BIG picture: Why the Rich won the tax-cut war

That's my title. above. Maybe the short-term sop to Dems' programs (which should have been non-partisan no-brainers) is important. But the Big Picture is in ruins, and both Teddy AND Franklin R. are rolling over in their graves on each side of the partisan divide—per this blog post at C&L ...

In simple words, here's what the "Bush tax cuts extension" and the little-mentioned estate tax rollback did, among other aspects of the "compromise" bill:

Your Tax Dollars at Work
By Jon Perr

On Friday, the House approved the $801 billion "compromise" tax bill, sending it on to the White House for President Obama's signature.

Over the next two years, that budget-busting, gilded class giveaway will cost the Treasury $70 billion in revenue lost from the top 2% of taxpayers and another $25 billion uncollected from the richest estates in America. But sooner or later (sooner, if born-again deficit hawks get their way), that bill will come due and it will be paid by everyone else. In the meantime, here's a picture of your tax dollars at work - for the rich and famous.

For openers, it's worth noting who will not benefit from the extension of the top Bush income tax rate and the gutting of the estate tax. Certainly not small business owners. Now-abandoned Democratic proposals to end the Bush tax cuts for families earning over $250,000 a year affected only 2% of all households, and an even smaller fraction of small businesses. (The Republican claim that Democrats want to "raise taxes on roughly half of small business income in America" is contingent on Bechtel, Coors, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and other multinational "S corporation" being categorized as small businesses.)

And from the beginning, the winners of the successful Republican crusade against the estate would never included family farmers. ...