Shots Fired: Bush Tax Cuts, etc. Edition

There’s a whole lot of jibber-jabber about the plan to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for everyone across the income spectrum, tinker with the death/estate tax, and with any luck add even longer unemployment benefits.

Here’s just a sampling from Tampa Bay online, NPR, and Business Week:

• "If it's take it or leave it, we'll leave it," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.  
• "While I have concerns with some specific aspects of the plan, I support the proposed framework to avert further economic hardship and provide a first step to restore the foundations for sustained growth and job creation." Rep. Paul Ryan, (R-WI)
• “Most of us who ran in this last election said we were not going to vote for anything that increased the deficit. This does. It raises taxes. It raises the death tax. I don't think we need to negotiate that aspect of this thing away. I don't think we need to, you know, extend unemployment any further without paying for it.” Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC)
• “I've said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. I think it's tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people, and I was not willing to see them get harmed.” President Obama, in his press conference on Tuesday.  
• “If everybody took out what they didn’t like we would have nothing…At the end of the day this will get done.” – White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Until we see a vote, which may come Monday, I suspect we'll hear a whole lot more of stuff like this.