President Obama has announced his new "framework" on the George W. Bush tax cuts, and now he has to sell it -- to fellow Democrats.
That is the group most critical of the plan that would temporarily extend all the Bush tax cuts -- including those for the wealthy -- in exchange for a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits and a series of middle-class tax cuts.
"It's bad economic policy," said Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. "I'm very unhappy with it."
Brown and other Senate Democrats meet today to discuss the agreement, as Obama and aides argue that this is the best deal they could get. Both the Senate and the House must sign off, and Democratic votes may be harder ones to get.
"It's not perfect, but this compromise is an essential step on the road to recovery," Obama said last night. "It will stop middle-class taxes from going up."
In promoting the agreement, Obama and aides make two general points:
-- The only way to preserve the Bush tax cuts for the middle class was to extend them for the wealthy as well.
-- Voters want the parties to work together.
"The American people didn't send us here to wage symbolic battles or win symbolic victories," Obama said.
That said, Obama blamed Republicans for forcing him to change his position that extending the tax cuts for the wealthy would add $700 billion U.S. to the deficit over the next decade.
"What is abundantly clear to everyone in this town is that Republicans will block a permanent tax cut for the middle class unless they also get a permanent tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, regardless of the cost or impact on the deficit," Obama said.
Obama said he insisted on only a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts, as well as tax cuts he put in place to help the middle class.
The president said, "I have no doubt that everyone will find something in this compromise that they don't like -- in fact, there are things in here that I don't like."
But inaction will mean to deal on the Bush tax cuts, and higher tax bill for all Americans.
The office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a terse statement from spokesman Jim Manley: "Now that the President has outlined his proposal, Senator Reid plans on discussing it with his caucus tomorrow."
Oh, one other thing -- if Congress agrees to a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts, that means they again become an issue in 2012, the year Obama seeks re-election.
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