As others see it: Tax cut move a start

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President Barack Obama and Republican leaders in Congress appear to have agreed to a deal that will extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits. There’s more in the compromise, but those two elements represent the give-and-take that was necessary for the agree ment to move ahead.

In addition, the deal includes a 2 percent cut in the Social Security tax, a reduction analysts say will put money into the pockets of middle-class Americans. Furthermore, the president agreed to higher exemptions for the 35 percent estate tax.

Billed as a bipartisan compromise, the bipartisanship appears to be between the White House and congressional Republicans. Democrats in Congress, including leaders, are unhappy with the deal. After a meeting with the president early last week, they did not sign on. ....

Nevertheless, it looks like compromise — the art of the possible — has won over the ideological impossible. The president seems to have gotten a message from the Nov. 2 election in which Democrats got spanked. ...

Republicans make no secret they want Obama to be a one-term president. Democrats would like nothing better than to continue to paint Republicans with the tar of obstructionism. Those sentiments drive the far left among Democrats and the far right among Republicans. Compromise, on the other hand, is always a creation of the pragmatic middle. ...

The compromise deal, while certainly imperfect, looks to be a first step in moving Congress and the administration toward productive work.

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Tags: opinion, editorials, politics, taxes