The Making of a President

If the Pelosi-Reid liberals are in
a
hissy fit over the tax-cut deal negotiated by Barack
Obama, they have only themselves to blame.

With their three-to-two majorities,
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid could have forced the
Republicans to vote again and again during the election
for "tax cuts for
the rich."

They never did. Now, what else
could Obama do after his own party left him with lousy
field position and the clock running out?

"He could have
fought!" the left howls.
"He could have
told the Republicans, `No way do I sign a bill that
gives tax cuts to the rich.`"

Had Obama thrown down that
gauntlet, Republicans would have blocked all action in
the Senate until Dec. 31. The lame-duck session would
have ended in deadlock. There would have been no
extension of tax cuts for the middle class, no START
treaty on nuclear weapons, no extension of unemployment
benefits, no vote on the DREAM Act for amnesty for
illegal aliens, no vote on

"don`t ask, don`t
tell."

Obama`s defiance would have
accomplished—exactly nothing.

In January, a Republican House and
more conservative Senate would have passed an extension
of all the

Bush tax cuts, and Obama would have had to veto the
bill and let them all expire. The resulting tax surge
would have caused chaos in the economy and been a
disaster for the president who is supposed to be running
the country.

But the Republicans would have
caved, claims the left.

Don`t bet on it. Mitch McConnell
and the GOP senators know—after what happened to

Charlie Crist,

Arlen Specter, Michael Bennett and Mike Castle—that
the

retribution of the Tea Party is the threat they
face, not the anger of Barack Obama.

Republicans won the battle because
they were united. All 42 senators agreed nothing moves
in Harry`s house until the tax cuts are voted on. And
they took that stand because they truly believe you do
not raise taxes in a recession and because they were
willing to let all the tax cuts expire on Jan. 1 rather
than abandon a principled position.

If liberals thought the GOP would
crack, Obama knew better.

And considering the deal he came
out with, when he walked in with not even a small pair,
his party should be congratulating him, not cussing him
out.

True, the tax cuts are extended for
all, even those earning more than $250,000. But only for
two years. If liberals believe ending tax cuts for the
rich is a winning issue, why are they screaming? They
will have a chance to make that case in the middle of
the 2012 election, when all the tax cuts will be up for
renewal again.

On the estate taxes, Obama agreed
to exempt the first $5 million for an individual and $10
million for a couple, and impose a 35 percent top tax
rate.

This is a relief for small
businessmen and farmers who want to deed all they have
built up to their kids. This is a compromise between
what the left wants and what some of us believe should
happen: elimination of the estate tax.

Death taxes do not raise enough to
justify the IRS agents working on them and the
accountants and lawyers who spend careers helping
seniors put together wills and trusts to protect wealth
on which they have been paying taxes all their lives.

Obama also won a 13-month extension
of unemployment benefits, twice what Democrats had
pushed for.

Obama won a 30 percent cut in
payroll taxes for workers in 2011. The Social Security
tax falls from 6.2 percent of wages to 4.2 percent. This
will put tens of billions in the pockets of consumers.

Businesses will be allowed to
"expense" investments in equipment such as computers. This means
they can write off the entire cost on their corporate
income tax in the first year. This will spur
job-creating new investment.

With this deal, Obama is conceding
that the Pelosi-Reid stimulus approach did not work,
that tax cuts must be tried to get the economy moving,
that, for the next two years, he must make his deals
with Republicans.

The Obama-McConnell pact is a
recognition of reality and a sign of maturity.

In these negotiations, Obama acted
like a president. He went in with a weak hand and came
out with half the pot. He got something, where the
Democrats now berating him got nothing.

If the left hasn`t realized it yet,
Obama has: Liberals have lost the country. The liberal
hour is over in America and the West.

With these deals, however, comes
one big problem. None of these tax cuts or spending
hikes is paid for. A trillion dollars is being added to
the long-term deficit and debt. And the plunge in the
bond market is signaling that the money power thinks
that the United States` credit rating is heading south.

The clock on the debt bomb has just
been moved a few minutes closer to midnight.

COPYRIGHT

CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Patrick J. Buchanan
needs

no introduction to
VDARE.COM readers; his book State
of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and
Conquest of America, can
be ordered from Amazon.com. His latest book
is Churchill,
Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How
Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost
the World,
reviewed

here by

Paul Craig Roberts.