President Obama Takes on the Liberal Democrats
Jules Witcover

President Obama's tax deal with the congressional Republican leadership amounts to spontaneous combustion of the already smoldering resentment in liberal Democratic ranks on Capitol Hill.

The most explosive element is the two-year extension of the Bush income tax cuts for the 2 percent of wealthiest Americans. But giving the rich a better break on estate taxes also has rankled the party's progressives.

The president's press conference produced a volley of voices calling on him to justify caving in to the Republican blackmail of holding middle-class tax cuts "hostage" by threatening to let all the Bush cuts die at year's end.

One reporter noted that while Obama had said he opposed the tax cuts, he'd never said he'd "be willing to go ahead and extend them for a couple years if the politics of the moment demand it." He asked: "When you take a stand like you had, why should the American people believe that you're going to stick with it? Why should the American people believe that you're not going to flip-flop?"

Another asked: "What do you say to Democrats who say you're rewarding Republican obstruction here? ... A lot of progressive Democrats are saying they're unwilling to budge, and you're asking them to get off the fence and budge. Why should they be rewarding Republican obstruction?"

When the president was asked where the "line the sand" was over which he would not step for the sake of compromise, he bristled. "Not making the tax cuts for the wealthy permanent -- that was a line in the sand," he said. "Making sure that the things that most impact middle-class families and low-income families, that those were preserved -- that was a line in the sand."

In agreeing only to a two-year extension, Obama said, he remained committed to resuming the fight against the cuts for the richest taxpayers before the extension expires in 2012. That much is certain; with his anticipated bid for reelection then in full swing, retaining liberal Democratic support will be essential to his prospects.

"So this notion that somehow we are willing to compromise too much," he said, "reminds me of the debate that we had during health care. This is the public-option debate all over again. We finally get health care for all Americans ... but because there was a provision in there that they didn't get that would have affected maybe a couple of million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people and the potential for lower premiums for 100 million people, that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise. Now, if that's the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let's face it, we will never get anything done."

At the cost of "having a purist position" and being "able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are," he said icily, the American people would have been denied health insurance "because of preexisting conditions or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out."

Continuing his case for the imperative of compromise, Obama insisted he remained consistent to the long-term goals he promised in 2008. His job, he said "is to make sure that we have a North Star out there. ... Does it make sense for me to tack a little bit this way or tack a little bit that way, because I'm keeping my eye on the long term and the long fight -- not my day-to-day news cycle, but where am I going over the long term?"

Obama said he didn't think "there's a single Democrat out there, who if they looked at where we started when I came into office and look at where we are now, would say that somehow we have not moved in the direction that I promised."

That obviously is not enough for the liberal Democrats who'd rather fight than switch against the dug-in Republicans. Further opposition to the tax deal from them, however, would likely only delay its approval next month, when the GOP takes over of the House and adds strength in the Senate.

Jules Witcover's latest book is Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption (William Morrow).

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