Dubious Rubio's Bogus War on Poverty

I don't expect Sen. Marco Rubio to actually submit a bill for his laughable war on poverty. Rubio's big idea to end poverty is to turn anti-poverty programs ovrr to the states. That would result in less funding for anti-poverty programs. The Florida legislature hasn't expanded Medicaid and Gov. Rick Scott hasn't fixed the state's unemployment website. You think Scott and the legislature are going to commit significant resources to fighting poverty? That doesn't pass the laugh test.

Rubio's anti-poverty plan doesn't actually lift people out of poverty.

Replacing the earned income tax credit with a federal wage enhancement for qualifying low-wage jobs. "This would allow an unemployed individual to take a job that pays, say, $18,000 a year –which on its own is not enough to make ends meet – but then receive a federal enhancement to make the job a more enticing alternative to collecting unemployment insurance," Rubio's office said.

The income tax credit is a tax break for low income workers for low income families. Rubio is essentially eliminating a tax cut for poor people. This is the same Rubio who was against an extension of the payroll tax cut. However, Rubio went ballistic, on the Senate floor, when President Barack Obama proposed eliminating the tax loophole on corporate jets.

“It’s class warfare, and it’s the kind of language you would expect from a leader of a third-world country, not the President of the United States.”

Rubio would have the American people believe that ensing the tax loophole on corporate jets is going to make the United States in Somalia.

Rubio voted against the Gulf Restoration Act and Hurricane Sandy Relief. Rubio votes against people effected by disaster. However, Rubio will defend corporate tax breaks for company jets.

Rubio's own anti-poverty would not raise the minimum wage. Rubio voted against the Senate bill to raise the minimum wage. Rubio claimed he voted against Janet Yellen's nomination because of concerns over inflation. If Rubio was really concerned about inflation he would support raising the minimum wage. Wages aren't keeping up with cost of living expenses.

Rubio's policies would only increase income inequality.

Update: Heritage Foundation Scholar Robert Rector trashes Rubio's anti-poverty program. Rector makes a point on the conservative side that I did on the liberal side. Having the federal government give money to states and let the states set up their own programs would lead to horrible anti-poverty programs with no oversight. Rector worries that states won't set up work programs. He is probably right.

Like I wrote, Rector points out that Rubio's wage tax subsidy doesn't lift the poor out of poverty. It occurred to me that the wage tax subsidy makes no sense from a conservative prospective. Rubio is creating a new tax subsidy that must ve paid for by taxpayers. It would be wiser from a conservative policy prospective to raise the minimum wage. That way workers can spend their money in the free market and no new tax would be created. Yet Rubio is determined not to raise the minimum wage. Rubio's stance on not raising the minimum wage with hia inflation hawk stance.

Update: According the Associated Press Rubio believes people seek unemployment because they don't feel like working. What bubble was Rubio living in when the Great Recession caused double digit unemployment? It wouldn't surprise me that Rubio thinks that these unemployed people decided to take a tax paid vacation after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

On Jim DeFede's radio show, Rubio once said that the working class live off "other people's leftover money. That gives you an idea of what Rubio thinks of working people.

Rick Scott's Bogus White Paper

The white paper from Gov. Rick Scott is not an actual white paper. It is a piece of Scott propangda white paper is an academic policy paper. A piece of campaign propaganda contains paragraphs like this. Economic papers don't contain a cute gif of a piggy bank.

Under Governor Scott, the state has fundamentally changed the way it makes decisions with its taxpayers’ money. Florida has rejected the short-sighted state-level policies that worsened the fallout of the economic downturn and Florida now stands in stark contrast to the policies of the federal government that discourage private investment, job creation and stability for families.

If you are a government employee you are not going to get a raise. You might even get a pay cut.

Since October 2012, 16 different state agencies and more than 45 private sector businesses have been recognized for identifying more than $146.3 million in cost savings and $34.2 million in services.

Scott's commit to saving taxpayers money is rather dubious. Scott backed private prisons. Corrections Corporation of America were major campaign donors to Scott and the Republican Party of Florida. Scott wanted private prisons with no-bid contracts. Dr. Michael Hallett, Professor & Chair for the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, warned Sen. Mike Fasano of the dangers of giving a single state prison a no bid contract.

"It renders the state subject to captivity once the contract is awarded, by giving one corporation so much power and control over such a significant segment of the state budget," he said. "You can’t turn this around on a moments notice."

Scott killed to high speed rail project which would mostly be funded with federal and private money. Scott did approve of the Sunrail. Former Sen. JD Alexander was a big backer of the Sun Rail project. I wrote this when the project was approved by Scott.

The blog Stop CSX in Polk County broke the story that Alexander's was purchasing Phoenix Industries. Alexander owns Altantic Blue. The company bought Phoenix Industries, a frozen food vender that does business with CSX. The transporation bill would have placed CSX's new hub near Alexander's warehouse. One needs a scorecard to track Alexander's conflicts of interest.

It should be noted that Alexander was the biggest backer of private prisons in the Florida legislature. Even the Republican controlled Florida Senate would approve of the private prison deal. Scott is not a fiscal conservative. Scott is a crony capitalist.

Florida has serious infrastructure problems. It won't get any better under Scott.

To continue this practice of guarding taxpayer debt obligations, Governor Scott will not allow the State of Florida to take on new long-term debt obligations to fund roads, land purchases or education facility construction without specific and accountable returns on investment for taxpayers. Where possible, the state budget will include the use of cash, rather than bonds to further protect the state from consequences associated with massive amounts of taxpayer funded debt.

Scott promises $500 million in tax cuts. Scott fails to say what taxes he will cut.Scott is a governor who takes pains avoiding policy specifics. Another reason there may be no specific tax cuts is because this bogus white paper was not written by an economist. No author is listed. This is campaign material proclaiming the awesomeness of Rick Scott.

The previous tax cuts Scott lists are a Florida Chamber of Commerce wet dream. Scott fails to say how the tax cut on the surchange phosphate mining or reducing taxes to fund unemployment is creating jobs. Those tax cuts were never about job creation. The tax cuts are about increasing corporate profits.

Rick Scott's Bogus Economic White Paper

Pelosi Wants Vote on Tax Cuts for 98 Percent

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is urging Republicans to extend tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans. Now.

“Republicans can prove that they’re prepared to work in good faith on the fiscal crisis facing our country by calling up a vote to extend the middle-income tax cuts now,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters at her Capitol briefing Thursday.

Pelosi wants the tax cuts on those making above $250,000-a-year to expire. Tom Cole is urging fellow Republicans to vote on the 98 percent tax cuts before the new year.

“I think we ought to take the 98 percent deal right now,” he said of freezing income tax rates for all but the top 2 percent of earners. “It doesn’t mean I agree with raising the top 2. I don’t.”

As a negotiating tactic, if the Republicans voted on the 98 percent tax cuts then the game is over. They would never have the Senate votes or be able to override President Obama's veto. Taxes on the top 2 percent would go up and Republicans wouldn't be able to do anything about this. Cole must this. I would love to see Republican internal polling on protecting tax cuts for the rich.

Matt Taibbi on the Romney-Ryan Tax Plan

Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi says the Romney-Ryan tax plan should be laughed at for its lack of seriousness.

“I think what he did — and he got heavily criticized for laughing and bringing this mocking tone to Ryan’s whole presentation — but I think that is what has been missing all along from the coverage of this campaign,” he explained. “You should bring contemptuous laughter to this whole thing because it is not serious. That is the real problem with it. It is not even that it is cynical and it is nefarious, it is just not serious.”

I'm surprised that Romney and Ryan haven't promised to give a pretty magical unicorn to every American.

Mark Zandi on Mitt's Romney's Tax Plan

Via Steve Hynd: Economist Mark Zandi appeared on CNN. Zandi backed the Tax Polcy Center's findings on the Mitt Romney tax plan.

Zandi: Yeah, I think the Tax Policy Center study is definitive study. They're non-partisan, they're very good. They say given the numbers that they've been provided by the Romney campaign, no, it will not add up. Now, the Romney campaign could adjust their plan. They could say okay I'm not going to lower tax rates as much as I'm saying right now and they could make the arithmetic work. But under the current plan, with the current numbers, no it doesn't.

Zandi is the chief econimst for Moody and respected by both parties. Zandi was an economic advisor to John McCain's presidential campaign. Zandi can hardly be accused of being a liberal partisan.

Mitt Romney in Class Warfare Mode

GOP nominee Mitt Romney claims President Obama is waging a class warfare campaign.

“If you look at the ads that have been described and the divisiveness based upon income, age, ethnicity and so forth,” Romney said in the quote of the day, “it’s designed to bring a sense of enmity and jealously and anger… the president seems to be running just to hang on to po http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/09/06/romneys-economists-brains-but-also-controversy/ wer. I think he’ll do anything in his power to try and get re-elected.”

It is amusing Romney should use this argument. Romney selected Paul Ryan as his VP candidate. Ryan peppers his speeches with talk of "makers" and "takers."

"We're coming close to a tipping point in America where we might have a net majority of takers versus makers in society and that could become very dangerous if it sets in as a permanent condition. Because what we will end up doing is we will convert our safety net system — which is necessary I believe to help people who can’t themselves, to help people who are down on their luck get back onto their feet — into a hammock that ends up lulling people into lives of dependency and complacency which drains them of their incentive and the will to make the most of their lives."

Glenn Hubbard, a member of of Romney's economic team advocated cuts in Medicare and Social Security in a Wall Street Journal oped. Hubbard was a member of the George W. Bush economic team that destroyed the surplus left by President Clinton. Hubbard went against Treasury Sec. Paul O'Neill's wishes and pushed for the 2003 tax cuts. >P>

Romney can hardly be accused of surrounding himself with people concerned about the plight of the common man.

Mark Wilson Has Been Busy

The Florida legislature is passing $124 million in tax cuts. The cuts will go to benefit corporations. The cuts will go to benefit corporations.

(Gov. Rick) Scott is pushing a key element in the package that would increase the corporate tax exemption from $25,000 to $50,000, excluding 3,770 companies from the 5.5 percent tax and reducing state revenue by $29.4 million. The governor wants to phase out the corporate tax, which accounted for nearly $2 billion in state revenue last year.

Scott and other Republicans are billing this as a jobs bill. Florida has one of the lowest corporate tax rates at 5.5 percent. The result is the state has been running deficits shortfalls, which resulted in budget cuts. The corporate taxes have not produced jobs, as can be seen by the chart below.



Florida's unemployment is higher than the national average. There is no evidence that corporate tax cuts produce jobs. It is merely a talking point for Scott and fellow Republicans.

This legislation has Florida Chamber of Commerce president Mark Wilson. A man who represents everything that is wrong about Florida politics.

Wilson lobbied for the the Polk County Sunrail line. The only reason the project was approved because the line was near JD Alex Alexander's business Atlantic Blue. The property value of Atlantic Blue would increase greatly.

Alexander and Scott didn't approve the Sunrail line over high-speed rail over fiscal concerns. The high-speed line would cost $280 million and create 23,000 job. The Sunrail line will cost the state $901 million. State and Polk county would have to pay the cost for any Sunrail accidents caused by CSX. The deal is stupid beyond words.

Wilson's latest goal is gerrymandering the redistricting process. The most powerful man in Florida politics can't be bothered with subtlety. Wilson believes he is above the constitutionally-mandated fair districts law.

"Anybody who understands politics looks at a redistricting and says, 'This is a chance to reset the table,' Wilson said.

Many Floridians were illegally thrown out of their homes with forged foreclosure documents. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been accused by for employees of stonewalling an investigations of questionable foreclosures by banks. Florida's foreclosure courts do not review the documents, before forcing a homeowner to vacate his property. Apparently, the foreclosure process is too slow for Wilson.

"As our economy tries to recover, we recognize there is a lot of pain in the foreclosure process but the delay in the foreclosures is drawing out that pain throughout the entire economy."

Wilson can help you with your pain by making the chances that you become homeless greater. What a nice guy.

Rep. Randy Hultgrem Destroyed On Tax Cuts Question

At a townhall meeting, Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) is asked to cite evidence that the nine years of the Bush tax cuts have produced jobs. A woman in the audience notes that unemployment is higher than when the tax cuts took effect. Hultgram tries to swish the subject to the stimulus. The crowd demanded that Hultgren answer the question. Hultgrem immediately asked for the next question.

It really isn't hard to destroy the Republicans tax cuts message. More and more people are waking up to the fact that upper bracket tax cuts aren't making their lives better. Unfortunately, President Obama and his political team are terrified that they won't be seen as bipartisan if they attack the Republicans on the tax cut issue.

End the Payroll Holiday Tax

Unsurprisingly, Republicans want to let the payroll tax cut expire.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney did not flatly rule out an extra year for the payroll tax cut, but he "would prefer to see the payroll tax cut on the employer side" to spur job growth, his campaign said.

Translation: screw the working class and give tax cuts to big business. These businesses that Republicans call "job creators" haven't created many jobs lately.

The payroll tax is the 6.2 percent taken out of employee paychecks for Social Security. President Barack Obama pushed for a payroll tax holiday. The current payroll tax employees pay is 4.2 percent. Obama wants to extend the payroll tax holiday. Republicans don't care about the payroll tax and only want to use it as leverage against the Obama for more upper income tax cuts.

I have always thought the payroll tax holiday was an extremely stupid idea. The positive impact of the payroll tax holiday for working Americans has been negligible. The tax holiday has had a negative impact on generating revenue for Social Security. Obama and Republicans saying they care about Social Security. (Oddly enough by proposing cuts to Social Security.) The payroll holiday tax cut hurts Social Security.

The problem is that wages have been stagnant for working Americans. If Obama really wanted to help people put more money in their pocket he would propose raising the minimun wage. It would would a hugely popular proposal and put the Republicans in the position of having to tell Americans that raising the minimun wage is wrong. Of course, Obama is not going to do this.

Trent Franks: Deficit Peacock

"We know that if we grow this economy, that nothing will do more good toward bringing in additional revenues to government. And that’s not to theory; that’s a historical observation. Even the much-maligned Bush tax cuts brought in an additional $100 billion a year to government coffers. We forget that unless someone is out there producing, there’s no tax revenue. There’s no revenue. There’s no nothing for anyone."

Rep. Trent Franks

Even George W. Bush appointees said to Congress that the tax cuts did not bring in more tax revenue.


Robert Carroll, deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department during Bush’s second term.

“As a matter of principle, we do not think tax cuts pay for themselves.”

Alan D. Viard, a former economist at Council of Economic Advisers during President Bush's first term, said there is no proof that the Bush tax cuts brought in more tax revenue.

"Federal revenue is lower today than it would have been without the tax cuts. There's really no dispute among economists about that," said Alan D. Viard, a former Bush White House economist now at the nonpartisan American Enterprise Institute. "It's logically possible" that a tax cut could spur sufficient economic growth to pay for itself, Viard said. "But there's no evidence that these tax cuts would come anywhere close to that."

Former Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson.

“As a general rule, I do not believe that tax cuts pay for themselves.”

Edward Lazear, former chairman of the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told Senate Budget Committee that the Bush tax cuts lost tax revenue.

“Will the tax cuts pay for themselves? As a general rule, we do not think tax cuts pay for themselves. Certainly, the data presented above do not support this claim. Tax revenues in 2006 appear to have recovered to the level seen at this point in previous business cycles, but this does not make up for the lost revenue during 2003, 2004, and 2005. The tax cuts were a positive step and have contributed to the enhanced economic growth, additional jobs, higher real disposable income, and the low unemployment rates that we currently see today.”

Even Bush's economic team admits that the tax cuts do not increase tax revenue. Simply mathematics dictate that you do not add by subtracting. Franks is another deficit peacock. Franks doesn't care about reducing the deficit. He just wants more tax cuts.

Question of the Night

Could Obama have handled the Afghanistan war better?

I admit, this is a bit of a trick question. During the 2008 election, I felt bad for whoever was handed this shit sandwich after winning in November -- I didn't think there were any good choices then, and I still don't now. Maybe the best choice would have been to pull troops out immediately starting in 2009, but Republicans would have hammered Obama for that choice until Kingdom Come. And while I could criticize Obama for playing politics by setting timetables for troop withdrawls to be completed after the 2012 election, it's not like he had this other, obviously better option to go with.

In fact, any time I try thinking of what Obama is responsible for in Afghanistan, I keep circling back to the Bush Administration. It was Bush who ignored Afghanistan to wage a needless war in Iraq. It was Bush who installed the ineffective Karzai, who has delusions of dictatorship. It was Bush who never built up Afghanistan's defense forces to secure the country before he left office. Bush had six years to do this and he didn't get past square one. Indeed, one has to question how much of a united polity Afghanistan is -- as opposed to a loose federation of tribes who aren't friendly with each other under an arbitrary national border -- yet it was Bush who convinced that we could go "nation building" in Afghanistan. It was also Bush who oversaw a corrupt national rebuilding effort in Afghanistan where the military gave money to contractors, who took a cut and hired other contractors, who took a cut and... Well, you get the picture. Who knows how many pennies were left to build a school after this process, all to have that school destroyed by the Taliban because we never built up Afghan's security forces to protect the country.

And now... Well, Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, and we're in "peace talks" with the brutal Taliban regime our military pledged to defeat; yet cannot defeat because, like bin Laden, the Taliban take refuge in Pakistan. So we're fighting a war we're not sure we can even war in the wrong place.

This is the definition of a "clusterfuck". Obama's crime lies in continuing the Afghanistan war, and he didn't have much choice in the matter when he entered office.

So the blame for this mess lies solely with former President Bush. This $429 billion mistake, funded after Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001, must be considered a major reason for why our country is broke and discussing austerity measures right now. Indeed, this is how Bush's shameful legacy will effect us for years to come.

Florida Corporate Tax Cut Madness

Scott Maxwell details how given Darden Restaurants a corporate tax cut would be more than what the company pays in taxes.

Legislators were trying to help Darden Restaurants get a tax break.

Their problem was this: The Fortune 500 company was paying so little in corporate-income taxes on its headquarters in Orange County that the break was bigger than its tax bill.

And it's hard to find a way to let the company to pay less … than nothing.

This, my friends, is the state of corporate taxation in Florida.

Florida has a 5.5 percent corporate tax rate. Which is one of the lowest in the country. There are also the endless loopholes in the tax code. Gov. Rick Scott plans to eventually eliminate Florida's corporate tax. Contrary to what Scott and other Republicans say, eliminating corporate taxes isn't about creating more jobs. It is about maximizing profits.

Corporations are in the business of money. It is understandable that they would want more profits. I just wish people like Mark Wilson, of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, would be honest and stop saying eliminating corporate taxes is about job creation.

Obama Wants to Lower Corporate Tax Rates

Back in January, Bloomberg reported President Barack Obama made a speech about lowering the corporate tax rate. The New York Times reports Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner is working on lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 26 percent.

Gene Sterling, director of the National Economic Council goes in full sellout mode.

"The question is, Is the business community going to support this because it's a win for the economy over all?" said Gene Sperling, director of Mr. Obama's National Economic Council. "Or, is it going to get held up because each business will decide whether they're a temporary winner or loser compared to the status quo?"

It is harder to see everyday how Obama is the lesser evil than the Republicans.

Rick Scott's Line of Death

In 1986, Muammar Gaddafi declared that if the United States crossed "the line of death" there would be grave consequences. President Ronald Reagan ordered the bombing of Libya. Gaddafi kept declaring a new line of death. Each time giving ground to the United States. It seems Rick Scott has gone to the same school of strategy. Scott has attempted to bully the Florida legislature into passing new tax cuts. Each time Scott makes a threat the
tax cuts get smaller.

From the campaign trail he promised as much as $2.2 billion in tax cuts his first year. He reduced that to $1.7 billion before the start of session.

Now, it looks like lawmakers won't have any more than $30 million.

At the rate Scott is going he is going to ask for a tax increase in two weeks. Much to my amazement, Scott actually sucks more at negotiating, with a legislative body, more than President Obama. I don't know whether to laugh or be impressed.

Tax Cuts Bill Passes Senate

The Obama - Republican tax compromise passed 81 to 19. The bill heads now to the House. There are enough Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats to pass the bill.

Update: The senators that voted no on the tax cut compromise.

Bingaman (D-NM)
Coburn (R-OK)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Gillibrand (D-NY)

Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Merkley (D-OR)
Sanders (I-VT)

Sessions (R-AL)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Wyden (D-OR)

Tax Cuts Update

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Democrat Chris Van Hollen said the House Democratic caucus will not support the estate tax. House Democrats intend to pass a different tax bill than the Senate. Van Hollen said the bill will go to the floor for a vote in the lame duck session.

***

Paul Krugman said he can not support the Obama-McConnell tax cut compromise.

The actual stimulus in the plan comes from the other measures, mainly unemployment benefits and the payroll tax break. And these measures (a) won’t make more than a modest dent in unemployment and (b) will fade out quickly, with the good stuff going away at the end of 2011.

The question, then, is whether a year of modestly better performance is worth $850 billion in additional debt, plus a significantly raised probability that those tax cuts for the rich will become permanent. And I say no.

Krugman correctly believe the stimulus doesn't have enough for the $850 billion price tag. The one year extension of unemployment benefits and Social Security payroll tax cut only keeps things from getting worse. What is needed is a national jobs program. The best stimulus is giving people gainful employment. The Obama economic team though throwing stimulus dollars at the private sector would suddenly increase jobs. Lawrence Summers predicted the stimulus would drastically reduce unemployment. The White House now hopes to get unemployment down to 8.5 nationally before the 2012 election. The reason why Obama's original stimulus failed because there wasn't enough funded for job creation. Another factor is Obama and Summers compromised with Mitch McConnell on tax cuts that failed to justify their cost.

Senate Republicans seek to slash income and corporate tax rates as well as the overall level of spending in the bill. "We need to sober up here and take a look at what we're doing," said Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Summers said Obama wants to keep his tax cuts but will consider other changes. He said "Buy American" provisions for U.S. manufacturers could "send a protectionist signal."

The president "has been prepared to walk a long mile for bipartisan support," Summers said. In the end, he said, Obama wants the best possible package delivered to his desk by Feb. 16.

Obama and Summers caved. The stimulus had $237 billion in tax cuts. Republicans didn't vote for the stimulus bill and the economy still sucks. Obama and Summers are essentially using the same failed policy.

Sherrod Brown Open Letter to President Obama

Sen. Sherrod Brown published a letter written to President Barack Obama.

Dear Mr. President,

With our economy struggling, our working families hurting, and our deficit crisis worsening every year, we need to take action to create jobs, bolster the middle class, and bring our budget into balance.

But the agreement you’ve struck with Senate Republicans is a bad deal. It doubles down on a failed strategy of tax cuts for the super-wealthy that would explode our deficit without strengthening our economy. It’s too high a price to pay for the support of those who have continually refused to put the middle class first.

Instead of giving in to obstruction, we should fight it. I am willing to stay in session as long as it takes to overcome a filibuster and extend both unemployment benefits for jobless Americans and tax cuts for the middle class. If our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to spend their holidays refusing to help working families struggling to enjoy a Christmas of their own unless their wealthy friends get another bailout, let them.

Mr. President, I know that you share my desire to pass good economic policies that help working families. But a deal that also includes bad policies that will worsen our deficit and fail to help our economy falls short. By standing our ground and standing strong for the middle class, we can do better. And I urge you to do just that.

Sincerely,

Sherrod Brown
U.S. Senator, Ohio

Sen. Brown is asking citizens to sign his petition.

Why Bernie Sanders Position Is Smart Policy and Politics

Sen. Bernie Sanders tapped into something very special with his near-filibuster. The Senate server temporarily shut down. Obama's neoliberal tendencies and political team's decision that a tax cut deal would play well with independent voters in 2012. Sander's stirring floor speeches is proof that populism sell politically.

The Obama team is made the tax cut deal strictly for their 2012 re-election chances. As the bizarre Bill Clinton press conference illustrates this White House is disorganized. Obama's lame excuse that he couldn't talk about tax policy with President Clinton and the media was disaster. It made Obama appear as if he doesn't care and needs a former president to do his heavy lifting. I think there is truth to the latter. Another example of disorganization is Obama not consulting with leaders of the Democratic caucuses before making the tax cut deal. This was amazingly stupid Obama only has himself to blame for his caucuses being angry at him.

Obama's complaints that Congress should have handled this and progressives should be on his side. Whether you agree with his grievances, it appears that Obama expect other people to follow lockstep with him. At the end of the day Obama is the leader of the Democratic Party.

People have compared Obama to Bush I. The comparison I will make is George H.W. Bush was hated by the Republican establishment, the base, had a slumping economy and went back on a tax pledge. Bush lost his re-election bid.

Sen Sanders Call to Action

Sen, Bernie Sanders said he is issuing a "call to action" and not a filibuster. Progressives are urging 1,000,000 citizen calls to the Senate for a better tax bill. The phone number of the United States Senate is 1-866-338-1015.

Quote of the Day: Bernie Sanders Filibuster

"People are going cold. People don't have enough food. People are homeless."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, on the Senate floor.

Whether or not Sanders filibuster will be successful, he is doing a needed service of reminding America of the disadvantaged people in the country.

Sanders is on C-SPAN right now.