Do The Recent Obama Victories Make The Tax Cut Deal Less Painful?

By Yashwanth Manjunath

Anyone who reads this site regularly probably knows my feelings on the tax cut “compromise” Obama made with the Senate Republicans. It was my opinion that Obama could have reached a better agreement if he had made his case more properly to the American people, and many other liberals agreed with me (including many of the readers of this site). One argument that liberals on the other side made is that once tax cuts for the rich was passed then Republicans would “release the hostages” and allow other progressive priorities in the lame-duck session to pass. When the argument was made I’ll admit I was extremely cynical to say the least, but those people turned out to be right.

After the tax cut deal, Obama and the Democrats were able to secure victories on just about every major progressive priority for the lame-duck, except for the unfortunate defeat of the DREAM Act. However, the START treaty, the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, and the 9/11 first responders health care bill, are all major victories not only for Democrats and progressives, but also the country. Of course, there was also huge public support and even support from former Republican politicians for all of those measures. But it’s very probable that none of those accomplishments get done if Obama had not extended tax cuts for the wealthy for the Republicans. So do these recent string of “lame-duck” victories make the tax cut “deal” less painful to swallow?

By: