Semi-Good News

From the New York Times:

"WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday will make clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies."

Of course, in order to get any kind of cooperation from the traitorous Republican party, he still has to lard his proposal with giveaways to business.

"Mr. Obama will also make a case for the package of roughly $180 billion in expanded business tax cuts and infrastructure spending disclosed by the White House in bits and pieces over the past few days. He would offset the cost by closing other tax breaks for multinational corporations, oil and gas companies and others.

The two major pieces of the package — expanding and making permanent a popular credit for businesses’ research and experimentation expenses, and allowing them to write off the full value of new equipment purchases through 2011 — have longstanding Republican and corporate support."

That doesn't mean that they are going to support the proposals now, no matter how much sense they might make:

"Republicans’ early reactions were hostile, especially to Mr. Obama’s proposals to close corporate tax loopholes to offset any costs.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and an adviser to Republicans, predicted in an interview that “nothing is going to happen between now and the election,” except perhaps for passage of a separate administration package of tax cuts and lending for small businesses."

So apparently, the Republicans will support nothing except more giveaways to the rich, and certainly would never support "closing other tax breaks for multinational corporations, oil and gas companies."

Two party system? What we have right now is one political party and one gang of thieves. What a way to run a country. Well, at least Obama is doing the right thing this time, although as Daily Kos so appropriately puts it, "It is excellent news, but it feels far less like triumph than a sense of relief ."

Too bad Obama didn't figure out what it really means to be a Republican before he gave up the public option.

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