have democrats never played poker?

You don’t show your hand before everyone antes up:

President-elect Barack Obama will meet with congressional leaders in Washington on Monday to discuss his economic stimulus package, a plan that reports say will include $300 billion in tax cuts.

The tax cuts for individuals and businesses would account for about 40 per cent of the stimulus package, which is expected to be between $675 billion and $775 billion, according to a number of published reports.

The reported tax cuts, bigger than expected, could be a way to garner support from Republicans who have been critical of the amount of spending in the package.
…
Obama had wanted to have a package ready for him to sign when he takes office Jan. 20. But congressional leaders said it won’t be ready until mid-February at the earliest.

Aides to Obama said he will also give a speech in Washington later this week to explain to the public the urgent need for the package… He will stress that if nothing is done, unemployment could rise to over 10 per cent.

On the weekend, Obama said the No. 1 goal of the plan is to create three million new jobs, with more than 80 per cent in the private sector.

Obviously, the Dems should have held any tax cuts in their back pocket to sweeten the deal and bring in enough Republican support to make 60 in the Senate and get cloture on the bill. That’s amateur stuff.

But more importantly, tax cuts do not create jobs. Just look at the number of job losses over the last eight years, with Bush’s ridiculously regressive tax cuts that impoverished both the federal treasury and the national economy.

And about those 80% of new jobs to be created in the private sector: unless Obama is talking about jobs that will be created as a result of dollars turning over in communities as a result of infrastructure spending, that 80% could take years to materialize, while employment and the economy continue to founder.

When will we finally outgrow and extirpate the Republican lie that has held this country hostage for the last 30 years, that all taxes need cutting, and that the free market is the only way to economic success for the nation?

As long as the wealthy few are pulling the strings: Never.

Yes, Obama is trying not to make Clinton’s mistakes coming out the chute (can you say “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”?). But this is a very different time. Clinton won with only a plurality of the vote, and Obama has the majority of the country behind him, desperate for change.

Re-read FDR’s first Inaugural, Mr. Obama. Please. The time is ripe, and another triangulator is exactly what we do not need.

UPDATE – Krugman says it better (no surprise there):

Look, Republicans are not going to come on board. Make 40% of the package tax cuts, they’ll demand 100%. Then they’ll start the thing about how you can’t cut taxes on people who don’t pay taxes (with only income taxes counting, of course) and demand that the plan focus on the affluent. Then they’ll demand cuts in corporate taxes. And Mitch McConnell is already saying that state and local governments should get loans, not aid — which would undermine that part of the plan, too.