THE PRESIDENT AND THE REPUBLICANS REACH A TAX CUTS COMPROMISE....................

To the uproar of most House and Senate Democrats, President Obama and the Congressional Republicans in the 111th Congress lame duck session have reached a political compromise that will allow for the extension of the Bush era Tax Cuts for all Americans regardless of income, for two more years.  A major concession on the part of the White House, and a big breaking of a central Obama campaign pledge this year and in 2008, to end the Bush Tax Cuts for those Americans making more than $250,000.00 a year in income.  One major gain President Obama and the Democrats attained in the Compromise Deal was to get the extension of UnEmployment Benefits for 2 million Americans who began losing them this week and whose access to them would otherwise have expired. But with 24 days left in 2010 and the last days of the 111th Democratic controlled Congress, for the President to reach an agreement with the Republicans, without widespread support fdrom the Democrats, and the very vocal disagreement of many Democrats in Congress and throughout the country, may cause him much deeper political and re-election troubles.  The 2010 midterm elections wiped out many of the moderates in both political parties.  Thus, 112th Congress Democrats will be more liberal and the Republicans more conservative.  That can well bode for a lack of consensus or progress on key matters and is the recipe for potential girdlock and obstruction, which will fail  Americans who want constructive solutions to undeniable problems facing our nation and the world.  Will this Tax Cuts Compromise accomplish a unobstructed, hostage free, vote in the House and Senate before Christmas, on the START Treaty, and other pieces of legislation, which have been delayed and held up for several months if not almost two years, or will No !, continue to resound through the United States Capitol ?..........Fr.  Troy