What I kinda wish was true...

that Obama's tax deal flops and the Bush tax cuts expire. It would be against
our immediate self-interest (not to mention the unemployed), but as Krugman and
others have pointed out (in Daily Kos and elsewhere), the Democrats will be
exchanging present hostages to the Republicans in return for giving up still
more hostages down the line. The Republican plan is to make the tax cuts
permanent in 2012 (and campaign on the issue) and if they secure the tax cuts,
they will then start hollering about the necessity of cutting social security
and other so-called entitlements out of their immense faux concern for the
deficit.

(BTW, as grateful as I am for Krugman's insightful columns, at one point I
believe he supported a payroll social security tax holiday as part of a stimulus
package & for me & that's the real sticking point for me in the Obama tax
deal--now I guess it's one of the sticking points for him too. Back in the
day, Krugman was also a free trade proponent although he now considers such
discussions an academic luxury of sorts. But Krugman is okay. For one thing he
likes my favorite sci fi guy, Charles Stross)

So one partially hopes that Bernie Sanders takes it upon himself to block the
bill until the clock runs out on the tax deal--individual Republican Senators do
it all the time so I don't see why he can't. And the bill is hardly revenue
neutral so it can be filibustered. In the foregoing dream scenario, Bernie
blocks the bill even though he may be risking his Senate career and the
Republicans take the heat from Obama and the other Dems for refusing a
middle-class tax cut, attempting to monkey with social security, and laying
waste to the millions of unemployed. Meanwhile, the economy continues to
improve to the point that the public perception is that things are getting
better and the Republicans are battered again at the polls in 2012. But above
all, it would be nice if the Left in the Democratic Party could demonstrate (for
once) that they cannot be taken for granted by the party leadership. Sometimes
I believe the position of the Left with the Democrats is rather like that of the
anti-abortionists and family values crowd vis a vis the Republicans--useful at
the polls but ignored in practice otherwise.

But, as the Marines say, hope is not a plan. I have finally to believe that
Obama's deal will go through because the unemployed desperately need for it to
go through.

R.

http://gg9-tto.blogspot.com/