Obama Mocked Schumer's Million dollar Tax Cut Compromise---"It could "Sink" Stock Market!"

[KoKo]

Schumer vs. Obama
By: Glenn Thrush
December 10, 2010 04:38 AM EST

It wasn’t on the White House’s official schedule, but on Nov. 22, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) quietly slipped into the Oval Office on a self-appointed mission to steel Barack Obama for the tax cut fight.

Schumer, the newly anointed message guru for besieged Senate Democrats, told Obama he wanted the president to hold the line and oppose Republican efforts to extend the cuts to families making more than $250,000.

But Obama, according to people briefed on the hourlong one-on-one meeting, was cool and noncommittal, especially when Schumer pitched his pet plan to extend the cuts to families making up to $1 million per year — a move designed to corner Republicans into defending millionaires and billionaires.

The president was considerably more blunt when Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made another trip to the White House a week later, suggesting he simply wasn’t interested in an extended battle with an uncertain result.

Schumer was irked, according to people he’s spoken to subsequently, deeply disappointed and convinced Obama had missed a major opportunity. The White House, in turn, was incensed when it learned Schumer planned to push forward with votes — ultimately unsuccessful — on alternative Democratic proposals.

-snip-

Since then, the relationship between Schumer and Obama, arguably the Democratic Party’s two most influential message strategists, has become so strained both sides are working to patch things up for fear their differences could hinder Democrats in the face of a strengthened and determined GOP opposition.

-snip-

“My sense is there are going to be discussions between both House and Senate leadership about all the final elements of the package,” Obama told NPR on Thursday. "Here's what I'm confident about: that nobody — Democrat or Republican — wants to see people's paychecks smaller on Jan. 1 because Congress didn't act."

But privately, White House officials, who have long viewed Schumer as a talented but essentially self-promotional operator with no abiding loyalty to Obama, think he was pursuing an irresponsible partisan fight that would delay the tax cuts and the extension of unemployment benefits for months. And Obama himself warned Schumer that the millionaire strategy could sink the stock market.

When a vote on the millionaire plan came up short last Saturday, the administration gloated — and mocked Schumer for overestimating his support in meetings with West Wing officials.

MORE at.........
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46223.html

[Nite Owl]

1. Not a short article but worth reading

I think Obama would do well to let Schumer be the spokesperson and to listen to him. It all just seems like a power play to Obama where the people are the ones left out. Schumer is one to put up a fight. He has a mouth and isn't afraid to use it!

Obama is more afraid of the stock market than the people? That says a lot about this deal.

[BzaDem]

2. I think you are misreading the article. The White House did not think a successful passage of the

millionaire compromise would have sunk the stock market (nor does the article say this). The White House thought the millionaire strategy would sink the stock market precisely because such a compromise would never pass. If Shumer was successful in blocking the top rates (and therefore all rates), over a million jobs would be lost (per Krugman), not to mention the needless suffering of those who lose unemployment benefits.

The White House wasn't gloating at Shumer because they were happy the millionaire bill failed. They were gloating because they KNEW it would fail, that it had 0% chance of passing, that it was OBVIOUS that it had 0% chance of passing, and because they were right.

[nashville_brook]

6. can you provide a link for that claim?

b/c that's not what's discussed in this article.

[BzaDem]

11. Which claim? I think my post makes perfect sense from the article you cited. They said:

"But privately, White House officials, who have long viewed Schumer as a talented but essentially self-promotional operator with no abiding loyalty to Obama, think he was pursuing an irresponsible partisan fight that would delay the tax cuts and the extension of unemployment benefits for months."

Similarly the article never said Obama wouldn't have been happy with the millionaire bill passing -- it says specifically they mocked the millionare STRATEGY because it WOULDN'T pass (and delay any resolution for months if at all).

To believe that Obama thought the potential SUCCESS of the millionaire bill would "sink the stock market" (as opposed to the FAILURE of the millionaire "fight" strategy sinking the stock market), you would have to believe that Obama was lying in 2006 when he thought the tax cuts should expire, lying throughout the entire campaign, lying throughout the last 2 years, and lying in his most recent press conference. Furthermore, if your interpretation of the article is correct (and that Obama imagined a crash if the rich tax cuts went up), the press would KNOW he was lying (since they wrote the article), so you'd have to believe the press would not cover a blatant lie that they knew about (and shout it from the rooftops).

Some here not only believe this, but believe everything Obama says is a lie. But from a rational look at whether or not he is lying, color me skeptical. The article clearly is not saying what you think it is (unless I'm misinterpreting what you think it says).

[nashville_brook]

8. a link for the Krugman claim would be nice too.

[BzaDem]

12. Sure.

"As I pointed out yesterday, the CBO estimated that such an extension would reduce unemployment relative to what it would have been otherwise by 0.1 to 0.3 percentage points in 2011, twice that in 2012."

--snip--

"So let’s say that this raises GDP by 0.7 percent relative to otherwise; rule of thumb is that one point on GDP is half a point on unemployment, so add 0.35 points to the CBO numbers."

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/the-deal/

So the CBO numbers in 2012 were 0.2-0.6 (double 2011), plus 0.35 from everything else, equals .55-.95.

[KoKo]

3. This got missed with Clinton Presser that broke.

[somone]

4. Anything to keep Wall Street happy

[L0oniX]

5. Does the stock market have anything to do with jobs for us?

Doesn't seem so.

[LBJDemocrat]

7. When Schumer, of all people, is the one advocating the more progressive solution

That's when you know that the leader of your party is no longer on your side.

[Ruby the Liberal]

10. No kidding! Schumer (D-Wall Street) normally keeps to the background on this topic.

[Ruby the Liberal]

9. The wealthy don't have to worry about their 'paychecks' January 1.

They will get their quarterly investment statement around the first week of April.

Nice try in equivocating the uber wealthy with weekly paycheck earners, though Whitehouse. I am sure there are millions of "Joe the Plumbers" out there that will think everyone is in the same boat...