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Opening Arguments

Same old rut

Sigh. The headline on this story about the big compromise in Washington is, "Payroll tax cut deal: Something for everyone?"

Republicans were the ones who made the major concessions - that was giving up their long-held insistence that this payroll tax cut had to be paid for with spending cuts elsewhere.

That would have meant that negotiators would have had to find $150 billion in spending cuts instead of $50 billion. They were deadlocked about how to do it and negotiations were going nowhere until Republicans let go of that insistence, paving the way forward for both sides.

So, Democrats feel that that they've won, but Republicans feel that they've neutralized an election year issue - preventing the Democrats and the president from attacking them for holding up a tax cut for the middle class.

No, not everyone. Those of us still yearning for fiscal sanity and who halfway believed Republicans might be more responsible than Democrats have yet to see anything that doesn't make us gag.

Comments

john b. kalb
Thu, 02/16/2012 - 2:09pm

Leo - Put me down as another one who "gags" at what our GOP representatives are doing in congress on this issue!

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