Class Warfare, the latest version...

Expect our media to fall right in line on pitting "millionaires and billionaires" against everybody else as the Democrats try to shift blame to the Republicans over the coming debt limit showdown. The Great Uniter -- he is not.

Biden Digging for Tax Hike Deal
By Chris Stirewalt
Published June 15, 2011
| FoxNews.com

Dems Try to Retake High Ground on Economy

“The ‘Affordable Health Care Act’ was not as affordable as we expected.
The ‘Open Government Initiative’ was not as open as we expected.
The ‘stimulus’ was not as stimulating as we expected.”

-- Suggestions from the office of Speaker John Boehner for follow up “jokes” to the one President Obama made in North Carolina Monday that “‘shovel-ready’ was not as ‘shovel-ready’ as we expected.”

The lousy economy has helped push Democrats to the negotiating table in a bid to cut a deal to increase the federal government’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit, but the blue team is still hoping to gain some leverage from the nation’s economic woes.
In order to keep their party’s rank and file on board, Democratic negotiators, led by Vice President Joe Biden, need to offer some kind of a tax increase as part of a package of cuts being negotiated with Republicans.
But if the deal includes a tax hike on incomes above $200,000, or anything else, Republicans won’t be able to deliver the seven Senate votes and 24 House votes needed to pass a plan that had unanimous Democratic support.
The gambit from the administration now is to offer an extension and expansion of President Obama’s payroll tax cut in a bid to spur hiring and to offer Republicans a trade off in favor of a tax hike on high-income earners.
An aide to one senior House Republican described the possibility of a tax rate increase in exchange for the extension of a temporary tax break on payrolls as “a non-starter,” but the administration is desperate to get a deal and look active on the economy.
The Republican complaint about the Obama payroll tax break is that it is too small to jolt the economy back on the wrong track. Obama has long favored the imperceptible tax break, like the one in his 2009 stimulus that put another $6 in the weekly paychecks of most workers. The theory is that the money is spent quickly helping the economy.
Republicans, meanwhile, favor low rates overall and lean toward shock and awe when it comes to tax cut stimuli. Recall that one Republican plan for the 2009 stimulus was to simply zero out the payroll tax for the remainder of that year, rather than a small adjustment.
Biden’s group meets again today. While there is new optimism about the size of the cuts that can be achieved, the looming question remains about taxes.
With Democrats taking a pounding over the condition of the economy and Republicans still denouncing Obama’s joke about the failures of his stimulus package, Democrats may eventually be convinced to drop calls for a tax hike.
But for now, the White House is still looking for a trade off. The president’s chances for getting his hike will be enhanced if Democrats can’t paint Republicans as protecting “millionaires and billionaires” while opposing a little more pocket change for the middle class.
The Democratic counterattack begins anew today.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/15/biden-digging-for-tax-hike-deal/#ixzz1PMOkl5vP