Krugman:
LettingTax Cuts For The Rich Expire
So, let's see: letting the high-end tax cuts expire on schedule is good economics; picking a fight with Republicans over the issue appears, from all the polls, to be very good politics - and that's despite what has so far been an incredibly lame effort to explain the issues.
Besides, Democrats should be inclined to take risks in any case: if nothing shakes up the game, they lose the House and possibly the Senate, if they shake things up, they might hold on.
And yet, it's still not clear whether they'll force a vote on a middle-class-only tax break?
You really have to wonder about these people.
Particularly when one reads TPM's account of the meeting that Speaker Pelosi held yesterday:
Pelosi Implores Dems On Tax Cuts: 'Who Do You Stand With?'
Christina Bellantoni | September 14, 2010, 10:50PM
Speaker Nancy Pelosi tonight implored House Democrats in a private meeting to consider a pre-election vote on extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class while letting those for the rich expire, framing the debate in partisan terms.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told TPM after the caucus that Pelosi ended the meeting with a "resounding" and impassioned speech that fired up the Democrats and might even have brought more on board for a vote.
"She made it clear it's a black and white issue of who do you stand with," Lee told TPM. "It's the middle class and they need to know we are pushing for them. We have to say it over and over again. They've gotta see it, smell it, sense it, taste it."
Lee (D-TX) said that Democrats should be as consistent as President Obama has been, and attempt to define the Republicans as favoring the rich.
As we highlighted earlier, Democratic leaders were in temperature-taking mode tonight. They laid out several options for voting now, but tried to listen to members to get the discussion started since everyone had only been back in town for five hours.
Pollster Stan Greenberg also presented the caucus with some data showing the tax cuts issue helps energize the base, a stat members responded to well, a Democratic aide present during the meeting told TPM. The aide said some members suggested that tax cuts could be moved quickly, or that it wasn't an issue for them back home, but that most members were supportive of Pelosi's position.
TPM spoke with several Democratic members on background and they confirmed that there was not a clear consensus to emerge out of the meeting. Most said they think leadership will put forward a vote to extend the middle class tax cuts only, but perhaps allow for a procedural vote that would satisfy those members who want to at least be on the record for extending the cuts for every income bracket.
The most plausible explanation for all this is that Democrats are afraid that even the mere mention of taxes means their doom. As if the GOP won't mention taxes if the Dems don't pick a fight? What kind of crazy is that?
It's fear-based crazy, that's what. And since the GOP is the party of fear, as long as the Dems are coming from fear, they are playing on GOP's home turf, by the GOP's own rules. As I've been trying to explain recently, there's a very clear clash of civilizations going on here: A fear-based, top-down anti-modernist "civilization" (if you can call it that) vs. a reality-based, bottom-up modernist and post-modernists civilization. THe Dems have been scared out of their wits by the GOP, thus abandoning the civilization that they're supposed to be defending. Not all the Dems, mind you. But enough of them to cripple the party as a whole. And that's what we're seeing play out here. It's really just as simple as that.
"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Ain't it the truth!
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