I don’t care how collegial Obama appeared to be. In essence, Republicans are allowing the smooth talker to have a honeymoon because they are more gentlemanly than the gutter scrappers led by Nancy Pelosi.

According to that linked Politico article, Obama is adamant about using our tax code to “rectify” what he calls “social injustice” with his “rebates” for non-taxpayers. This is an issue worth fighting over loudly and often in fron of the cameras for the sound bite by the opposing Republicans. Obama is unwilling to compromise on an issue that affects those who pay the freight for the proposed legislation. Taxpayers should not be penalized in order to win Obama electoral approval by those who are not invested in growing the economy but only taking from it,

President Barack Obama rolled into the Capitol with a clear message for Republicans Tuesday afternoon: He’s happy to talk, but he’s not compromising on his tax rebates for lower income households.

Obama was ready for the House Republicans to pounce, telling them: “Feel free to whack me over the head because I probably will not compromise on that part [refundable tax credits],” according to two sources in the room.

In the meeting, Obama acknowledged a fundamental divide between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of a tax rebates for people at the lowest income level – Republicans complain that tax cuts for people who don’t pay income taxes amounts to “welfare through the tax code.”

House Republicans pelted Obama for more than 30 minutes with questions about deficits, taxes and spending, according to sources inside the private meeting. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), won applause from his GOP colleagues when he asked the president whether he would promise that the stimulus would not be an excuse to raise taxes or increase spending. Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), asked Obama for common ground on taxes in the $825 billion package – and was rejected.

Obama responded, according to sources in the room, that he was worried about the deficit and debt, and promised that his fiscal 2010 budget – coming out next month – would make hard choices in terms of spending cuts in an effort to reduce the deficit. And the reality is that Obama and Democrats don’t need any Republican House votes to pass the stimulus.

Shall we place bets that those “hard choices” will focus on cutting the budget in national security, intelligence, and the Pentagon?

onlineanalyst on January 27, 2009 at 6:27 PM

Banks won’t unfreeze lending to small busineeses, and there will be no hires to offset the layoffs until there are cuts in the corporate tax to make us competitive in the marketplace.

There will be no capital flowing to create private sector jobs without a cut in the capital gains tax.

Public works programs on the public dime are stagnating and debt increasers.

Sorry, Obama, but the economy does not grow from the bottom up.

onlineanalyst on January 27, 2009 at 6:55 PM

Not only will this “stimulus” bill have a price tag with enormous interest debt, Rep. Waxman has included a provision that will drive up the cost of energy even further. http://www.openmarket.org/2009/01/27/kiss-off-to-consumers/ Won’t that be a lark: paying for inflated energy costs with inflated dollars?

onlineanalyst on January 27, 2009 at 7:16 PM