New York Times Editorial: Obama's tax cut deal is a win for Republicans and their obstructionism [View All]

[Better Believe It]

Editorial
The Tax Cut Endgame
December 6, 2010

President Obama’s deal with the Republicans to extend all the Bush-era income tax cuts is a win for the Republicans and their strategy of obstructionism and a disappointing retreat by the White House.

On a decidedly sour note, Mr. Obama also said he had agreed to cut estate taxes even more than in the last year of the Bush administration. That is not compromise. It is capitulation.

The tax cuts were not affordable when they were passed and are even less affordable now — with unpaid-for wars, with a weak economy crying out for recovery efforts, with the nation’s infrastructure and education system increasingly decrepit, and with retiring baby boomers inexorably driving up health costs and the budget deficit in the decades to come.

All of this only validates the Republican strategy of obstruction, and invites more. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has never wavered in his stance that all Bush tax cuts should be extended. Mr. McConnell and the Republicans will undoubtedly now push to make the cuts permanent.

Read the full editorial at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/opinion/07tue1.html?ref=opinion