Lawrence O'Donnell : Obama Got Best Deal He Could

[Still a Democrat]

Republicans taking control of house in January. Obama lived up to principle of no tax increases on low and middle income tax payers. Last year the estate tax was zero.

He is smacking down a panel of five - one didn't know the lowest income tax rate.

He has solid legislative experience - Olbermann and Maddow don't.

[Cant trust em]

1. MSNBC must be hedging its bets. nt

[KansasVoter]

2. LOL...how about Bernie Sanders? Think before you post.

[babylonsister]

7. Now you don't approve of differing opinions? Oye. nt

[KansasVoter]

9. No, but you using Rachel and forgetting about Bernie was no accident.

[babylonsister]

24. I didn't use anyone, didn't start this thread, and you're being

combative for no reason.

[rurallib]

15. sherrod brown, tom harkin nancy pelosi

[truebrit71]

3. He also said that the health care bill wouldn't pass...

..i like Larry, but he's just another centrist Dem..

[ProudDad]

65. Yep...DLC to the core...always has been (n/t)

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Jon Kyl has solid legislative experience too. eom

[MrMickeysMom]

34. snicker...

Yeah.. :rofl:

[BeyondGeography]

5. He's playing his "I'm the adult" card tonight

[babylonsister]

6. Why is it a card? Maybe he is and has a different pov, as we all

apparently do.

[BeyondGeography]

10. I'm watching him basically dispute the notion Democrats can ever win a tax cut

battle with the Republicans. He's either a defeatist or a total cynic on this point.

[TwilightGardener]

11. I don't think he thinks he can win this fight now. I also don't think he

wants to do this. But I get the feeling he'd rather keep at least part of his promise than just allow everything to come to a screeching halt for weeks.

[Top Cat]

8. i agree with Lawerence..

I thank the Potus for not gambling with our lives.

[sohndrsmith]

12. L'OD is absolutely right about how crazy-low the 250K bracket is...

...and that THAT income level is the useful one regarding this issue.

[mopinko]

13. go lawrence. go go.

burning it up. republicans have never ever been shamed into a tax increase.
trying to write a tax bill after the effective date is a nightmare that will not be passed, ever.
the estate tax now is zero.

a message from the real world. tell it.

[Cant trust em]

22. My fiance and I were just saying the exact same thing. nt

[Clio the Leo]

14. Lawrence keeps hitting them with facts and everyone but Ezra is replying by going....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpSfThUv_pc

[Still a Democrat]

16. A couple look like they want to cry

He's in good form.

[Clio the Leo]

25. I like the guy who answered him by saying, "uh........."

When asked to name a Dem President who'd ever shamed the GOP into agreeing to a tax compromise.

[vaberella]

56. Are you going to post the video for others of us? I'dlike to see it. n/t

[oasis]

18. That one's a dandy.

:)

[MichaelS2012]

58. LOL nt

[vikegirl]

17. Tell that to the 99ers who got shit....

I beg to differ.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[jenmito]

20. K&R. I wrote a very similar post:

Lawrence O'Donnell just destroyed THREE progressives on his show who ALL said Congress should let the tax cuts all expire and try to give them retroactively in Jan. or Feb. They were Jane Hamsher, Adam Green, and Roger Hodge. Ezra Klein said they shouldn't, and O'Donnell agreed.

He then went on to break down the reality of it if the deal didn't go through.

[ProudDad]

62. But like all good RW talk show hosts

O'Donnell used his set up to build a strawman first...

They propose a set of "options" that made HIS point of view inevitable by ignoring most other viable options...

Classic...

[flpoljunkie]

66. Your 'right winger' prefers a single-payer system for health care, but knows it wasn't possible

Lawrence 0'Donnell has said this more than once on his new show.

[ProudDad]

67. If he "knew it wasn't possible"

then he wasn't FOR IT...

He's a shill for the beltway mentality...always has been...

[zulchzulu]

21. I was so sick of Maddow that I didn't watch O'Donnell

I'll watch the re-run.

Like you said, O'Donnell has been in the trenches and not in the parlor.

[Major Hogwash]

26. I couldn't watch Rachel tonight. She was just too full of herself tonight.

I don't know why she brings a pen to her desk and starts tapping it and then drawing big circles on the piece of paper she has on the desk, but she's not the official score keeper of anything so it looks immature.

[young but wise]

31. +1

Rachel is usually fair, but not tonight.

[bahrbearian]

27. Probably for Obama, What would have Howard Dean got us?

[jenmito]

28. He just destroyed Mary Landreau in his "Rewrite."

There was too much to remember it all but the topper was when he read the part in her statement that she doesn't know why Obama didn't think they (in the Senate) could get "40 or 50 or 60 votes" for a bill in the Senate w/o tax cuts for the rich. He pointed out the obvious-that they just HAD a vote (2 votes) in the Senate and FAILED to get 60-the number needed to pass it.

[TwilightGardener]

29. This is why I think the Dem Senators' carping is disingenuous. Their vote FAILED--

couldn't even get DEMOCRATS to vote for middle-class cuts only. Why aren't they angry at themselves? Why aren't they publicly calling out guys like Webb and Nelson?

[jenmito]

32. Exactly! Yet they think they can try AGAIN by holding out to whenever it takes,

which will be NEVER (since it already failed, and there will be a Repub. majority in the House in Jan.), and they'll also get nothing else done.

[slay]

30. I disagree - he got the deal the Republicans wanted.

Look - O'Donnell is not the type to challenge the existing power structure - and evidently neither is Obama. I like Lawrence but this is a bad deal no matter how you look at it. EOM.

[MrMickeysMom]

33. "solid legislative experience" ...

... That indicates knowledge of how it's done... the deal making.

This has nothing to do with leadership. We've gone well beyond making a deal and need bold fucking leadership.

[shireen]

35. the anger has been a cumulative effect

O'Donnell may be right. I don't know. Maybe it was the best deal he could make.

But i do know this: the President, in one compromise after another over the last two years, put himself in a situation where he may have had no choice but to settle for this so-called "best deal."

The other question is this: how is the effort to let the tax cuts expire going to play out two years from now, during a presidential election year? I'm wondering if it would have been better to take the risk and stand up to the Republicans now, or do it two years from now? It's hard to answer since we can't predict the future. But it feels grim to me because the debt is increasing, and Republicans won't vote to raise the debt ceiling which means even more cuts to vital programs. If that happens, the mood is going to be very ugly in 2012.

This situation makes me sick to my stomach.

[Jakes Progress]

36. You are sadly right.

This lousy, one-sided, rich man's wet dream of a compromise is unfortunately the best this inexperienced president could do.

[niceypoo]

37. We will never know the real answer

Because he gave up without a fight

[ibegurpard]

38. yeah, we've heard that shit before

[phleshdef]

39. Lawrence annhilated the Jane Hamsher bullshit.

[Hello_Kitty]

40. Capitulation to the Republicans FTW!

[phleshdef]

41. No, capitulation to truth and realism FTW.

[Hello_Kitty]

43. IOW, what the Republicans want.

[phleshdef]

44. I challenge you to dispute one fact that Lawrence used to annhilate the FDL crowd tonight.

[babylonsister]

45. Are those crickets I hear??? nt

[Hello_Kitty]

47. I answered it 2 minutes later. eom

[Hello_Kitty]

46. EITC. He says Republicans have always opposed it.

To the contrary, it was their idea in the first place. Adopted under Ford, expanded under Reagan. It's a subsidy to low wage employers.

[phleshdef]

48. What a crock of shit. They have railing against the EITC for some years now.

They blame the EITC as part of their claims that 47% of Americans dont pay taxes. They act like its socialist welfare being snuck into the tax system. Yes, Republicans supported it in the past, but not this breed we are dealing with right now. Lawrence was 100% correct that conservatives are now attacking the EITC.

[Hello_Kitty]

49. He said they've "never" been in favor of it. That is a lie.

Coming from a guy with such a rich history of "legislative experience", especially when his experience occurred during the time when the EITC was codified into tax policy, that's ridiculous.

[phleshdef]

50. Petty. The right has been bitching about it for ages. What he said was valid.

And the rest of what he said was even more valid. Jane Hamsher looked like a complete amateur.

[Hello_Kitty]

51. For ages? Really?

Find me an article before 1995 criticizing Milton Friedman's EITC.

You might be able to do it. I'd be interested in reading it.

[Hello_Kitty]

42. Woo hoo! Catfood austerity measures here we come!!

I have no doubt LO will deliver a similar smackdown to leftists who dare to challenge the Conventional Wisdom of the need to make "tough sacrifices" on Social Security.

[quiller4]

52. O'Donnel was both wonderful and right. For once I turned off the

Maddow show after only a few minutes. I'm really tired of rant with nothing to back it up.

[lamp_shade]

53. Same here.

[Still a Democrat]

54. Smart as she is, Rachel used few numbers

She went with video clips and sarcasm. Not a great show for her.

[Hello_Kitty]

59. Her point about the Child Tax Credit was solid.

And I don't recall O'Donnell using any numbers either. All he did was shout over his panel and smirk.

[ProudDad]

63. Yep, he's a wonderful

representative of the far-right wing of the near right-wing of the Corporate War Party...

[Dawgs]

55. O'Donnell is wrong. Every other progressive is right.

No way anyone could convince me otherwise.

[MichaelS2012]

57. K&R nt

[Phx_Dem]

60. Always the voice of reason and intelligence. He's the only show I watch

on MSNBC anymore, along with Tweety's.

If I want to hear ranting lunatics, I can watch Fox. Who needs Olbermann and Maddow when we have Fox.

[ProudDad]

64. Why am I not surprised?

:eyes:

[ProudDad]

61. Damned with faint praise

by another captive of the "inside the beltway" mentality...

Nothing to see here...