Say Anything Blog

He’s caving in to pressure from intimidating Senate figures like…Senator Kent Conrad.

WASHINGTON – Pushed by fellow Democrats, President-elect Barack Obama agreed to modest changes in his proposed tax cuts on Friday after inviting lawmakers to “just show me” ideas for fixing an economy shedding jobs at an alarming rate. Democratic congressional officials said that Obama aides came under pressure in closed-door talks to jettison or significantly alter a proposed tax credit for creating jobs.

Further, Democrats sought inclusion of relief for upper middle-class families hit by the alternative minimum tax. The so-called AMT was originally designed to make sure the very wealthy did not escape taxes, but it now hits many more people because of inflation, despite measures by Congress every year to prevent it from reaching tens of millions of middle-income families.

Congressional officials said aides to the president-elect had agreed to increase the $10 billion originally ticketed for energy tax breaks, although the final total remained unclear. Two officials said at least $20 billion would be reserved, but others indicated it could go higher.

Details were not available, but Obama has spoken in the past about increasing tax breaks for production of alternative energy sources such as wind power. The energy tax provisions make up a small part of a massive economic stimulus bill — expected to reach over $800 billion over two years — that congressional leaders hope to pass before mid-February.

Since being elected, and before actually taking office, Obama has already been involved in two major scandals (Blagojevich and David Rubin), had one cabinet appointment resign in scandal (Bill Richardson) and is already letting Senate Democrats push him around.

Now that’s some leadership we can believe in.

Personally, I think it’s just as well that Obama’s tax cuts aren’t going to pass.  Because they weren’t really tax cuts.  They were a narrowing of the tax base (tax hikes for those who pay the most and welfare checks from the IRS for those who pay little or nothing) that the country can ill-afford right now.

Of course, the country can also ill-afford the monstrous amounts of spending Obama and the Democrats have lined up, but I doubt anything like a grasp of reality is going to stop the tax-and-spend express in Congress.