Obama Votes for More of the Same

I'm not sure why people are excited about Obama's big "compromise" to extend Bush's tax cuts for another couple of years. To me, his bill is just more of the same. We had the tax cuts over the past two years. Also, Obama has extended unemployment benefits from 13 weeks to 2 years, and that will be extended for another unlucky 13 months under his bill. So we had all of this stuff in 2009 and 2010, and we will have it in 2011 as well. Sure there are a couple of new "one-time" depreciation gimmicks which we didn't have, but mostly, it's same 'ol, same 'ol.

I see why Obama can partially celebrate if the deal passes (he can at least blame Republicans when in a year we're still in the same mess, and if there's one thing Obama knows - it's blaming others).

But what I don't understand is why Republicans think this is so great. Sure - it's far better than Obama's tax increase policy which would have been a disaster, but why is status quo acceptable? I think Republicans should have started with the premise of a permanent tax cut for everyone, rather than trying to just win the status quo.

This was the kind of thing I was afraid of. Obama compromised yes, but in short, 2011 will be similar to 2010 policy-wise. It's possible the economy is stronger this year if businesses gain a little confidence that Obama will not do further damage, and hire a bit more, but I'd like to see more radical change that will help America compete again.