Rapid reaction: extension of the Bush tax cuts

Despite campaigning on the promise of not extending the Bush tax cuts to the nation's wealthiest people, President Obama caved into political pressure and agreed to extend ALL of the Bush tax cuts for two more years in a compromise to extend unemployment benefits for 13 months.

My initial gut reaction: all this debate and talk we have been hearing for the past month now, get ready to hear it again; only this time on the presidential campaign trial in 2012.

I think the president did the right thing, no one wants their taxes raised in a recession and this was the Republicans biggest policy push, now that he has compromised I expect things to finally start getting done. I would not be surprised to see the repeal of Dont Ask Dont Tell and the implementation of the START Nuclear Treaty before the end of the year now that the president has compromised on taxes.

Now just because the president compromised today doesnt mean I think he cant make it a political win in two years, I think he is in the right. The Republicans won the 2010 midterms largely based on economic bread and butter issues and seeming to be the party of fiscal responsibility and cutting the deficit. So now how can the same party turn around and defend a policy that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated would add roughly 700 billion dollars to the deficit over the next decade if it became permanent? History is also not on the Republicans side, the tax cuts did not do much in the way of job creation during their decade of existence so why will they create jobs now?

At the end of the day Obama took a calculated risk and it is one I think will pay off politically. In two years I think he better defines the issue and labels the Republicans as looking out for the rich and not the countries bottom line and wins on the issue of taxes in the long run.