I do believe this is an important moment in the Obama Presidency.

[kentuck]

Rather than hand the baton to the House or the Senate, he should carry it across the line by himself. He should make a bold decision and accept the responsibility for doing so. He should let the Democrats and Republicans in the Congress debate the issue of the Bush taxcuts for however long they wish and when they send the bill to him to sign, he should veto it and send it back to the House with directions. Send me a bill without taxcuts for the millionaires and billionaires and I will sign it.

That is how bold the President needs to be. He should not be looking for compromise on this issue. He should be leading in defeating it. The truth of the matter is that it should never have been passed in the first place. Now, they want us to believe the economy is so fragile that we cannot raise the taxcuts 2 or 3%, as it was at the end of the Clinton years.

But the most important reason is that the taxcuts did not work. Less jobs were created in this decade than any decade of modern memory. The major thing the taxcuts accomplished was to drive up debt by $4 trillion dollars in this decade. Jobs did not grow. They got into the stock market and foreign labor markets with their taxcuts.

It's time for the President to take the bull by the horn, in my not so humble opinion.

[gateley]

1. That's a point that seems to be absent -- the tax cuts did. not. work. As somebody

said, if giving the rich guys a break means they will hire more people, then where the fuck are the jobs?

Why doesn't he present it that way? They took the money and invested it in personnel overseas.

[K8-EEE]

16. +1

[Cosmocat]

21. +1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

I no longer can be sure that I won't throttle the next idiot I hear say, "we know tax cuts stimulate job growth ..."

[ProSense]

2. How do you know what kind of bill they will send him if any bill at all?

For a bill to reach the President's desk, it would have to pass with Republican support in the Senate.

And if every Democrat supports the bill, why would the President veto it?

This is not a Republican Congress.

[kentuck]

3. Do you know something we don't know?

:shrug:

[ProSense]

4. No, but

I'm not confident that anything will come of the negotiations. I believe they'll run out of time.

I could be wrong.

[kentuck]

6. We all could be wrong.

They is why we post our opinions. To see if they carry any weight with anyone else.

[de novo]

5. The OP doesn't claim to know what kind of bill the President gets.

The OP is saying Obama needs to have a clear line in the sand, backbone moment. Use the veto if the tax cuts for the wealthy are sent in a bill.

[ProSense]

7. Yes, it does

"when they send the bill to him to sign, he should veto it and send it back to the House with directions"

Unless that means veto any bill?

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kentuck]

9. Yes, it assumes they will vote just as they say they will vote...

Or as John Boehner or one of his cohorts said, "There will be no compromise."

It seems to me they are saying they are looking for a compromise to extend the taxcuts for the wealthy? Do you see or hear something different?

[de novo]

11. Read the rest. Surely, you can comprehend that the OP lays out a

hypothetical. You are trying to deflect the debate. Weak.

[ProSense]

12. Please don't try to be condescending

the OP clarified

It assumes a bill worthy of a veto, not just any bill. Which is why I made my point.

[de novo]

13. Assumes for the sake of argument.

If a bill comes without the tax cuts for the wealthy, it is understood no veto would be needed.

And, is that link to the OP's response in this thread. I didn't follow it, but I assume it is. That is just weird.

[ClassWarrior]

15. "Please don't try to be condescending."

That's your territory, isn't it, Mark?

NGU.

[chimpymustgo]

19. A BACKBONE moment? For this President?. Invertebrate.

[dave29]

10. Every moment is important in a Presidency

as is evidenced by the almost simultaneous bashing of the action/inaction of the President. Say what you will about the job he is doing, it is a job you or I would not want, especially with all the folks explaining to him exactly what he has to do to make them happy... and none of those bits of advice are the same.

[kentuck]

14. Absolutely...

Everyone hopes the President is on his side and not on the other side. I think he has done a miraculous job thus far. But the patient is now off life support and is ready to eat whole food. It's time to make a decision as a strong President and not look for the Congress and Senate to make the decision for you. That is why this is such an important moment. It is decision time. Do you stand with the working middle class or do you stand with the millionaires and billionaires for purely political reasons - nothing whatsoever to do with keeping the economy strong and growing. That is only a facade, already proven without merit.

[The Wizard]

17. The compromise is a bill

that maintains the cuts for the middle class. Letting the bill sunset entirely is one extreme and letting the wealthy continue their unprecedented separation from the rest of us is another.
Letting an already burgeoning deficit explode to placate the wealthy is bizarre thinking.
The only solutions that seem to be on the table are to make the middle and lower classes pay for the government's incompetence or chicanery. When defense is barely mentioned in cost cutting, the military industrial media complex has demonstrated undue influence over our elected leaders.
The military has been handed a blank check since Pearl Harbor was attacked.

[BeyondGeography]

18. In Bidenese, this is a big fucking deal

Not least because, as Yogi Berra would say, it is getting late early for this President.

In fact, the Bush tax cuts may represent Obama's last chance to put a major stamp on a key issue before he runs for re-election. This Congress, composed of a retrograde Republican House and an even more watered down Democratic Senate with razor-thin margins, will give him nothing in he way of legislation, and block any initiatives that require their cooperation.

Beyond that, Obama still hasn't defined himself in a durable and positive way with many voters. HCR and Fin Reg are issues that either aren't touching many people directly right now or are too complicated to grasp. Not so with taxes and the deficit. Obama would take a lot of heat for letting the Bush tax cuts expire or vetoing any tax bill that continued to give people who can afford to help us out of the abyss money they don't really need, but it would also harden his support amongst an often shaky base, and define him as a progress- and fairness-minded leader. This would serve him quite well in 2012. If he just kicks he can down the road, he will have turned his back on his oft-stated promise to use the savings gained by letting tax cuts on the top 2 percent expire for more useful purposes. In addition to unreliable, he will look weak and dull.

Again, I see no other issue out there in 2011 that offers this kind of political upside if he does the right thing. He has all the power he needs to take a stand. Failure to use it could very well be a death blow to his presidency.

[Cosmocat]

20. This is what differs them from us ...

this is it ... They want to shift the burden on to US, our neighbors, family, and give as much as possible to the people who have the most ... We want the balance where everyone gets a fair shake ...

THIS is what defines them and defines us ...

I love BO, I do, and I have supported him from both left and right doggedly. I am a moderate, and he disappoints me GREATLY if he lets even an "extension" on the upper rate get his signature ...

I also agree STRONGLY, and have posted it countless times here - this is the closest the dems can come to having a win/win political moment ... It just is surreal that these twits are running from it ...