Democrats In Name Only run the show right into the ground

Head transition economist and Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, Robert Reich points out the tax deal is pure austerity-for-everyone-else republican worldview and an absolute abombination in the direction it points the economy:

...It will cost $900 billion over the next two years — larger than the bailout of Wall Street, GM, and Chrysler put together, larger than the stimulus package, larger than anything that’s come out of Washington in years.

It makes a mockery of deficit reduction. Worse, the lion’s share of that $900 billion will go to the very rich. Families with incomes of over $1 million will reap an average of about $70,000, while middle-class families earning $50,000 a year will get an average of around $1,500. In addition, the deal just about eviscerates the estate tax — yanking the exemption up to $5 million per person and a maximum rate of 35 percent.

And for what?

Wealthy families won’t spend nearly as large a share of what they get out of this deal as will middle-class and working-class families, so it doesn’t do much to stimulate the economy.

The deal further concentrates income and wealth in America — when it’s already more concentrated than at any time in the last 80 years.

The bits and pieces the President got in return — extended unemployment benefits, a continuation of certain small tax benefits for the middle class — are peanuts. After last week’s awful jobs report, Senate Republicans would have been forced to extend unemployment insurance anyway...

His conclusion?

...House and Senate Democrats should reject this abomination.

The President should get himself new advisors.

Not gonna happen on either account. Now, the House and Senate democrats DINOcrats will posture and wring hands and refuse to block passage of this, as they easily could. Even a single Senator could ice the deal by putting a hold on it.

They won't. After all, they're all going to make a lot of money off it.

And the Obamanation Hisself? Despite his posturing, you can bet this fits entirely with his private worldview. He's a Chicago School man, after all. He thinks policies that make him and the class of people he really identifies with money should be the law of the land.