"I think the president made a huge mistake..."

[kentuck]

<snip>
"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."

<snip>
"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."

Antipathy, however, was saved as much for the process of securing the final tax cut package as for the substance of the package itself. Suggesting that the deal could die in the House, Dean echoed a question other Democrats offered in the hours after Obama's announcement: Was enough secured in return?

"I'm not so sure you can get the House to agree to this in conference committee," he said. "And what about the president's other priorities: Don't Ask Don't Tell, START, DREAM Act? I mean, do we not get anything for the $700 billion?"

....more

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

[ProSense]

1. Just posted this. Dean is quoting an inaccurate number:

From the OP:

<...>

Certainly, Democrats got something, perhaps even more than expected. Discussing the arrangement with the Huffington Post, senior administration officials stressed that even the labor federation "AFL-CIO did not think...we could keep" the 13 months of unemployment insurance. The actual cost of the provisions that the White House secured, meanwhile, was pricier than the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich -- $215 billion (including UI) versus $95 billion, all over two years.

<...>

[tekisui]

4. I read the Bush/Obama tax cuts would cost $3.7 billion over ten years.

[ProSense]

5. The tax cuts for the rich would be nearly $700 billion over ten years, not two. n/t

[DJ13]

6. Right, but who honestly thinks it wont be renewed in 2012?

We might as well use the full 10 year number, as it wont be going away after 2 years.

[ProSense]

7. That still doesn't price the current deal of tax cuts for the rich at $700 billion. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

2. The deficit is now the biggest problem facing the country? Not a jobless recovery?

Not the housing crisis?

[phleshdef]

3. House Dems: If you feel that way, stop bitching and kill the whole thing.

You should have taken care of this BEFORE the election anyway. The Whitehouse wanted you to. President Obama is just one person, but between yourselves and your colleagues in the Senate, you are nearly 300. The job of Congress is not to take every queue from the President. Produce something better for him to sign or make sure he signs nothing at all. Take some responsibility for yourselves.