Obama: ‘I Don’t See How We Can Afford’ Permanent Extension of Top Bush Tax Cuts
In this weekend’s YouTube address, President Obama addressed the recent election results, and called for the two parties to work together. He also insisted that he supports a permanent extnsion of the Bush tax cuts for family incomes under $250,000, but not for the wealthiest.
“We also agree on the need to start cutting spending and bringing down our deficit. That’s going to require everyone to make some tough choices. In fact, if Congress were to implement my proposal to freeze non-security discretionary spending for three years, it would bring this spending down to its lowest level as share of the economy in 50 years,” said Obama. “But at a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. We’d be digging ourselves into an even deeper fiscal hole and passing the burden on to our children.”
Rubio: ‘The Past Two Years Provided A Frightening Glimpse’
In this weekend’s Republican address, Sen.-elect Marco Rubio (R-FL) promised that Republicans would change the course of current polciies in America, and not repeat their own past mistakes.
“In the past two years, Republicans listened to the American people and what they said is that it was time for a course correction,” said Rubio. “The past two years provided a frightening glimpse at what could become of our great nation if we continue down the current path: wasteful spending, a growing debt and a government reaching ever further into our lives, even into our health care decisions. It is nothing short of a path to ruin, a path that threatens to diminish us as a nation and a people. One that makes America not exceptional, not unique, but more like the rest of the world.”
Obama Announces India Trade Deals
The Associated Press reports: “President Barack Obama announced a host of new trade deals with India supporting tens of thousands of U.S. jobs Saturday as he began a 10-day trip through Asia on a determinedly domestic note. Intent on demonstrating his attention to the sluggish U.S. economy even while overseas, Obama also told a meeting of U.S. and Indian executives that the U.S. would relax some export regulations that have complicated trade between America and this fast-growing country of 1.2 billion people.”
Complaints That Tea Party Hurt GOP’s Senate Hopes
The Associated Press reports: “Tea party-backed candidates helped and hindered Republicans, injecting enthusiasm into campaigns but losing Senate seats held by Democrats in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada that the GOP once had big hopes of capturing. Republican leaders and strategists are muttering that the same tea party activists who elevated Speaker-to-be John Boehner and the party to power in the House simultaneously hobbled the GOP’s outside shot of running the Senate. Tea partiers largely spurned establishment candidates in the GOP primaries and helped nominate Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Ken Buck in Colorado.”
House Dem Caucus Anxious Over Possible Clyburn-Hoyer Race
Roll Call reports: “The potential for a bloody battle for Minority Whip between Reps. Steny Hoyer (Md.) and James Clyburn (S.C.) sent ripples of anxiety through the Democratic Caucus on Friday, with no clear favorite and the potential to split the party along racial and ideological lines.
Allies in both Clyburn’s and Hoyer’s camps said they were confident they would prevail.”
Alex Sink Rips ‘Tone-Deaf’ White House
Politico reports: “In the wake of the party’s worst election drubbing since 1994, the deep frustration felt by many centrist Democrats toward the White House and the national party is now out in the open. And it’s being aired in the battleground state that’s the biggest prize in presidential politics. Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominee Alex Sink pointed an accusatory finger Friday at what she called a ‘tone-deaf’ Obama White House to explain why she narrowly lost her campaign.”
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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