be.

[yourout]

3. Just let the damn things expire and leave it at that.

[Skinner]

4. Sort of off-topic question:

Since when did "millionaires" mean people with annual incomes of $1 million or more? I always thought it meant net worth of $1 million or more.

[ProSense]

5. Yeah, the title is a little misleading

Also, this is similar to Robert Reich's suggestion to move the threshold up to incomes of $500,000.

[Incitatus]

6. Okay, then how about raising the tax rate on income over 1 million to 70%.

Or whatever number would be necessary to make up for the lost revenue on taxing incomes over 250K

[boppers]

7. "redefining the middle class as those making over one million."

:wtf:

So, the top 3% of the country is the "middle"?

[elleng]

8. DAMN that the Dems can't get their act together.

Getting angry.
Sorry.