Posted on 06/30/2010 10:57:17 AM PDT by jazusamo
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday blamed Republican stalling tactics for not being able to extend tax breaks that were enacted under President George W. Bush.
"Maybe if they stop stalling everything that comes to the floor we might be able to get to that stuff," he told reporters, adding, "We'll get to that when we get through unemployment insurance, Wall Street reform, and a few other things."
Congress passed the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 when Republicans controlled both chambers. Those tax breaks, which benefit a large swath of the economy, are slated to expire in January.
Republicans have long argued that extending these tax breaks is necessary to keep the economy from sliding back into a recession. Democratic leaders have vowed to pass them as soon as possible.
But delays in the Senate are causing a bottleneck in the upper chamber, with the House passing legislation that can never be debated in the Senate, largely because of Republicans making use of the filibuster option.
Democrats back the extension of tax cuts benefiting the middle class, as well as protecting them from the alternative minimum tax. They would also like to keep the estate tax from reverting back to pre-2001 levels, when estates worth roughly $1.2 million were slapped with a 55 percent tax.
Most tax lobbyists expect Congress to extend these measure for two years, which some congressional sources say could cost more than $250 billion.
Also, under pay-as-you-go rules, a two-year extension of these provisions does not have to be offset.
Huh?
(this changes depending on the current DNC definition of “wealthy”)?
I was at a steel mill (union shop, Detroit area no less) in 1987 when one soon to be Dem presidential candidate made the statement that anyone making over 25k/yr was in the top 5%. That went over like a lead balloon.
If a politician speaks in a desert, will any one listen?
Would that that were true!!
LLS
And how did Harry Reid vote? Here's a list of everyone voting "Nay":
| Akaka (D-HI) | Feinstein (D-CA) | Nelson (D-NE) |
| Baucus (D-MT) | Harkin (D-IA) | Obama (D-IL) |
| Bayh (D-IN) | Inouye (D-HI) | Pryor (D-AR) |
| Biden (D-DE) | Johnson (D-SD) | Reed (D-RI) |
| Bingaman (D-NM) | Kennedy (D-MA) | Reid (D-NV) |
| Boxer (D-CA) | Klobuchar (D-MN) | Rockefeller (D-WV) |
| Brown (D-OH) | Kohl (D-WI) | Salazar (D-CO) |
| Byrd (D-WV) | Landrieu (D-LA) | Sanders (I-VT) |
| Cantwell (D-WA) | Lautenberg (D-NJ) | Schumer (D-NY) |
| Cardin (D-MD) | Leahy (D-VT) | Snowe (R-ME) |
| Carper (D-DE) | Levin (D-MI) | Stabenow (D-MI) |
| Casey (D-PA) | Lieberman (ID-CT) | Tester (D-MT) |
| Clinton (D-NY) | Lincoln (D-AR) | Voinovich (R-OH) |
| Conrad (D-ND) | McCaskill (D-MO) | Webb (D-VA) |
| Dodd (D-CT) | Menendez (D-NJ) | Whitehouse (D-RI) |
| Dorgan (D-ND) | Mikulski (D-MD) | Wyden (D-OR) |
| Durbin (D-IL) | Murray (D-WA) | |
| Feingold (D-WI) | Nelson (D-FL) |
Thanks for posting. Reid is a lying sack.............
Make an agreement to bring it to the floor with no attachments and it will pass in a day on the Republican side.
Never going to happen though.
What is the date?
LOL!
It was the Dems who insisted on making them temporary in the first place.
“...... is the bill for extending the Bush tax cuts filled with other tax hikes and or loaded with liberal pork ???”
Is it even a Bill, or just some vague carrot that won’t ever see the light of day once they get their way ?
They will be extended for two years only. Then IF Barry gets back in...bend over.
Yes is no. No is yes. I voted for it, before I voted against it. War is good, peace is bad. Russia Bad. Then Good, Now bad again. Iran is our friend, nope, yes, nah.
Tell it often enough, and loud enough and the masses will believe you.
Over the past few weeks, as time permitted, I've been trying to find the sunset date for Obamacare. No luck as of yet.
Could you please let me know the date and source it? That Obamacare has a sunset date is very encouraging news.
Many thanks.
Funny how RATs get Conservative when they're in election trouble.
Hear that RINO's? /bah
I'm OMW to help unelect your ass REID!
Are they unable to speak for themselves?
Or is it just me?
We need a lot more Jim DeMints in Congress.
On the contrary, think this through: We are now getting the Demoncrats to admit that these tax cuts weren't all "for the rich", and they are also being forced to admit that *not* extending them will be ruinous for the economy! They now have to admit that tax cuts spur growth (by saying that if we don't extend them, it will hurt the "recovery")!
I dare say it is brilliant the way this is working out! If they don't extend them, they are truly screwed. If they extend them, they are admitting they were lying before about them only being for the rich and it goes against all of their fundamental theories they espouse about the economy. Their base will be livid!
Rove, you magnificent bastard!
It's possibly (hopefully) quite advantageous the way this is working out. But brilliant?
More like accidental. Unless you believe that way back in Spring 2001, Rove's crystal ball revealed to him that in 2010 the Dems would be in control of the Senate, House, and White House, and that the economy would be in recession, putting the Dems in a quandary as to what to do with the sunsetting tax cuts.
Yes, Rove is magnificent. And, yes, he's a bastard. But clairvoyant he is not.
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