You realize Obama ruled out PERMANENT top 2% tax cuts, not extending them, right?

[coti]

I'm sorry to do this, but the elation in this LBN thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4603749&mesg_id=4603749

over what seems to be a pretty serious misconception is killing me.

Obama only ruled out making the top 2% tax cuts PERMANENT. He did NOT rule out temporarily extending those top-tier tax cuts.

In fact, in my view, that he did rule out the permanent ones, and not the temporary, is a deliberate signal to the GOP that he will allow the temporary, and thus that's exactly what we're going to see.

Here's the speech, in its entirety. Read it carefully. I'll bold the two places where he talks about ruling out PERMANENT tax cuts for the rich:

This week, Americans across the country cast their votes and made their voices heard. And your message was clear.

You’re rightly frustrated with the pace of our economic recovery. So am I.

You’re fed up with partisan politics and want results. I do too.

So I congratulate all of this week’s winners – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. But now, the campaign season is over. And it’s time to focus on our shared responsibilities to work together and deliver those results: speeding up our economic recovery, creating jobs, and strengthening the middle class so that the American Dream feels like it’s back within reach.

That’s why I’ve asked to sit down soon with leaders of both parties so that we can have an extended discussion about what we can do together to move this country forward.

And over the next few weeks, we’re going to have a chance to work together in the brief upcoming session of Congress.

Here’s why this lame duck session is so important. Early in the last decade, President Bush and Congress enacted a series of tax cuts that were designed to expire at the end of this year.

What that means is, if Congress doesn’t act by New Year’s Eve, middle-class families will see their taxes go up starting on New Year’s Day.

But the last thing we should do is raise taxes on middle-class families. For the past decade, they saw their costs rise, their incomes fall, and too many jobs go overseas. They’re the ones bearing the brunt of the recession. They’re the ones having trouble making ends meet. They are the ones who need relief right now.

So something’s got to be done. And I believe there’s room for us to compromise and get it done together.

Let’s start where we agree. All of us want certainty for middle-class Americans. None of us want them to wake up on January 1st with a higher tax bill. That’s why I believe we should permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for all families making less than $250,000 a year. That’s 98 percent of the American people.

We also agree on the need to start cutting spending and bringing down our deficit. That’s going to require everyone to make some tough choices. In fact, if Congress were to implement my proposal to freeze non-security discretionary spending for three years, it would bring this spending down to its lowest level as share of the economy in 50 years.

But at a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. We’d be digging ourselves into an even deeper fiscal hole and passing the burden on to our children.

I recognize that both parties are going to have to work together and compromise to get something done here. But I want to make my priorities clear from the start. One: middle class families need permanent tax relief. And two: I believe we can’t afford to borrow and spend another $700 billion on permanent tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

There are new public servants in Washington, but we still face the same challenges. And you made it clear that it’s time for results. This a great opportunity to show everyone that we got the message and that we’re willing, in this post-election season, to come together and do what’s best for the country we all love.

Thanks.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/11/06/weekly-address-president-obama-calls-compromise-and-explains-his-priorit

There's nothing about extending the tax cuts for the rich for another couple of years. That means the rich will probably get their tax cuts extended, despite the deficit and debt and despite the joblessness.

[coti]

1. Kick- some weird stuff going on with the times on these threads. nt

[Hannah Bell]

4. more weird stuff than that -- some posts are permanently stuck at the top,

& new ones are entering in the middle.

[apocalypsehow]

7. It's thanks to the time rollback - this happened to me on several threads, and it took me a

while to figure out what was going on. Around the time change I was posting in several OP's and my replies got bumped to the top, even though I was the last one to reply. And the threads got put in the middle, while others with older replies got bumped to the top.

[Hannah Bell]

10. thanks, i thought it was me.

[Richard Steele]

2. I realize that Obama has not significantly altered a SINGLE FUCKING POLICY that B*sh established.

Not one.

Most disappointing President EVER.


Eddited fer spellin.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

3. Stem-cell research?

[Richard Steele]

11. Sir, I stand corrected. Thank you very much.

It may seem like a very small change in policy,
but it will eventually have a HUGE impact on the lives of
people who have suffered serious injuries and/or
debilitating diseases.

I thought it was awesome the first time I heard that
some surgeons had successfully re-attached a severed arm,
and it WAS awesome...
But that's NOTHING compared to what stem-cell research
is gonna do for us.

People who are currently confined to wheelchairs
will be walking down the street.
Not today, probably not next week, but someday soon.

Within our lifetime, doctors will be able to
repair a severed spinal cord as easily as they
install an artificial hip today.

Old folks with dementia? They've got a lot of data
on how stem cells could clear that right up.

And some of the research suggests that our current
system of 'organ transplants' might become obsolete.
Why bother digging a kidney out of an accident victim
when you could just inject some stem sells into a patient
and tell those cells to form a new kidney?


Stem cell research just has SOOO much promise....
whatever it eventually gives us will be like MAGIC
compared to what we have now.

Just like artificial hips were 'like magic' before they were common,
and penicillin was 'like magic' back when people commonly died
from scraping their face wrong while shaving.

Yeah, Obama changed that policy....
and the world is SOMEDAY gonna be a better place for it.
Thank you for reminding me of that.

[TheWraith]

5. How about you edit for accuracy?

Since what you said is completely and totally wrong in so many ways I can't even begin to straighten you out--not that it would matter if I could, since you clearly have a hardon for bashing Obama.

[apocalypsehow]

6. Delighted, again, to UnRec. n/t.

[coti]

12. So you've resorted to unreccing the facts, now,

and the reasonable inferences that should be made from them.

Still nothing of substance to add, I imagine, though.

[opihimoimoi]

8. If Obama wants the principle of doing the right thing...extention of the Tax cuts is OFF THE TABLE

[donheld]

9. Why are you trying to add facts?

Who needs facts? :sarcasm: