A bit of news from the White House.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Obama administration will allow tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire on schedule despite calls from a small but increasingly vocal group of Democrats to delay any tax increases.

SNIP

Mr. Geithner said the White House will allow taxes on top earners to increase on Jan. 1, 2011, as part of an effort to help bring down the mounting budget deficit. He said the White House still plans to extend tax cuts for middle- and lower-income Americans and expects to undertake a broader tax overhaul next year.

“We believe it is appropriate to let those tax cuts that go to the most fortunate expire,”Mr. Geithner said at a breakfast with reporters, hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Remember the trickle down theory does not work.  Those who are concerned with higher taxes on the wealthy perhaps this will incentivize wealthy individuals to not create taxable events and invest in building the economy by creating jobs through business expansion rather than withdrawing wealth as personal income.  During the period from 1945-1970 the tax rates were the highest in history and we had an enormous middle class boom.  When Bill Clinton increased taxes on the wealthy we had an economic boom.  This is argued by economist to be partly because wealthy individuals were incentivized to keep their money in their businesses instead of taking their money out for personal consumption and speculative activities.  Actions that would be a taxable events thereby resulting in such individuals being charged the higher tax rate.  Instead wealthy taxpayers put their money back into their businesses by hiring more people and growing their businesses.

NOTE: Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

We direct this post to the President but it is about a statement recently made by a senior White House official about the Arkansas senate runoff.  Politico reported that a member of the President’s senior staff made the following statement about organized labor’s support of Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s primary challenger Bill Halter, “[o]rganized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet.”

When asked about the statement press secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed the sentiment by saying the following:

“[W]hile the president might not have agreed with the exact characterization, I think that whether or not that money might have been better spent in the fall on closer elections between somebody — between people who cared about an agenda that benefited working families and those that didn’t, that money might come in more — more handy then,”

Seriously Mr. President?  The Executive Office is suppose to be the grown up or at least more politically astute.  Was this comment about organized labor really necessary?  Labor is one of your biggest and loyal supporters do you really want to piss them off?  Secondly, it’s a bit premature to start popping the champagne corks when Lincoln has not won the general election.  Many of the polls show that Bill Halter had a better chance of beating the GOP in the fall making Lincoln’s win a mere temporary reprieve with the death knell to be delivered in November.  Such comments were not only premature but they don’t mean anything.  If Blanche Lincoln loses in the fall does that mean that the White House backed the wrong candidate causing Democrats to lose the Arkansas senate seat?

In addition and most importantly, the statements have simply exacerbated an open womb and forced organized labor to come out and make strong and definitive declarations of  non support  not only for Blanche Lincoln but for ALL blue dog Democrats in the general election. 

“If that’s their take on this, then they severely misread how the electorate feels and how we’re running our political program. When we say we’re only going to support elected officials who support our issues,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. “When they say we should have targeted our money among some key house races among Blue Dog Democrats — that ain’t happening.”

“Labor isn’t an arm of the Democratic Party,” Vale said. “It exists to support working families. And that’s what we said tonight, and that’s what we’re gong to keep saying.”

So one of the most loyal and lucrative supporters of Democrats has come out and said that it will not be supporting blue dogs in an undesirable, to put it mildly, election year for Democrats.  Lets take a quiz…will that decrease or increase Lincoln’s and blue dogs chances of winning in the fall?  This fight could have ended last night in Arkansas but because of  the self-serving comments of WH staff it has been extended to Lincoln’s general and all blue dog campaigns around the country.  Not to mention a repeated negative media meme for very lazy pundits every time labor comes out against a blue dog incumbent.  Not very disciplined and not smart politically. 

Finally, chances are that the comments and confirmation have pushed Arkansan progressives further into their corners of nonsupport for Lincoln because now they have a vested interest in being right and proving the White House wrong.  Let’s see…..pushing Arkansan progressives into a contest where they are competing to be right about Lincoln or cozy up to them after a hard fought and divisive campaign to try and unify the party.  Which approach is likely to increase the chances of a Lincoln victory in the fall? 

“I told you so” comments like those made merely push progressives and labor into a position of ensuring that Blanche Lincoln loses in the fall.  Is that where we want to be?  Better yet…was the two seconds of satisfaction worth it?

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

In an unusually pointed and spot-on response to a statement released by former Vice President Dick Cheney claiming that the President doesn’t know we’re at war the White House communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, delivered a sticker of a counter punch.  Pfeiffer blogged that the President does not “need to beat his chest” to prove his commitment to bring down al Qaeda and its extremist allies.  Yes Mr. Cheney, action and deeds are how this president demonstrates his promise and pledge to protect this country not by using a script from an old spaghetti western.  A word from the observant:  aggressiveness is best used on the battlefield and not during a photo op.

It is good to see the White House hitting back against this hypocritical bulls#%t.  Did we also mention that eleven of the Guantanamo detainees released by the Bush administration rejoined al Qaeda? One of whom is alleged to have instructed the Christmas attacker.  See the full statement from the White House below.

Written by Dan Pfeiffer, White House Communications Director

There has been a lot of discussion online and in the mainstream media about our response to various critics of the President, specifically former Vice President Cheney, who have been coming out of the woodwork since the incident on Christmas Day.  I think we all agree that there should be honest debate about these issues, but it is telling that Vice President Cheney and others seem to be more focused on criticizing the Administration than condemning the attackers. Unfortunately too many are engaged in the typical Washington game of pointing fingers and making political hay, instead of working together to find solutions to make our country safer.

First, it’s important that the substantive context be clear: for seven years after 9/11, while our national security was overwhelmingly focused on Iraq – a country that had no al Qaeda presence before our invasion – Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda’s leadership was able to set up camp in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they continued to plot attacks against the United States. Meanwhile, al Qaeda also regenerated in places like Yemen and Somalia, establishing new safe-havens that have grown over a period of years.  It was President Obama who finally implemented a strategy of winding down the war in Iraq, and actually focusing our resources on the war against al Qaeda – more than doubling our troops in Afghanistan, and building partnerships to target al Qaeda’s safe-havens in Yemen and Somalia.  And in less than one year, we have already seen many al Qaeda leaders taken out, our alliances strengthened, and the pressure on al Qaeda increased worldwide.

To put it simply: this President is not interested in bellicose rhetoric, he is focused on action. Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from al Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country. And it seems strangely off-key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the President.

Second, the former Vice President makes the clearly untrue claimthat the President – who is this nation’s Commander-in-Chief – needs to realize we are at War. I don’t think anyone realizes this very hard reality more than President Obama. In his inaugural, the President said “our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.” In a recent speech, Assistant to the President for Terrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan said “Instead, as the president has made clear, we are at war with al-Qaida, which attacked us on 9/11 and killed 3,000 people. We are at war with its violent extremist allies who seek to carry on al-Qaida’s murderous agenda. These are the terrorists we will destroy; these are the extremists we will defeat.” At West Point, the President told the nation why it was “in our vital national interest” to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to fight the war in Afghanistan, adding that as Commander in Chief, “I see firsthand the terrible wages of war.” And at Oslo, in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, the President said, “We are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land.”

There are numerous other such public statements that explicitly state we are at war. The difference is this: President Obama doesn’t need to beat his chest to prove it, and – unlike the last Administration – we are not at war with a tactic (“terrorism”), we at war with something that is tangible: al Qaeda and its violent extremist allies. And we will prosecute that war as long as the American people are endangered.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones for their tremendous loss.  The following statement was released by the U.S. Holocaust Museum:

Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns died heroically in the line of duty today. There are no words to express our grief and shock over these events. He served on the Museum’s security staff for six years. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Officer Johns’ family.

We have made the decision to close the Museum tomorrow in honor of Officer Johns, and our flags will be flown at half mast in his memory.

White House response:

The President and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar offer condolences.

President Obama:

I am shocked and saddened by today’s shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world.

Today, we have lost a courageous security guard who stood watch at this place of solemn remembrance. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends in this painful time.

Secretary Salazar:

Today, we witnessed an act of violence and hatred in one of our world’s most sacred sites of remembrance.  This horrible crime took the life of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, whose courage in the line of duty saved lives and protected the hallowed halls of the Holocaust Museum.  Americans’ thoughts and prayers tonight are with Officer Johns’ family.

We are also reminded of the great sacrifices our law enforcement officials, including security guards and the Park Police who protect the National Mall, make every day on our behalf.  This tragic act of violence only reaffirms the lessons of peace and human dignity that the Holocaust Museum teaches.

A memorial fund has been set up by the American Jewish Committee, Washington DC chapter for the Johns family.  The following statement was released by the AJC.  See full statement here.

The American Jewish Committee’s Washington, D.C. chapter has set up a memorial fund to benefit the family of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, who was killed Wednesday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The organization said it will soon have a place on its Web site where one can contribute, but those who want to donate immediately should send checks made out to the American Jewish Committee, with “Holocaust Museum Memorial Fund” in the memo line, to:

American Jewish Committee, Washington Chapter

C/O Melanie Maron

1156 15th Street, NW, Suite 1201

Washington DC 20005

One hundred percent of the contribution will go to the Johns family.