House Democrats Rebel Against "Compromise"

It doesn't look like the president's "compromise" tax plan is going to go as smoothly as he would like for it to go.   He's already chewed out those of us on the left for voicing our unhappiness with his capitulation to the Republicans.   I believe he thought that the Congress would fal in line with his wishes, and the rest of us would forget about his cowardly capitulation before 2012 rolled around.   He may have underestimated both the base of the party and the congressional Democrats.

The base still remembers that during the presidential campaign he promised to close down Guantanamo (promise not kept), do away with DADT (which he was too timid to do by administrative order and has yet to get through Congress), withdraw our soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan (both of which look like they'll continue for years now), re-regulate Wall Street (where again he was too timid to push for real reform), and fix our broken health care system (where he left the private insurance companies in charge of medical decisions and failed to cover all Americans with health insurance).

Frankly, we were already feeling abandoned and taken for granted.   We didn't need another broken promise -- and yes, we do still remember that he promised not to continue the massive tax cuts for the rich.   Does anybody really think this is the last time he will cave in to the Republicans -- especially since they are taking over the House of Representatives?   We saw in the last election what happens when too many voters stay home instead of turning out to vote like they did in 2008, and as disappointed as many of us are it could be even worse in 2012.   Why should we campaign and vote for a Democrat who'll just give in and institute Republican policies?

But Obama may have bigger problems than an unhappy base.   It looks like a lot of congressional Democrats are also unhappy with the capitulation over taxes cuts for the rich (and another extra cut for the rich in estate taxes).   Obama sent VP Biden to Congress to smooth things over, but that doesn't seem to have worked as well as planned.   At least one senator (Bernie Sanders) is planning a filibuster.   I expect the Democrats there are too spineless to help him out (he'll need 40 friends), but it will inspire many of us on the left.

Obama's problems are even bigger in the House of Representatives.   The Democratic caucus is very unhappy about Obama's capitulation, and they voted to not support the "compromise" unless some changes are made.   One of the progressives, Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) [pictured above], said,   "If it's take it or leave it, we'll leave it."  

The vote in the Democratic caucus is not a binding vote, but it does signal that the "compromise" is not a sure thing to pass the House as is.   Some teabaggers are unhappy about it also -- like Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota).   If the teabaggers and unhappy Democratic representatives both vote against the "compromise", they may have enough votes to kill it.

Obama won't admit it, but he made a very bad deal.   Trading 13 months of unemployment benefits for two years of tax cuts for the rich and a cut in the estate tax for the ultra-rich is a bad deal for America.   It increases the deficit by $400 billion a year and does very little for ordinary Americans (and it will create no new jobs).   In addition, he cuts the amount of social security taxes paid at a time when politicians are wanting to cut or abolish social security.   This gives workers a very small increase on their paychecks and gives Republicans an excuse to cut social security benefits.

This "compromise" is a brain-dead failure, and it scares me to think about the future "compromises" (capitulations) he'll make in the next two years.