Congressional Black Caucus Offers Progressive-Friendly Tax Cut Proposal

[ProSense]

Congressional Black Caucus Offers Progressive-Friendly Tax Cut Proposal

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are so exasperated by President Obama's tax cut deal with Republicans that they're offering up their own progressive-friendly proposal -- and lashing out at the White House.

At a press conference today, CBC members basically said they didn't believe Obama will be able roll back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest in the midst of a presidential election year. Obama has said he'll fight for the an expiration of the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans after the two-year extension contained in his deal.

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"The last Presidential candidate that I remember running on a platform of increasing taxes was Walter Mondale," Scott said, before engaging in a bit of understatement. "And that was not a successful strategy."

The better way to go, Scott and the other members of the CBC said, was to propose an alternative to Obama's tax cut deal now that Democrats running for office in two years could be proud of. To Scott, that means a two-year extension of only the middle and lower class cuts -- not the permanent extension Obama bargained for -- and no extension of the upper class cuts at all.

Scott's plan includes 13 months of additional unemployment insurance, "a payroll tax holiday or equivalent payment, such as a tax rebate check, with guarantees
that Social Security will not be deprived of revenue" and the two-year extension on the middle and lower class Bush tax cuts along with extensions of the tax programs aimed at the middle class Obama has put into place.

To hear the White House and Republicans tell it, such a plan would be a non-starter in the Senate. Republicans have said they must have all the Bush tax cuts extended if Democrats want any extensions of unemployment benefits. The members gathered today said even if that were true, giving the Republicans as much as the White House has is sowing the seeds for further Republican tax.

So they offer the President's plan without the tax cuts for the rich, basically a version of the plans that failed in the Senate last week? What now?

Somehow I don't see running on taxing the rich as a problem in the slightest.

[Arkana]

1. I seem to recall a certain candidate who ran on exactly that in 2008

and he was elected by an overwhelming margin.

[ProSense]

2. I look foward to the votes in Congress. n/t

[onenote]

3. and yet Congressional leaders didn't dare bring the tax cut issue to a vote before November

In hindsight, that obviously didn't help them very much. But the only explanation would seem to be that Democratic leaders in Congress thought that having a debate on the tax cut issue wasn't a winner for them electorally in 2010, notwithstanding what Obama ran on in 2008.

[tritsofme]

5. There is enough blame to go around in this boondogle.

The WH also pointedly refused to issue veto threats prior to the election, or draw any real line in the sand aside from rhetoric.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. What Was The WH Supposed To Veto?

.

[tritsofme]

9. Obama talked a lot about his opposition to continuing the tax cuts for the wealthy

But he never issued a veto threat, and declined opportunities to do so during multiple interviews.

This was a signal to Congress that he was not serious in his opposition, and that he would likely sign whatever arrived at his desk.

A veto threat would have helped the party as a whole define the debate.

It's possible his pre-election posturing was deliberate, but to lay all of the blame on Congress is disingenuous, they are partners in failure on this one. And now we are all stuck with the least bad option, which is the compromise negotiated by the president.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. But Wouldn't We Be At Exactly The Same Place

Even if Obama vetoed a bill that included tax cuts for the wealthy wouldn't the Republicans pass the bill when they take essential control of Conhress...

[tritsofme]

13. We will never know.

Like I said, we have no choice now but to accept the least bad option.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Didn't The Senate Just Reject Said Bill?

What magically changed since Saturday?

[Supersedeas]

6. those crazy House Progressives and their temper tantrums

[truthspeak]

8. Why not do all this BEFORE Nov 2?

This is why its both comical and disingenuous seeing all these Dems running around playing the blame game and throwing temper tantrums and coming up with "alternative" plans at this stage, when they had the ENTIRE year to confront this and REFUSED. But now that the clock is running out, here they come with their "plans" at the last minute.

Bunch of clowns.

[CakeGrrl]

11. And they expect this to pass in the Senate? Seriously and REALISTICALLY?

{facepalm}

[Emillereid]

12. As I recall this basic plan was stopped by the repukes last weekend -- it's a non-starter.