Obama's deal

The big political news this week is yesterday's deal
between the White House and Republican leaders: in exchange for extending the
Bush tax cuts for two years and relaxing the estate tax, Obama got a 13-month
extension of unemployment benefits, a one-year payroll tax decrease and some
additional tax credits and breaks.

Wait, tax breaks are what he got in the deal? I thought Democrats loved taxes! Actually,
center-to-left economic thought maintains that in tough economic times, what
you need to do is stimulate the economy--either with government spending or
with tax relief for lower- and middle-income people. (Tea Party slogans
notwithstanding, last year's stimulus bill did
both.) The resulting short-term deficits are okay; you deal with them once times
have improved.

As for unemployment benefits, Tim Fernholz nails
it: "one galling aspect...is that emergency unemployment insurance became a
policy option that had to be bargained for, rather than a given during tough
times," as it was for President Reagan and a Republican Senate in the early
1980s.