Democrats Furious With Obama Over Tax Deal

Obama Sells Out the Left: a Republican Win on Taxes

There really is no other way to say it: the Republicans won, the liberal Democrats lost, and the president sided with the Republicans. The subject, of course, is an agreement to extend all the Bust tax cuts. The president tonight announced a "bipartisan framework" for agreement on, among other things, to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years. A Republican House aide tells me tonight it is "a damn good deal." And so it is, from the perspective of conservatives.

As they've been demanding, all of the Bush tax cuts are extended for two years. The estate tax that was due to pop back up to a rate of 55 percent was retained, but with a $5 million exemption and at a rate of 35 percent (better than Republicans privately expected). For that huge concession, the president extracted... a 13 month extension in unemployment benefits.

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So you can see why liberals are morose. A Capitol Hill aide described Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid's demeanor upon returning from the White House: "He looked like someone shot his dog." Read more...

Weiner Calls Out Obama for 'Punting on 3rd Down'

Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.) had harsh words for President Obama on Twitter on Monday as the White House and leaders in Congress neared a deal to extend both the Bush tax cuts and expired federal jobless benefits. "Memo to our President," Weiner tweeted, "Why are we always punting on 3rd down? Let's get our offense on the field." Read more...

Democrats Frustrated Over Obama Tax Deal With GOP

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said he would filibuster, and a group of progressive Democrats in the House circulated a letter in opposition. Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee called the deal a capitulation. "Everything President Obama has done has signaled weakness and has sent a signal to Republicans that if they block tax cuts long enough, at the end of the day he will pass whatever comes across his desk. That is not how you negotiate," Green said. Read more...

Another Jimmy Carter?

Larry Sabato: President Obama may have underestimated the backlash from the left on his tax cut compromise. Democrats are still smarting from the election results and don’t want Obama to give in so easily on what he himself has repeatedly called a matter of principle. This is just a hint of how difficult the next two years are going to be for the president. How does he achieve compromise with an assertive, conservative Republican House, without alienating the liberal base he needs energized in 2012? The danger of a liberal challenger in the primaries cannot be discounted. In the modern era, presidents who face serious opposition in their own party for re-nomination are much more likely to lose in November. Would Obama have been better off adopting Senator Chuck Schumer’s clever strategy of cuts for everyone but millionaires? Perhaps. Should Obama have insisted on more concessions from Republicans, such as the passage of the Dream Act which would grant legal status to thousands of illegal immigrant students or the abolition of "don’t ask, don’t tell"? Maybe.  The president is going to have to get used to such second-guessing as he adjusts to his new, more fragile role and tries to figure out how to keep from becoming another Jimmy Carter. Read more...

Liberal Dems to Obama: Fight Harder

"This is the president's Gettysburg," Rep. Jim McDermott, a leading progressive and a subcommittee chairman on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, told POLITICO Monday. Referring to Obama’s choice about whether to compromise or stand firm against Republicans on the question of higher taxes for the wealthy, the Washington Democrat said: "He's going to have to decide whether he's going to withstand Pickett's charge ... I worry." McDermott says Republicans are testing the president to see if there’s “a point beyond which he will not go” in negotiating. “They’re bullying him. For the country’s sake, he’s got to stand up,” said the Washington Democrat, who worked as psychiatrist in the Navy. “It’s setting the standard for the next two years.” Read more...

Obama Gets Rolled

The far left greeted the news with the kind of despair usually reserved for Bush-Cheney inaugurations. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders immediately denounced the plan as “an absolute disaster, an insult to the vast majority of the American people.” Commenters at Daily Kos were calling the president “Captain Caveman” while FireDogLake.com offered the headline “President Bush Obama, GOP Agree: Bail Out the Rich, Destroy Democratic Party.” Read more...

Obama: On the Way to a Failed Presidency?

The stakes are much higher than the distant election. The president has suggested unconvincingly that he'd prefer to be a successful one-term president than a two-term president who didn't get anything done. But there are other alternatives. If the president continues on his current course, we're looking at a failed one-term presidency that the nation cannot afford. Read more ...

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HuffPo Comments: 'Obama Caved so Fast It Scared the Bats!'