President Obama, Pragmatist

I've long told my conservative friends that Obama was never, nor will ever be, an ideological leftist.  He is a liberal in his beliefs and values, but he is operationally a conservative (which I believe is similar to the American character i.e. black emancipation and suffrage, women's sexual and economic freedom, DADT, etc - "Let's do this major social change but let's just do it very slowly so we can make sure it works out all right").  He is willing to deal and compromise to help move the country slowly, methodically forward in--his own estimation--the right direction. When we look back on his presidency, the story will outline progressive ideas and policies legislated, enacted and executed in a conservative manner.

GOP leadership approves $900B worth of new stimulus-wait...what?

This stimulus is actually the deal on the extension of the Bush tax cuts announced earlier today (technically yesterday) by President Obama.  Key quote from the New York Times article (emphasis mine):

"The package would cost about $900 billion over the next two years, to be financed entirely by adding to the national debt, at a time when both parties are professing a desire to begin addressing long-term fiscal imbalances."

Oh, that's right.  I forgot that it's not deficit spending if you spend it on the crap you want to buy. I get it now Republicans! See, if Democrats want to use the country's credit card to buy some construction workers to fix a bridge, that's deficit spending. But if Republicans want to give more money to millionaires with the country's credit card, money that in all likelihood those millionaires will save.  That money comes from a special magic Republican fund that doesn't come from borrowing!

Remember folks, you only have to find a way to pay for a program if it affects someone who might actually need the money, like unemployment insurance extensions for those laid off during the great recession (those lazy bums) and food stamps (if more poor kids are starving, they might be more motivated to find work, right!?).

Now that I'm done with my little rant, I actually think the deal President Obama got on the "Bush tax cuts" is probably the best he could get considering the circumstances. And if you remember, this deal between the President and Republican leadership, I advocated for earlier on this blog (it's actually former OMB director Peter Orzsag's - but I'll take the credit). And if this deal helps pave the way for the ratification of START and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, then overall I think it was the right thing to do. Losing some important chess pieces in order to control the rest of the game is worth it.

Graph of the Obama tax proposal vs. original Bush tax cuts

So here's a handy little graph from Ezra Klein's blog to help sort out the difference between the Obama budget proposal for only letting the tax cuts for the richest 1-2% expire and the Republican proposal of extending the "Bush" tax cuts as is.  This graph lays out pretty clearly that the Bush tax cuts did largely go to the richest Americans, and not like medium rich, but like really REALLY rich.  As you'll see, between the two tax proposals most of the tax cut amounts are essentially the same for most income brackets.

Also ask yourself, if you really care about cutting the deficit (letting the tax cuts expire in full would cut the deficit by roughly 30%) would you be willing to part with the amount in either proposal?

Full disclosure, I stand to gain an increase in my tax cut of $2 to $7 from the Obama proposal.  My bias is so easily purchased!

Read the full article about the Joint Committee on Taxation's analysis of the two tax proposals here at the Washington Post.