The package would cost about $900 billion over the next two years, to be financed entirely by adding to the national debt, at a time when both parties are professing a desire to begin addressing long-term fiscal imbalances. (emphasis mine)How do the Rethugs explain this horsehit to their voters when they campaigned on reducing the Federal Debt? There is no way, in my pov, to explain this massive addition to our federal debt by the rightwing nutters who have been screaming about burdening their kids and grandkids with the Federal Debt.
The cost of the unemployment extension is the smallest least expensive part of the entire plan...$56 Billion for 13 friggin months, which the Rethugs demanded that it had to be paid for prior to this...cough..agreement...but as long as their millionaires and billionaires get their savings...its just dandy now with the rightwing nutters in Congress.
Obama also gave them other jewels for the top two percent, again from the NYT article:
But Mr. Obama made substantial concessions to Republicans. In addition to dropping his opposition to any extension of the current income tax rates on income above $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals, he agreed to a deal on the federal estate tax that infuriated many Democrats. The deal would ultimately set an exemption of $5 million per person and a maximum rate of 35 percent — a higher exemption and far lower rate than many Democrats wanted.Isn't this called giving away the fucking store? This shit just blows my mind. I see no upside to this for Obama, other than the folks who's unemployment was scheduled to end this month. Yes, they need the money and it's something all progressives and Democrats in general wanted....but the toll this will take on our deficit, while putting more money (at taxpayers expense) into the pockets of the rich...well, voters like me think this is total crap.
It's gonna be interesting to see how in the blue hell this shit deal will help Obama or any Dems that vote for it come the next election cycle. Right now however, the leader of PDA, Progressive Dems of America has said the following about this agreement:
“Obama may have just ensured that he’ll face a significant challenge to his renomination in 2012 from inside the Democratic Party,” said Norman Solomon, a leader of Progressive Democrats of America. “By giving away the store on such a momentous tax issue, he has now done huge damage to a large portion of the progressive base that helped to make him president.”Good Luck Barack, your ass is gonna need it..and so will every Democrat in office that votes for this fuckery.
Mr. Solomon added, “If he thinks that won’t have major effects on his re-election chances, he’s been swallowed up by a delusional bubble.
ThinkProgress has an analysis up which states Obama's part of the deal helps more Americans than the Rethugs part of the deal..no shit sherlock, why would we expect anything else from the right?. .