Tax cuts: a line in the sand?

The Democrats in Washington D.C. are at a real crossroads: they must choose whether to play offense or defense. The corporate lobbyists and mainstream media will try to convince the President and lawmakers on Capitol Hill that compromise with Republicans is the only sensible path to follow. What the monied interests really want is to be handed what they want right now, with the Democrats as co-conspirators in their schemes to defraud the American people. If the Democrats go along with this they will see themselves increasingly rejected by Americans outside the Beltway. On the other hand, Democrats could choose to offer reasonable policies and force Republicans to argue against them. On tax cuts, Democrats could propose the following: "We have no desire to impose an excessive tax burden on any American. We are happy to extend tax cuts for all Americans on the first quarter-million dollars of income. For most Americans, then, the tax cuts will not expire as called for in the original legislation passed by Republicans and signed into law by President Bush. There are some Americans who enjoy incomes of more than a quarter-million dollars. They will still see their tax cut extended on the first quarter-million dollars of income. We cannot ignore the national debt, however. In order to avoid exploding the debt, we will do as provided for in the law passed by Republicans and signed by President Bush-- we will allow the cuts to expire on income in excess of a quarter-million dollars per year. But we offer this compromise: if unemployment falls below 3%, national infrastructure is largely rebuilt, all Americans enjoy quality health care, and poverty is eliminated, then we'll take a look at giving another tax cut to millionaires and billionaires."

If Democrats were to keep repeating this line, and ignore the indignant howls of the plutocrat-enablers, the people would start to think that maybe someone in Washington cared about them after all.