Countdown replacement host Thomas Roberts and tax guru David Cay Johnston discuss the coming fight over tax cuts — both the Bush cuts and the Obama cuts. A very good segment:
From Politico: The quarter-million mark is "dead as the dividing line" according to Dem aides. A later Politico article makes Nancy Pelosi the key (my emphasis):
“We’re encouraged,” said an aide to a key Republican in the tax fight. “But Obama needs to talk Nancy down off the ledge.”Did you catch that? Pelosi is making Obama negotiate to the $250,000 mark, not from it to some higher number. Negotiation 101, folks. Let's hope she holds out.
Republicans want to permanently extend the cuts to all income levels, while Senate Democrats have indicated they are open to at least a short-term extension. But Pelosi wants to let rates rise for taxpayers earning more than $200,000 a year, which was Obama’s original position.
Note that Johnston makes the point (3:30 in the clip) we also made earlier — that keeping taxes high on the top marginal tax rate removes the incentive for CEO-types to funnel money out of corporate pockets into their own. When you're paying 75% on those top personal dollars, they're less worth stealing; may as well let the company keep them and grow. That's the difference between the Eisenhower era and the post-Reagan one.
And Boehner makes the usual "jobs" argument. Thomas Roberts: "Boehner argued that keeping tax rates where they have been for the last nine years will change the rate of job growth." False, of course, as Johnston points out. But if you replace "job growth" with "profit growth," Boehner makes perfect sense, and makes it perfectly clear who he works for.
I'm keeping a sellout list on this one, in ink. As explained earlier, it should be a no-brainer for Team Eight Dimensional Chess. The default is no tax cuts for anyone. So put just one deal on the table: Tax cuts for incomes under $250,000, or all the Bush cuts will expire. Senate conservatives — you choose which occurs.
It's cards-on-the-table time, folks, as the Lame Duck prepares to quack. Can't wait to see what unfolds. 2012 is just around the corner.
GP
