This has been a good night.
The Small Business bill finally passed (more on that later). And, the President has decided to go for Middle Class Tax cuts, the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and apparently Immigration reform in the form of the DREAM Act.
From the prepared remarks:
Now, I know that many of you campaigned hard for me, and understandably you’re frustrated that we have not been able to move this over the finish line yet. I am too. But let me be clear: I will not walk away from this fight. My commitment is getting this done as soon as we can. We can’t keep kicking this challenge down the road.
There’s no doubt the debate over how to fix all this has been a fractured and sometimes painful one in this country. And let’s face it, there are some who seek political advantage in distorting the facts and in dividing our people. We’ve seen it before. Some take advantage of the economic anxiety that people are feeling to stoke fear of those who look or think or worship differently -- to inflame passions between “us” and “them.”
I have news for those people: It won’t work. There is no “us” and “them.” In this country, there is only “us.” There is no Latino America or black America or white America or Asian America. There is only the United States of America -- all of us. All of us joined together. Indivisible.
By the way, if we are going for Obama Middle Class Tax Cuts, apparently I owe Nancy Pelosi an apology.
Nancy, I apologize. You go, Madame Speaker!
Though 31 Democrats (Democrats!) are clamoring for her to include tax cuts for the rich in these tax cuts. From what I can tell, she's telling those 31 to stick it, in the form of a separate vote.
That's right. Harry Reid sometime last week mentioned the possibility of there being a separate vote on the Tax Cuts for the Wealthy.
And remember something else, no matter what anyone is telling you, in this plan everyone gets a tax cut, not just the 98% that constitute me and you, but everyone...including the top 2%.
The trick is the top 2% will get a tax cut for the first $250,000 dollars of their income. The Republicans want them to get even more on top of that.
But the real story of the night is the Immigration Story. (Hell, the speech was last night. How did Josh miss this?!?)
And now, we turn to another frequent Obama critic, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.). Needless to say, Rep. Gutierrez is happy tonight.
