Get over it, liberals

Principles matter, but not as much as progress

The progressive resistance to the Obama deal on tax cuts is both unreasoning and unreasonable. Unreasoning because the opponents, whose anger is congealing into adamantine ideology inside the Democratic Party, are pulling out a cascade of objections but offering up no practical alternative. Unreasonable because what the president achieved — which in reality should be called an economic recovery package — is a fundamentally progressive deal.

Yes, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who skillfully negotiated with Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, had to concede on the top rate tax cuts — for now. Democrats can battle the issue out, and win on it, in 2012 — which is what should have happened in the midterms, and might have but for the counsel of some of the same members of Congress who are now digging in or dragging their heels against the agreement. And yes, the 15 percent rate on dividend and capital gains will continue for two years — which probably makes sense when markets are rising but still fragile. After all, the markets do matter to those whom progressives claim to fight for, determining the value of 401(k)s and the pension funds and savings of workers, retirees, and the entire middle class.

Now look beyond the concessions — and the tantrums of the blog people and electorally battered Democrats in Congress — and measure what Obama has secured in return. It's far more than predicted, consisting of measures that will lift the income of the many, not just the few. It isn't a cave-in, but a way out of the slow economy that not only hurts tens of millions of Americans, but also threatens the end of the progressive project in 2012 — and perhaps for a generation or more.

The extension of tax cuts and the fix that will prevent the alternative minimum tax from ensnaring those it was never intended to cover will save the typical family $2,000 a year. That's progressive.

A one-third cut in payroll tax rates for 2011 will put $120 billion into the pockets of 150 million working families — who will be able to live a little better, and whose spending will spur the economy. That's progressive — despite the fear-mongering of some liberals, searching for any and every argument to assail the president, that this is the beginning of the end of Social Security, which depends on the payroll tax. But the reduction is a temporary measure, proposed by liberals and conservatives alike to deal with the downturn. There's no prospect that it will become permanent — unless you believe, among other impossible things, that a compliant Barack Obama has bought into a secret strategy to destroy Social Security. And that notion isn't progressive; it's paranoid.

Next, the extension of the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit — with the government writing checks to those who work but don't earn enough to pay income taxes — will reach 12 million lower-income families and 24 million children. The refundable college tax credit of $2,500 will help eight million students pursue higher education to help them compete in the global economy. All this is progressive too.