Take off the rose colored glasses. I think you miss the fact that this deal is a total cave to the GOP, and a huge strike-out by Obama to get a winning message across and show he stands for something. That being-the rich, on Wall Street and elsewhere, do not deserve a continuation of tax breaks, and he is not going along with the GOP who are trying to extort that concession on the backs of the unemployed.

Also, Congress in recent decades has never NOT approved extended unemployment benefits when the unemployment rate is over 8%-so Obama giving away the farm to the GOP on that point is zilch, as I said he could have used the GOP heartlessness on this to pummel them into passing it with no concessions on his part.

In fact Obama obligingly covers the ass of the GOP who escape the wrath of the unemployed who would have had their benefits cut, and the wrath of the deficit hawks in the TParty-by saying they got tax cuts in return for it all.

The transfer of general revenue to Social Security could easily be cut thereby diminishing the solvency of Social Security in one fell swoop.  Also, once cut, any tax, like the payroll tax, is rarely reinstated at its previous level, so, yes, the cut in the payroll tax rate is another GOP scheme to 'starve the beast' called Social Security.

Krugman says that any job creation, which will not be 'millions' like Obama claimed, created by the Bill will be mostly in 2011, and will fade towards the election 2012, and could be almost entirely checkmated by GOP cuts to the federal budget.

On the estate tax cut, which I blogged about, Obama caved and went with the GOP Kyl/McConnell plan which is 35% of estates over $5 million , the Reid plan was 45% for estates over $3.5 million.

The Obama/GOP plan taxes only 0.14% of estates, the Reid plan would have taxed a whopping 0.25%-so it seems Obama couldn't even hold the line on a tax break for 0.11% of dead rich folks.

Destor,

Is there anything in the rotten compromise Obama negotiated that makes it worth destabilizing Social Security because that is precisely what is going to happen.  Obama couldn't faciliate the destruction of Social Security via his disgusting catfood commission because the crisis they referred to didn't exist and Social Security does not add anything to the deficit to begin with.  But by failing to pay into the system, they will begin the process of creating the very crisis that Democrats have prevented from happening now for decades.  I suggest that everyone take a long look at what Obama's disgraceful capitulation is really going to do.  The small "concessions" Obama managed to get from the grotesquely corrupt Republicans are nothing more than things that ought to be approved routinely.  What our faux Democratic President wants to give to the other side is a tidal wave of largesse for the rich.

Obama is to legislative strategery what Paris Hilton is to singing, what Michael Jordan is to baseball, what David Hasselhoff is to running in slo-mo on the beach. I.e. he's almost INTRIGUINGLY bad.

Yeah, sure, maybe nothing better could be had at this point, but that doesn't mean it's something to cheer about. I mean, when Napoleon stood before the smoldering ruins of Moscow in mid-winter and told his troops

"hmm, I have an idea, let's retreat",

I don't think they began applauding and screaming

"WHAT A GENIUS!"

Their thoughts more likely turned to the question

"Whose bright idea was it to come HERE?!"

Obama had two years with a nice fat majority to pass some more adequate tax structure, through reconciliation if need be, and he chooses to leave it until he's HERE to go with ... THIS?!

Sweet baby Jesus, this is just pathetic.

From where I sit it's not a question of encouraging/discouraging wealth accumulation at the top at all. I agree that's an issue that needs to be addressed, but taxation comes after wealth is accumulated. Trying to address the problem at that point is certainly not going to change the situation all that much. The real money is being diverted at a different choke-point in our economy;  taxation is just the point where the mega-players get to see how much of their ill-gotten lucre they get to keep.

To me this is 100% a question of who pays for the costs of running our country and servicing our debt - made orders of magnitude greater based on the shenanigans of the ultra-wealthy who are fighting to keep their tax cuts. Pennies on the dollar. That's what we get out of this deal. American citizens/workers can't survive - let alone thrive - if every deal we make is a pittance for a pound.

You are looking at the money wrong ... or more to the point you are looking at revenue from an individualistic standpoint instead of aggregate. The current system taxes every penny of our GDP that comes through the hands of the middle class. In entrepreneurial terms, that's money in the economy being "put to work" ... it comes in, is reinvested in the system and then the system produces more.

What happens when we shift the money to the top 1% is that more and more of the money is not "working" ... they don't pay taxes on any of it. So, not only are we losing out because the real benefits from our labors are all being hoarded by a small few who don't produce shit, but the money they are taking out of our mouths isn't even being proportionally reinvested to maintain society anymore. $100,000 shifting from the middle class to the rich not only means the middle class is poorer, it means that there are $100,000 less dollars worth of tax money being spent on schools, roads, etc.

If we don't fix that, trying to protect the living standards of middle-class Americans is like trying to sandbag around a house in the 9th Ward during Katrina. If we don't start working on the levees, it isn't going to matter. IMO, we don't have an extra two years to fuck around. The money is shifting from us to them at an INSANE pace right now - tax policy sure as hell isn't what's causing the tsunami of our money rolling into their bank accounts. We damn well better at least collect some taxes on all this shit over the next two years as they rob us blind and profit from foreclosing on every home in America.

Either we start fixing this crap or we don't. This deal falls firmly on the side of "don't" ... the bribes they are offering look kind of like glass beads being offered in exchange for Manhattan to me.

Big Uh-oh alert:  (via David Dayan at FDL)

"President Obama is holding a press conference in moments, amid signs that his deal with Republicans on the Bush tax cuts is falling apart. Joe Biden visited the Hill to try and save the policy, but Democrats and allies from across the political spectrum are opposed. Mary Landrieu, of all people, called the deal “almost morally corrupt” and termed it “the Obama-McConnell plan.” The Congressional Progressive Caucus want a “no strings attached” policy with UI and the tax cuts on the first $250,000 of income extended. The AFL-CIO just released a strongly worded denunciation opposing the policy. This is from President Richard Trumka:

The tax cut deal rewards Republican obstructionism by giving the wealthy the tax breaks they demanded. It throws away precious resources needed for investments in jobs and our economy on upper income tax cuts that will do very little to propel economic growth—setting up excuses for the deficit hypocrites to argue for even more cuts to programs serving working families. It lards the tax cuts for the top 2 percent with an indefensible cut in the estate tax – giving yet another bonus to the super-rich. Taken together, this package locks in the growing income inequality that has plagued our country for at least another two years – and quite possibly much longer.

It is unconscionable that the price of support for struggling middle class families and workers who have been unable to find jobs for months and months and months is yet more giveaways for our country’s wealthiest families. Millions of jobless workers have lived in fear for months while Senate Republicans had the gall to use their hardships as political leverage for the benefit of the rich.

The gains for the middle class and jobless workers in the deal come at too high a price.

Democrats are simply unwilling to give up at the moment on letting the high-end tax cuts expire, regardless of the modest gains that could come from the other elements of the deal. It is in this environment that Obama will speak in a few minutes."

 I hope we directly from the unions soon about the Crap KORUS Free Trade Agreement, too.   (note: not Fair Trade, cuz it sucks.)  Word has it there have been shenanigans pressuring them to keep silent.