Democrats Fall Into Trap - Extend Bush Tax Cuts

The top 2% just got their tax cuts extended. Thank the spineless Democratic leadership.

The best part? I mean, the funniest part? It's a trap!

"In Washington, where anything beyond last week’s news cycle is considered ancient history, the jury-rigged nature of the Bush plan—and the fiscal sleight-of-hand involved—have been all but forgotten.

“We knew that, politically, once you get it into law, it becomes almost impossible to remove it,” says Dan Bartlett, Bush’s former communications director. “That’s not a bad legacy. The fact that we were able to lay the trap does feel pretty good, to tell you the truth.”

[...] Had the tax breaks been made permanent—or even extended beyond Sept. 30, 2011—the fledgling Bush administration would have had to muster a 60-vote Senate majority under the so-called Byrd Rule, named for master parliamentarian Robert Byrd. (The final version, cutting taxes by $1.35 trillion, garnered 58 votes.) And by moving up the expiration date by nine months, the Bush team saved $100 billion and made the bill’s deficit-busting impact appear smaller.

As an added bonus, the “sunset” provision, in Beltway-speak, was a political time bomb: At some point in the way distant future, Democrats could be accused of raising taxes if they tried to undo the Bush breaks and return to Clinton-era levels of taxation."

[Found by Gary the Dangerous Infidel]

Look gang, the Republicans a scoring a victory while the Democrats are placing their tails between their legs and doing this in a lame-duck session. Of course they extended it. They always were. if anyone really cared about the 300 Billion - they would have simply raised the taxes or extended this forever, rather than 2 years -- where they get to do it again. And campaign on it. This is merely a distraction from the one group that fundamentally CONTROLS the economy. The Banks.

Cutting or raising Taxes doesn’t matter. Banks not lending because Glass/Stegeall was removed is all that does. We need to take off the partisan blinders and pay attention to the real issues.