The President should not extend the Bush tax cuts. He needs to get on national TV and say something like.
“My fellow Americans, we are at an impasse. I ran for President to restore and champion the financial wellbeing of the middleclass. In the first 20 months of my administration I had to make decisions to prop up the financial sector and pass a stimulus to save the entire country from entering a spiraling decline to a depression. Now that we are growing however slowly, we must get our fiscal house in order.
During the midterm election you expressed your concern for the budget deficit as well as concern for the middleclass being squeezed. It is my responsibility as your President with the help of Congress to mitigate this and I will. After the Bush tax cuts expire in December that went mostly to the wealthy for the last 10 years I will institute a middleclass tax cut effective January first 2011. Rates for the wealthy will return to those in effect during the Clinton Administration where we saw our largest employment growth compared to job growth under these rates. I will ensure businesses creating jobs in the US will receive further tax breaks.
I need your help. Please tell your representative not to block your tax and the middleclass tax relief.”
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies
White House Gives In On Bush Tax Cuts
First Posted: 11-11-10 12:16 AM | Updated: 11-11-10 08:23 AM
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s top adviser suggested to The Huffington Post late Wednesday that the administration is ready to accept an across-the-board, temporary continuation of steep Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest taxpayers.
That appears to be the only way, said David Axelrod, that middle-class taxpayers can keep their tax cuts, given the legislative and political realities facing Obama in the aftermath of last week’s electoral defeat.
"We have to deal with the world as we find it," Axelrod said during an unusually candid and reflective 90-minute interview in his office, steps away from the Oval Office. "The world of what it takes to get this done."
"There are concerns," he added, that Congress will continue to kick the can down the road in the future by passing temporary extensions for the wealthy time and time again. "But I don’t want to trade away security for the middle class in order to make that point."
It has been widely assumed that the president would have to accept an across-the-board deal of some kind, but Axelrod’s remarks were the first public confirmation of that fact — and by a figure regarded as closer to Obama than any other White House staffer.
Also dealing "with the world as we find it," Axelrod declined repeatedly to comment on any of the controversial debt-reduction measures suggested by the chairs of the president’s own commission — even those, such as raising the Social Security retirement age, that go against Obama campaign pledges and strike at the heart of Democratic constituencies.
He said that the White House would wait until the commission made its final recommendations on Dec. 1 before adding, "the president’s commitments haven’t changed."
By giving ground on taxes and remaining silent on budget suggestions that others, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka, quickly denounced, Axelrod showed the subdued caution of an adviser to a humbled boss.
But the top Obama aide also erected some barriers against newly-emboldened Republicans and their Pentagon allies.
Axelrod said that his boss would veto repeal of his cherished health care law, though he would "work with people" who "have constructive ideas about how to strengthen" it. The veto threat was not unexpected, but it was the first time that a top administration figure had issued such a threat on the record. And in doing so, Axelrod predicted that Republicans would be making a major misstep by challenging the White House’s commitment on this front.
"I’m not going to prejudge what they are going to do," Axelrod said of Republican opposition to the legislation. "But I will tell you this — we are firm in our commitment, we are willing to work with people to improve this plan we are not going to stand for those who want to undermine it and destroy it."
