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Published Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010 | 10:52 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010 | 10:52 a.m.
The framework President Obama released toward a compromise on tax cuts is earning high praise from Republicans in Congress, but Democrats are staying comparatively tight-lipped as they pledge nonetheless to consider the new plan.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said only that Reid "plans on discussing it with his Caucus tomorrow" in a statement released late Monday, after the administration unveiled its proposal.
Obama's plan extends the full roster of tax cuts at every income level for a period of two years, extends the federal government's amped-up unemployment benefits, which lapsed Nov. 30, for a period of 13 months, and cuts the employee Social Security tax rate from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent.
"We had two choices: one is to let taxes go up on every American, or to see if we could come up with a compromise that was good for everybody," a senior administration official said Monday. "If we were going to have such a deal, this is an excellent deal."
A quartet of Democrat and GOP representatives from the House and Senate have been meeting since last week with top financial officials from the administration to hash out the details of a compromise plan to put before the Congress.
Lawmakers have been in a standoff for several months, with Democrats pushing for an extension of tax cuts only on the first $250,000 of income -- or maybe on the first $1 million, under an alternative proposal that Sen. Charles Schumer offered -- and Republicans insisting on a full extension of tax cuts at every income level on a permanent basis.
They have also been pushing for a conclusion to the tax cuts standoff before the new year, when the regime of tax cuts expires.
But few have been willing to budge.
Things seemed to devolve further over the weekend, after Reid kept the Senate in session Saturday to take votes on both Democrat-backed plans, both of which failed to secure enough support to override a filibuster.
That threatened to throw Reid's entire lame-duck plan into jeopardy. Last week, Republicans pledged to block any effort to move onto any other subject until the tax issue was resolved.
Now it appears there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.
"I am cautiously optimistic that our Democratic friends will have the same openness to preventing tax hikes that the administration has already shown," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement late Monday.
But moving forward will depend on Reid's willingness to bring up the proposal. He and Obama are close, and he appointed his most trusted financial mind in the Senate -- Max Baucus -- to represent him at the negotiations.
And even though he has continued to preach the gospel of the $250,000 ceiling, Reid has also seemed to leave open the possibility of reaching just this sort of ultimate deal in his rhetoric on tax cuts, as he has stressed the importance of "compromise."
If lawmakers are able to successfully compromise, it would represent the first time there has been cross-aisle cooperation between the White House and the Republican party on a large-scale issue.
If Reid agrees with the President's plan, and Republicans maintain their optimism, he's likely to be able to avoid a filibuster -- a rare occasion in the Senate these days. But he likely won't bring along all the Democrats.
After Saturday's vote, Schumer said there were some in the Democratic caucus who seemed prepared to continue to slog out the tax fight into January.
Make the Republicans filibuster the bill that would continue the tax break for the first $250K in income. Make them filibuster it through Christmas and the New Year, with NO RECESS. Let the American people see day after day that the Republicans are ONLY interested in tax cuts for the wealthy and don't give two sh*ts about the middle or lower class. Do it even if the sellout Obama says not to.
Schumer has to be an idiot! Continue to slog out the tax fight into January? And, then what? Less Democratic votes and it will either be compromise at that time or not pass any extension of the tax cuts. The bottom line is, the Democrats don't have the votes to pass what they want now with a majority in the House and the Senate, so it is not going to happen. Vote for the compromise and let the tax cuts be extended and for unemployed to get extended benefits and quit playing politics! The Democrats tried providing stimulus to the economy with government spending with mixed results at best. Now the stimulus will be in tax cuts, let's see if that works.
So so sick of this stupid "comprimise" bs... really - do you see any compromise from the right? Heck NO - never. I don't care if Obama is one term and gone, this is craziness - the man needs to grow a backbone. I for one am sick to death of being held hostage by the right, when the left has been in control.... No reason for any of it. We need to be out of Afghanistan, repeal DADT, close Guantanamo, etc....
Hey, Obama - the rightwing thugs will NEVER compromise with you, get it? They HATE you, and will NEVER accept your presidency.
Dickerjd, the tax cuts have been in place for YEARS and they haven't worked, why on earth would they work now? 700 billion unfunded... trillions in wars, millions of lost lives - that's what those thugs stand for..
Jenlv, don't get me wrong, I'm a Democrat but Schumer and others are proposing gridlock. I don't know about you but I don't want to see my taxes go up next year just so liberal Democrats in the House and Senate can make a point. I would not say the tax cuts have not worked, the Las Vegas economy was doing pretty well prior to the recession. You can say that Bush and the Republicans caused the recession by pushing deregulation but votes in Congress on deregulation had Democrat support too, especially the decision to not regulate Derivatives. Also, not many Democrats currently in Congress initially voted against the war in Iraq or denying the funds to continue the war.
The tax break whereby businesses will be able to write off all assets will be a great boost to the economy. I applaud Obama for advocating this.