Bush tax cuts

Despite press reports that have indicated Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia would not support a debt ceiling deal that involves tax hikes, the senator won't reveal, when asked in person, where he actually stands on the contentious issue. 

"I’m for a plan that’s fair," Manchin, who is up for reelection next year, said in the Capitol yesterday afternoon. "Just a fair plan for everybody."

A mystery lies at the heart of America’s budget politics. In the weeks since debate began on raising the debt limit, President Obama has faulted Republican budget plans as a way of giving favors to “millionaires and billionaires” at the expense of the poor and aged, just as he did during last winter’s quarrel over retaining the Bush tax cuts. He does this because it places the public firmly on his side.

The tax deal reached cloture in the Senate, 83 to 15. But the right-wing debate over the deal continues. Here are some more links for your edification.

Larry Kudlow:

I think conservatives have to keep their eye on economic growth. There’s stuff in the deal that I don’t like, but the overall impact is going to be positive.

What do you know, bloggers and talk show hosts do not necessarily represent the American public. Pew runs the numbers and finds that a sizable majority backs the tax deal:

The Senate plans to hold a cloture vote today on the tax deal between President Obama and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. TWS supports the deal, for reasons explained in our editorial. Here are some more reasons to support the deal, from some of our favorite bloggers.

Keith Hennessey:

When is Congress going to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts? President Obama wants to extend those cuts only for households making less than $250,000. Republicans want to extend all of the tax cuts, at least temporarily, so that the country doesn't raise taxes in the middle of a terribly weak economic recovery.

Minority leader John Boehner, appearing on CBS's Face the Nation yesterday, said he would vote for a bill extending tax rates for everyone but households making more than $250,000 if it's "the only option I have." Clearly he hadn't read this week's editorial!

Assuring everyone that they're unwilling to listen to economic reason, even from the man employed as their budget director a month ago, the White House spokespeople were sent forth this morning to refute the former OMB director's inaugural New York Times column.

There’s a phrase that never crosses President Obama’s lips, even as he prepares to propose new tax cuts for small business.  The phrase:  permanent, across-the-board cuts in marginal tax rates for the wealthy.

Barack Obama understands that it’s bad economics to raise taxes in a recession. It’s “the last thing you want to do,” he said almost exactly one year ago.

Polling on inside-the-beltway legislative issues is fraught with challenges because it requires translating Washington-speak into a language voters can understand.

On Tuesday, Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman called for a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year. "I’m hesitant to see taxes go up in the middle of a recession," Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, told reporters at the Capitol. "I think we ought to wait til maybe six months, maybe at least til the end of the next fiscal year" to raise taxes.