OBAMA KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING

I know, I know — the President’s gone all weak and wobbly following the mid-term elections, and his Presidency is doomed; the country’s doomed.  It’s all over, and we’ve been beaten by Karl Rove once again, along with the help of the right-wing Supreme Court decision that handed corporate America anonymity in their political donations to the Republican Party.

OR, it just might be possible that the President does know what he’s doing, and we’re going to be just fine.  The oh-woe-is-me crowd is devastated by the extension of the ineffective Bush’s tax-cuts to the top 2%.  Though it has been proven time and time again that trickle-down actually trickles up, and we all know that this tax-gift to the top is a massive waste of tax payer’s money, I think it just might be possible that the President has a longer-term plan in mind.

In order to get the really big changes that Obama wants to accomplish he needs to set the table for change.  If he wants to make the country’s tax code more fair and more equitable for the middle class; if he wants to see the country’s long-term deficits under control; and if he wants to ensure future funding for the country’s governance — then he needs to bring the lawmakers together to make the necessary changes to accomplish these really big goals.

He also needs to see the economy continue to stabilize.  Maintaining the middle-class tax rates and trimming the payroll tax temporarily, along with a handful of small business tax incentives to grow and hire, effectively represents a second economic stimulus package.  While the tax-cuts for the rich do not stimulate the economy, they were the price the President had to pay to get his 2nd stimulus passed into law.  Keeping the economy on track is his number one goal in order to grow jobs, put money in peoples’ pockets, and also to continue to cut the government deficit through increased revenue due to the taxes paid through higher employment.

Here’s how I see it:  The fight we’re embroiled in today — the Bush tax-cuts for the rich — is soon to be sooooo last year!  What I foresee on the horizon is the left and the right coming together to rewrite the tax code.  This change has been foreshadowed by the President’s Deficit Reduction Commission when the co-chairs revealed a recommendation that tax-rates be actually lowered, while simultaneously closing tax loop-holes and reducing tax-deductions.  There is a lot in this plan that will appeal to both sides.  The top % of income earners will actually end up paying more in taxes than they do now, even though their top rate would go down. 

And when the onerous estate taxes that are a continuing major spark between the right and left are looked at from another angle, the right and left can both win with a grand bargain on tax reform.  We could eliminate the estate tax and take away the right’s ability to accuse the left of administering a DEATH TAX and playing CLASS WARFARE, by simplifying the tax code and taxing income from inheritance at the same rate as all other taxes.  That would be fair.  When the tax code is rewritten in its entirety, the argument over the Bush tax-cuts and estate taxes will be made irrelevant.

If the tax-code is made more equitable and clear, it will also have the effect of helping to reduce the deficit, in addition to being more fair to the middle-class —and will help ensure adequate revenue for the future.  Then, trimming spending on the Defense Department, getting Social Security squared away by raising the cap on payroll taxes, etc., — this I think is the President’s plan. 

We can help by supporting this approach, and letting go of the ‘old fights’ without needing to be declared ‘the winners.’  And, maybe, just maybe the country can be the real winner.

I’M PRETTY SURE OBAMA KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING!