New York Times Plays Cute With Obama's Economic Policy

President Elect Barack Obama has come forward with a two-year plan to get the economy going again. It's little more than boilerplate tax and spend liberalism at the moment, but the NY Times goes to great lengths to claim that Obama will extend the Bush tax cuts for people making under $250,000, all while saying that he will let the tax cuts expire.

Mr. Obama would extend the Bush tax cuts for households with less than $250,000 annual income.

That could have both economic and political benefits. Economically, Mr. Obama would not be open to the charge from Republicans and other critics that he is raising taxes in a recession, which many believe is counterproductive. His Republican presidential rival, Senator John McCain, raised that argument in their election battle.

Politically, by simply letting the tax cuts expire, Mr. Obama would get the benefit of higher revenues in 2011 and beyond to help finance his proposed health care plans without having to take any action himself, and without the Democratic majorities in Congress having to take a vote.

Letting tax cuts expire is the same thing as a massive tax hike, and that includes tax increases on capital gains and investments. Those are the engines of the economy, not government spending. As he and his economic team move forward in cobbling together their plan, they're going to quickly find that there isn't enough money to do what they want so they're going to be adjusting who exactly will see those tax hikes and it's going to come squarely down on the people he claims he's trying to help most - the middle class.