The Washington Post is reporting that Democrats are hopping mad with President Obama over the temporary extension of Bush-era tax credits to the wealthy. President Obama defended the deal his administration has struck with Republicans, including extending tax cuts for all income levels, saying the concessions are necessary to avoid a tax increase for nearly all Americans at year's end. Obama said he would have preferred to let the tax cuts for high incomes expire, and he pledged to continue to argue that Republicans are wrong in insisting that all the cuts be extended. Why sign on to something that you know is wrong? The president said that allowing the Senate stalemate to continue and the tax cuts to lapse — as some Democrats have urged — would have resulted in a long political fight that might have helped his party but "would be a bad deal for the economy and a bad deal for the American people."
Seven hundred billion dollars added to the deficit is a bad deal for the American people. Extending tax cuts from which the wealthiest portion of the country has benefited for almost a decade is bad for the American people. A president who compromises when Republicans are browbeating Congress and the country is not good for the American people. What is the point of having a Democrat in office if he won't stand with or stand up for Democrats, especially on an issue as transparent as this? We're not letting the Republicans off of the hook, either. What kind of "leaders" hold the Senate and unemployed people hostage in order to benefit their wealthy and employed friends and family? We know — the kind that get the job done at all costs, like $700 billion.
Read more at the Washington Post.