Althouse: "I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts."

December 7, 2010

"I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts."

"I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people, and I was not willing to see them get harmed."

Hey, Obama? Can I get the keys to the car so I can drive it somewhere where I won't have to listen to your metaphors?

67 comments:

Anonymous said...: One way to deal with the truth is to run away from it, sure.; 12/7/10, 9:06 PM
Fen said...: Slurpee-sipping hostage takers.

Can we invoke a photo-shop?; 12/7/10, 9:08 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: Ach, the overweening gall of the man! A couple of months ago he was against all tax cuts. Now he's trying to take credit for "rescuing" the middle-class cuts when we wouldn't even be discussing this if the Republicans hadn't taken a stand. The guy has no foundation in reality.; 12/7/10, 9:09 PM
garage mahal said...: A couple of months ago he was against all tax cuts.

No he wasn't.; 12/7/10, 9:12 PM
Kansas City said...: Obama really is stumbling. I think the use of "hostage" langauge and other recent missteps reflect a combination of his own narcisism, normal liberal superiority, and a political tin ear. He has to get much better if he wants to be re-elected.; 12/7/10, 9:13 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: Most brilliant orator evah.

Did they have the intern programming TOTUS today, or are this his own words?; 12/7/10, 9:19 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Cuts? Oh, he means maintenance of the current rate...; 12/7/10, 9:20 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Vote for this tax bill or we'll shoot this dog.; 12/7/10, 9:22 PM
FloridaSteve said...: Ummm.. who's the hostage taker again? You had all 3 houses and veto proof majorities. Then in November the hostages esca... umm.. held a referend... I mean took a vote. You lost. We won. Get over it.; 12/7/10, 9:22 PM
Methadras said...: Erkle can't help himself. What is funny is how he is not taking credit for the totality of the tax cuts for all Americans, just the ones for the middle class. Afterall, the working poor who don't pay taxes, and the 40% of working americans who fell of the tax rolls and yet still get write-offs should be suckling Erkle-cock for the great deal he just struck. Excuse me while I go roll my eyes somewhere.; 12/7/10, 9:23 PM
FloridaSteve said...: He's not stupid I suppose. But he's also not very smart. e makes the fatal flaw of thinking that his audience isn't paying attention.; 12/7/10, 9:24 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Now, hopefully he will go on his vacation asap and I won't have to listen to more of his disjointed, ill-constructed TOTUS illoquence til next year. That could be his Xmas gift to the American people.; 12/7/10, 9:24 PM
GMay said...: How wonderfully Post Partisan™ of him. I wonder if someone in his media is going to resurrect the lecture on the Coarsening of Public Discourse™ after that little gem.

This man exists completely in the dimension of parody at this point.; 12/7/10, 9:25 PM
Revenant said...: I don't get the point of that press conference. You hold a press conference either

(A): To announce your great new accomplishment

or

(B): To lambaste the opposition for standing in the way of all that is right and good in America.

you do NOT hold a press conference to

(C): Talk about how you wanted to do the right thing but the evil opposition forced you to do the wrong thing. If you had to do something wrong and you expect the American people to agree it was wrong, shut the hell up and hope the news cycle is too busy discussing Paris Hilton's latest drug bust.

You never, ever call attention to your own political impotence -- not if you want people to take you seriously. Honestly, if Obama's going to pout and say "we have to do what the Republicans want" then what are the American people supposed to think HE'S good for? Isn't the logical reaction "well, I guess we'd better focus on electing the right sort of Republicans, then, because apparently the Democrats are a bunch of pussies"?

Clinton knew how to lose a fight and still make it seem like he'd won -- to fight tooth and nail against a Republican proposal and still take credit for its passage. Obama hasn't got a clue.; 12/7/10, 9:27 PM
coketown said...: He's banking on his progressive base to have Stockholm syndrome. That will complete this ridiculous metaphor.; 12/7/10, 9:35 PM
Anonymous said...: As I mentioned so many times before here, we are thinking of Nov. 2012 from the beginning. We knew if the GOP does well in Nov. 2010, we will have to improvise. We did. We will continue.

Bottom Line: We will win in Nov. 2012, by all means necessary. If we have to sell out Journ"o"list people, we will. We will do what it takes so that we can defeat Palin, Huckabee, Romney, etc.

The victory is at hand. This is the beginning of the happy end (total, complete, victory in 2012).; 12/7/10, 9:41 PM
Big Mike said...: What sort of grades did that young speechwriter of his get in sophomore English? I hope they were B- or below.

BTW, Tyrone, they aren't tax cuts. They are merely not tax increases. Please don't drink the Kool-Aid.; 12/7/10, 9:43 PM
blake said...: I see AP is here to make the next two years as long as possible.; 12/7/10, 9:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Everyone is a tool. We will use the MSM or anyone. But, we will win. No question about that. You can take that to the Bank. The GOP is so happy with our compromises that they will lose focus. We will then get to the left when convenient. Then a home run. It is so easy that we were all laughing when we came up with this plan during a consultant conference call.; 12/7/10, 9:52 PM
MadisonMan said...: What Big Mike said. Is he trying to sound incoherent?

Mission Accomplished.; 12/7/10, 9:53 PM
Anonymous said...: Dang, that there Mister Presmadent shore do no how to use them metaphors. Whoo'ee! Me and my fambly done was taken hostage and didn't even no it. And that fancy talk about parlayin with the hostagizers--well, hell, we'd normally just kill'em, but I 'spose you could talk'em to death or kiss their asses, too.

(Pauses to apply Neosporin and Bandaids to scabby knuckles)

I shore do like that Mr. Presmadent. If them secret hostage takers take my fambly ag'in without my say so or--hell, they must be spawn of Satan seein'" that no one even nose it--well, I'd just as soon that nice Mr. Presmadent kiss their invisible asses, or use that purty talk to save us.

What's them metaphors cost by the bushel? I got an idiot brother-in-law who can do it for cheap.; 12/7/10, 9:55 PM
SteveR said...: Making lemonade out of lemons is not as easy as it sounds. In any case as Charles Krauthammer says he's really just getting another very very large stimulus package (between lost tax revenue and extended unemployment benefits) that is unpaid for. As in early 2009 he should be happy.

He should embrace it and be prepared to take credit as the economy improves. He'll do the latter regardless but the former needs to be done know; 12/7/10, 9:55 PM
SteveR said...: *now*; 12/7/10, 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...: It is so easy that we were all laughing when we came up with this plan during a consultant conference call.

What we're you smoking?

Was it Mendocino Mellow? Maui Wowwie?; 12/7/10, 10:04 PM
David said...: "Not to negotiate with hostage takers, unless the hostage gets harmed."

Here's hoping that Obama does not end up with a real hostage crisis.

The point of not negotiating with hostage takers is to discourage the terrorists from taking more hostages.

If your exception to the no negotiation rule is possible harm to the hostage, you have thrown away the entire rule, which you never understood in the first place.

Now the Congressional Democrats will get the blame for letting tax rates rise, if they fail to endorse this compromise that Obama made without involving them.

It's hard to see how he could have conducted himself more badly for the past few days.

Is our President on the verge of a personal meltdown? Could be.; 12/7/10, 10:13 PM
Unknown said...: The Zero blinked and Pelosi Galore is going insane.

Now, people say things will improve. If nothing else (housing bubble, education bubble, QE2, Euro defaults, Red China default) explodes.

How do you go before the American people and say you brought down unemployment when it's, let's say, 8.6 and it was 5.7 (I believe) on Election Day '08?; 12/7/10, 10:25 PM
traditionalguy said...: The hound of the Baskervilles that never howls is raising the line defining "Super Rich" from "Middle Class" from 200 thousand per year to a million per year in taxable income. That was what Reagan did and it worked. But that group between those numbers is the "true middle class" that has NO party backing their interests since both parties use them as the cash cow. The over a million guys can arrange enough timely deductions until they only pay the Alt. Min tax.; 12/7/10, 10:32 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/7/10, 10:33 PM
AST said...: Worst attempt at triangulation evah!

wv: shleak; 12/7/10, 10:33 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: "It's like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, but the original one. You know, from '74. And I'm Walter Matthau. No, no, wait; I guess I'm the mayor. So I'm paying because of the people on the train.

"It's the American people on the train, and it's a runaway train. But the Republicans aren't even on the train. We have an undercover guy watching them not on the train.

(Aside directed away from mic: "Is that supposed to be Snowe? ... Biden says it's him? That doesn't make any sense.")

"Anyway, the Republicans are dividing the money. But one of them will electrocute himself. Maybe some of you haven't seen this movie. Just stay with me here.

"The point remains that electrocuting yourself, like a tax cut for the rich, is bad. But we can't allow the American people on the train to get hurt, so we're not going to crash the motorcycle carrying the ransom. We will only allow the top motorcycle driver in the country to deliver the ransom for the American people, and we will not lie about being at the tunnel. At the end of which, there is a light... the light of jobs.

(Aside directed away from mic: "When you wrote this, had you even watched this movie recently? ... Why didn't you just use 'Die Hard'?")

"Look. We all know that runaway trains kill people, and so we have to pay the Republican hijackers so that they will electrocute themselves and not shoot the American people who are on the train that the Republicans are not on... they would be shooting them not directly in this case because they're in different places, but indirectly, and just as harmfully, with .... money, or taking their money ... with shooting, which is involved. Really with today's technology, you could have a gun that shoots in one area and the bullet tracks its target and follows it to kill it. Actually that's something like a missile.

"The Republicans want to kill you with missiles. Thank you. Yippee ki yay, my fellow Americans and goodnight."; 12/7/10, 10:36 PM
Fen said...: And this was just a first drop in the bucket. Wait till Congress has to make major cutbacks in entitlements like Europe is doing now. Libtards will be falling from the sky.; 12/7/10, 10:39 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: That's really very good Freeman.; 12/7/10, 10:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Usually in politics you're trying to get credit for being bipartisan while avoiding giving up the stuff you really want. Obama has come up with a way to give up the stuff he really wants while avoiding getting credit for being bipartisan.; 12/7/10, 10:43 PM
Harry said...: I'm not going to say "Freeman Hunt wins the thread!" because I hate when people say "[ . . . ] wins the thread." But I laughed.

I think it was revealing that
Obama called Republicans hostage takers. Most people are okay with hostage takers being shot in the head by FBI snipers. Before the election, the president did describe his Republican opponents as enemies. And he's got Ted Rall backing him up.; 12/7/10, 10:47 PM
Mark said...: "Is our President on the verge of a personal meltdown? Could be."

Good thing he's got another vacation coming up.; 12/7/10, 11:07 PM
Methadras said...: Erkle thinks he's Sally Fields. That's why he made this decision for let's make a deal with those rascally republicans. He so wants to be liked and this was his moment.

Where is AlphaLiar when you need him? Oh, he's flailing somewhere about the demise of his ideology.; 12/7/10, 11:12 PM
Anonymous said...: Didn't Althouse vote for this fraud? I think she should be forced to listen to every twisted word.; 12/7/10, 11:49 PM
Alex said...: Hey garage, what happened that made Obama so tax-cutty all of a sudden? Why not 6 months ago?; 12/8/10, 12:26 AM
bagoh20 said...: Is there anyone left out there who has not see the underside of the Obama Bus?; 12/8/10, 1:26 AM
bagoh20 said...: Yes, thank you Freeman. I needed that tonight. Getting Obama as your warm up act was brilliant. I was ready to laugh and you delivered.; 12/8/10, 1:38 AM
Alex said...: Obama threw himself under the bus.; 12/8/10, 1:40 AM
kent said...: "It's like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, but the original one. You know, from '74. And I'm Walter Matthau. No, no, wait; I guess I'm the mayor. So I'm paying because of the people on the train. [etcetera]

Pure awesomeness, from beginning to end.; 12/8/10, 1:52 AM
Revenant said...: Freeman, that was one of the best things I've read here. Excellent!; 12/8/10, 2:40 AM
BJM said...: @blake

I just skip over his comments, no harm, no foul.; 12/8/10, 3:50 AM
BJM said...: @Freeman

This made me snuffle wine out of my nose.

... Why didn't you just use 'Die Hard'?")

Kudos!!!; 12/8/10, 3:53 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: The point of not negotiating with hostage takers is to discourage the terrorists from taking more hostages.

I have to agree with David. Announcing that you don't negotiate with hostage takers unless they hurt hostages is a sure way to get hostages hurt.; 12/8/10, 6:06 AM
Anonymous said...: (C): Talk about how you wanted to do the right thing but the evil opposition forced you to do the wrong thing.

What is even funnier is that Nancy is still the Speaker and there are 58 senators that caucus with the Democrats; 12/8/10, 6:27 AM
Der Hahn said...: Like Billy Jeff 'The President is still relevant' Clinton in 1994, he's reading his stage directions.

vw: ragging. and flailing; 12/8/10, 6:33 AM
Toad Trend said...: Theater of the absurd, indeed. A trash-talking president, mentally ill congressional members, breathless/brainless/incurious press, liberal dolts that twist and contort to justify, all we need are the aliens (oh shit - never mind) and we've got Mars Attacks 2.; 12/8/10, 6:55 AM
Mick said...: First, they are not "tax cuts", they are a CONTINUATION of the current tax rate (which is already too high). What they are is NOT a tax HIKE. Amazing how the media helps him spin that fact totally around, but of course they are the treasonous enablers. Amazingly they present the continuation of the current tax rate as a COST, rather than the REAL COST, which is all the money spent by this government.
Obama could care less about the middle class. He was installed by the one world government Banking elite debt masters to take away the final vestiges of the sovereignty of We the People. He was chosen because he is not a natural born Citizen (born in the US of 2 US Citizen parents), with little allegiance or attachment to this country.; 12/8/10, 6:58 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Wow, I'm glad you all liked it. Thanks.; 12/8/10, 7:12 AM
Diane Wilson said...: Yesterday was the best day of the rest of Obama's presidency.

wv: soadmit - So, admit it!; 12/8/10, 7:14 AM
Opus One Media said...: I'm trying to figure out what part of what he said isn't true.

The GOP thugs promised "no business until they got their rich tax cut".

If that isn't thuggery, holding the nation hostage so the rich can increase their wealth gap, then I don't know what is.; 12/8/10, 7:15 AM
Mick said...: HDHouse said...
"I'm trying to figure out what part of what he said isn't true.

The GOP thugs promised "no business until they got their rich tax cut".

If that isn't thuggery, holding the nation hostage so the rich can increase their wealth gap, then I don't know what is."

Uh, the whole thing is not true, since it is not a "tax cut", it is a continuation of the current tax rates. What it is, is not a TAX HIKE. Not that it matters to the hypnotized.; 12/8/10, 7:22 AM
Toad Trend said...: @HDHouse

Its called 'fairness', and not in the way liberals use it. Everybody retains their tax rate, and does not suffer another increase. Honestly, you 'folks' are unbelievable. The trashing of our healthcare, proposed cap and trade get-rich-quick scheme targeting the middle class so your precious statist cronies can get rich trading 'carbon credits', unelected appointees (ideologue czars) circumventing lawmakers to lay punitive regulation, you people have no end to your insanity. Of course, your next post will explain how you all 'know better'. I call BULLSHIT. All the crumbling cities/metro areas and states in this country are demonstrably SOLID BLUE. It really is true; YOU CAN"T FIX STUPID!!!! ps - you have a future in the press, dolt.; 12/8/10, 7:25 AM
AllenS said...: Mr. House,

You used a quote: "no business until they got their rich tax cut".

Maybe I ask which person's quote you used?; 12/8/10, 7:40 AM
Michael said...: HD HOUSE: There was and regrettably will be no tax cut for anybody. The Republicans kept there from being a tax hike for everybody.; 12/8/10, 7:44 AM
madAsHell said...: His English is appalling.

I heard the phrase "get harmed". "Get" is not a form of the verb "be"....and then I stopped listening.

His logic is tortured. I don't understand his metaphor.

I'd say the press conference went "stupidly".; 12/8/10, 7:54 AM
Clyde said...: Obama: All of the competence of Carter with all of the charm of Nixon.

On the plus side, he'll finish ahead of James Buchanan if he doesn't plunge the country into a civil war.; 12/8/10, 7:59 AM
Opus One Media said...: @GOP members who can't read -

Hey guys and gals. BUSH would have raised taxes as those reductions sunset end of year automatically as part of the 2001 legislation.

"One of the most notable characteristics of EGTRRA is that its provisions are designed to sunset, or revert to the provisions that were in effect before it was passed. EGTRRA will sunset on January 1, 2011 unless further legislation is enacted to make its changes permanent. The sunset provision sidesteps the Byrd Rule, a Senate rule that amends the Congressional Budget Act to allow Senators to block a piece of legislation if it purports to significantly increase the federal deficit beyond a ten-year term. The sunset allowed the bill to stay within the letter of the PAYGO law while removing nearly $700 billion from amounts that would have triggered PAYGO sequestration."

You have typically and conveniently reworded history to pass this along to the next guy and put the blame on him when it was your BoyKing George who set the increase into law in the first place.

I hope your noses hurt after being lead around by them for 8 years.; 12/8/10, 8:00 AM
Hagar said...: I think I am with DeMint on this one; I think it was negotiated by the establishment old bulls, and they gave Obama way too much when there was no need to.

So I think it will be a good thing if the kossacks wreck it.; 12/8/10, 8:10 AM
Brian said...: HDHouse brought up that Republicans are forcing the tax rates to remain low, by extending the Bush tax cuts. That the Dems basically had no choice, salvaging only the extension of unemployment benefits.

Actually, they did, but they made their choice earlier. The Dems didn't pass a budget, meaning they couldn't threaten to use reconciliation again to get what they wanted. They didn't change the senate rules, to require a senator who invokes a filibuster to stand on the senate floor continuously speaking to hold up senate business. Or lower the required number of senators to vote for cloture to 59.

If you really believe Republicans are beyond the pale, why do you hold on to these fig leafs? The only reason I can think of is to have an excuse if and when the policy didn't produce the results you wanted. You can say "we wanted a bigger stimulus, but the mean Republicans wouldn't let us have it." In this case its "we wanted the tax rate on the rich to go up, but the greedy Republicans wouldn't let us do it."

Dems should have tried to get something more than just the extension of unemployment benefits.; 12/8/10, 8:30 AM
Anonymous said...: holding the nation hostage so the rich can increase their wealth gap, then I don't know what is."

Yes, because a 3.6% tax reduction on income over 250,000 helps "the rich" increase their "wealth gap"!!!!

You are a moron beyond belief.; 12/8/10, 9:00 AM
Anonymous said...: BUSH would have raised taxes as those reductions sunset end of year automatically as part of the 2001 legislation.

Hysterical.

Keep flailing.; 12/8/10, 9:01 AM
Anonymous said...: holding the nation hostage

Yes!

Because the government shut down, and everyone stayed home from work and stuff because of the Republicans!!!

Which part was false?

Everything. You clown.; 12/8/10, 9:02 AM
Anonymous said...: How about this gem from his press conference?

It’s a big, diverse country and people have a lot of complicated positions. It means that in order to get stuff done, we’re going to compromise. This is why FDR, when he started Social Security, it only affected widows and orphans. You did not qualify. And yet now it is something that really helps a lot of people. When Medicare was started, it was a small program. It grew.

He is an idiot.; 12/8/10, 12:03 PM
Deb said...: Thread is Dead, but @Jay above: [snort]. Sounds like a 5th grader.; 12/8/10, 6:43 PM