President Clinton briefs the press on why Democrats should back the current President's tax deal with Republicans, as if ... well, as if he never left!
Chris Matthews hosted Clinton insider Mark Penn, aptly described by Howard Fineman of Huff Post as "the geometry professor of triangulation." President Obama isn't the second coming of FDR; he's already pivoted to Clinton triangulation as the best Republican president Democrats can get. The economic policy is trickle-down Reaganomics. House and Senate Democrats will get few concessions. Even in endorsing it editorially the New York Times described it as "odious." Here are a few reasons why:
The tax cut for millionaires and billionaires, always advertised as essential for job creation actually resulted in a net loss of 600,000 jobs lost between 2001 and 2007, before the economic collapse. As Bernie Sanders noted, it's just a payoff by Republicans to their rich donors, and they should admit it. The unconscionable estate tax, as Senator Sanders indicated, benefits exactly 3/10 of 1 percent of families; 99.7 percent of American families will pay not a nickel on their estates. ONLY 39,000 VERY EXCLUSIVE families (the Waltons, Paris Hilton) will get a total tax windfall of $27 billion. It's an outrageous transfer of wealth to America's oligarchy. The deal actually raises taxes on the poor and seriously threatens the solvency of Social Security beyond Mr. Obama's possible second term.
As Bernie Sanders said to the "hypocrites" on the other side. "Don't you dare lecture us on deficits" any longer, after thrusting an odious tax cut for millionaires and billionaires down our throats that rips a $900 billion hole in the deficit with modest stimulus but serious structural economic damage to the poor, the elderly, and the middle class built in to the President's negotiated "framework."
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