Simple Solution: $1000 for Everybody

Back in February, Steve Benen proposed cutting the Gordian Knot of the health care reform bill with this simple idea: the House of Representatives, instead of revising a Senate bill that would then fail a second vote, should just pass the the Senate bill as is, denying Senate rethuglicans the chance to kill it.

Pass. The. Damn. Bill. caught on, that's what the House did, and thanks to Steve's simple solution, we have health care reform.

Ending the tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy is approaching the Gordian Knot level of complexity. And Jon Walker has a simple solution:

I have a counter-proposal to the Republican demand that we must temporarily extend all the Bush tax cuts. They want to include tax cuts for those making over one million dollars a year, for the next two years, despite the fact that it will add hundreds of billions to the deficit I suggest President Obama demand that instead of using the money to extend tax cuts for the rich, that it be used to mail every taxpayer a $1,000 check.

Obama’s handling of this debate so far has been pathetic
How President Obama and the Democrats have handled the fight over the extension of the Bush tax cuts has been a horrible political and policy disaster. In the end, they are likely to fully capitulate to Republican demands and only “temporarily” extend all the the Bush tax cuts. Not only will it be a policy failure to fully give into to this deficit-exploding plan with almost no stimulative effect, but Republicans will also be able to spin it as a victory and take all the credit for extending tax cuts to the middle class.

At least win the politics using a counter proposal
Ideally Democrats should have dealt with this months ago, but according to David Dayen it is likely Obama never had the Democratic votes in the House for his preferred policy.

Now that the election is over Obama has a weaker hand, but he can still at least pull out a real political win against the Republicans with my counter proposal of a $1,000 check to every tax payer.

Read the whole thing.