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ObamaCare and the Bush Tax Cuts

By Philip Klein on 12.7.10 @ 10:53AM

Yesterday, I remarked that few would have predicted that President Obama would have been able to pass a national health care law, but unable to let the Bush tax cuts on higher incomes expire. The passage of comprehensive health care was a Herculean legislative effort, with proposals originating in five different committees; views among Democrats ranging from Blue Dogs who would have preferred not to vote on anything to liberals who really wanted single-payer to lawmakers with parochial interests; lobbying from special interests including doctors, hospitals, insurers, unions and drug companies; wrestling with the Congressional Budget Office to get the score they needed; trying to convince a public that started out skeptical of the proposals and ended up overwhelmingly opposed; and ultimately, a it took a series of complex legislative maneuvers to get the bill across the finish line. By contrast, if Obama had simply done nothing, all of the Bush tax cuts would have expired automatically. Or Democrats could have passed the extension on lower incomes at some point during the time when they had 60 votes. Either way, it seems like it should have been a lot easier than it was to pass ObamaCare.

Liberals are enraged at Obama for caving into Republicans on the tax rates, but as a conservative, if I had to choose either one, I would have much preferred letting the tax rates expire to creating the massive new health care entitlement. Over the decades, tax rates have gone up and down, but politicians -- not even Ronald Reagan -- have made a dent in entitlement spending. National health care has long been a dream of liberals, and while they didn't get all the way with this one piece of legislation, it does put us on the road to becoming a European -style welfare state. Its existence also makes it impossible to reform entitlements on market-friendly terms, given that health care is the key factor that's driving up the cost of government.

People have spoke of Obama as the liberal Reagan. Well, if Reagan pursued a strategy of "starving the beast" to force spending cuts down the road, maybe Obama's strategy is "feeding the beast," knowing that if lawmakers don't curb the growth in entitlements, then tax rates will go back up anyway.

View all comments (7) | Leave a comment

Oldefarte| 12.7.10 @ 4:02PM

IMO, the days of Democrats' starvin the beast are mostly over. With this El Chosen One's coming out of his liberal closet in the past two years, the extremism of the Democratic Party is now fully exposed and evident. Independents, moderates and conservatives will futuristically begin to dismantle their welfare state government in favor of a downsized efficient, less costly to taxpayers, government. All government expenses will be correctly on the cutting table of consideration. A new day is coming....YES WE CAN!!!!!!!!

Huggy| 12.7.10 @ 8:24PM

What will dismantle Obamacaid is jealousy. Obama is out of Peters to rob and has too many Pauls with their hands out.

fredCPA| 12.7.10 @ 8:30PM

yeah, great. but of COURSE that was going to happen dude. one way or another. starve the beast, feed the beast. 2+2 still equals 4. and the other side has never, ever, once recgonized that. and lied about the fact that it didnt. math was going to catch up them. catch us. its inevitable. but yeah, whoopie, it came 3 years or 5 years or 8 years sooner. than it inevtibaly would. the end result will be about the same. the real fix. which comes when it always does for humans, at the last minute. just human nature. and it playing out as it always, always has. for 10,000 years. its not that mystical or surprising. again, whoopie. here it comes finally. and the liars will be exposed as liars, and everyone who matters (their side) will totallyforget. like they forget that reagan was right about the cold war, and the soviets. and they forget WMD everyone thought were there...and they forget that all the dems thought the surge would INCREASE the violence...and they forget that they think tax increases help the economy...and they forget...and they forget.....and they forget....

Mugwa| 12.7.10 @ 10:12PM

Want to win this war?

Do you want to win this war?

Must starve the beast AND neuter his a** with a COnstitutional Amendment. Let the states that worship statism fall vitim to their own choices.

Fight leftism at every turn.

Shaughn| 12.8.10 @ 8:43AM

In all honesty, this tax cut compromise is, long-term, a fairly clever move on Obama's part. His base is annoyed with him at the moment, but consider the possible outcomes.

1) The bill clears the House and the Senate, and Obama signs it. He gets the unemployment benefits he wanted, and he can blame (fairly or unfairly) the deficit on those tax cuts that the GOP insisted on after repenting of it.

2) Someone like DeMint filibusters the bill, and it dies. He's threatening to do so. The year ends. Taxes go up. The House prepares a bill with reviving the tax cuts retroactively. It will either a) die in the Senate or b) get vetoed, and Obama will be able to blame Republicans who weren't willing to compromise with him earlier.

The unemployment benefits were an ideal poison pill for the bill.

Gadema| 12.9.10 @ 1:34PM

The Passage of both, the Healthcare and Finacial Reforms is a major achievement by President Obama's Presidency, and a Historic moment for the American people.

COMPULINE INTERNATIONAL, INC.