Posted on 12/16/2010 9:30:45 PM PST by Second Amendment First
The House late Thursday gave final approval, 277-148, to a temporary extension of the George W. Bush-era tax rates, delivering a significant but politically bruising victory to President Obama.
The $858 billion legislation now heads to the president’s desk for his signature. It extends the Bush tax cuts across the board for two years, slashes the employee payroll tax by 2 percent for one year, renews the estate tax and extends unemployment insurance benefits for 13 months.
The president argued the deal was the best he could get from Republicans who refused to budge on extending tax cuts for the highest-earning Americans, which Democrats wanted to end. The action by Congress prevents a broad tax increase from taking effect when the current rates expire at the end of the year.
The last votes Thursday capped a fractious three-week debate after Obama abandoned his Democratic allies in the House to cut a deal with Senate Republicans. House Democrats revolted over the pact, decrying the president for capitulating on one of his party’s signature domestic priorities: ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
“This basically concedes the argument to the supply-side Republican failed economic policies,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said.
Other Democrats denounced the bill for exploding an already soaring federal budget deficit. “Wake up and listen to the sirens,” Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) said on the House floor. “I can’t believe you talk about this bill as fiscal sanity. It’s fiscal insanity.”
The House Democratic Caucus held a non-binding vote to reject the Obama-GOP deal a week ago, but within days the Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill and Pelosi moved ahead with a vote.
House liberals made one last stand on Thursday, forcing the Speaker to pull the tax bill from the floor for several hours because of objections to the amendment process.
While the Democratic leadership decided to allow one attempt to amend the Republican-favored estate tax provision in the Senate-passed bill, liberals complained that the procedure party leaders crafted would not have allowed them to register their objections directly on the legislation.
“The original rule did not allow members to have a clean up-or-down vote on the bill,” Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said.
After a huddle with members on the House floor and a hastily scheduled meeting in her office, Pelosi agreed to rework the process, allowing separate votes on the estate tax amendment and the underlying legislation.
Pelosi herself did not lobby members on the tax bill, leaving the White House to rally support for a deal it alone had negotiated with Republicans. Vice President Biden delivered a personal pitch to House Democrats, and Obama called lawmakers himself in the days leading up to the vote.
And while lawmakers predicted the Senate bill would pass once it came to a vote in the House, the Obama administration was concerned enough to whip votes against the estate tax amendment in the final hours, a House leadership aide said, not wanting a last-minute change to send the legislation back to the Senate and unravel the accord.
House Republicans broadly backed the measure, some of them reluctantly. Like many other GOP lawmakers, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said he wanted to see the tax rates extended permanently, but his top priority was preventing a tax hike on January 1. “In this legislation I see the glass half-full,” he said on the floor. He acknowledged conservatives who said the GOP could have held out for a better deal. But he concluded: “Personally I am not willing to take a chance. I am going cast the aye vote. I am going to stop the job killing tax increases.”
In a floor speech Thursday night, Pelosi endorsed the estate tax amendment but pointedly refused to explicitly back the underlying bill. The GOP-favored inheritance tax of 35% for individuals worth more than $5 million, the Speaker said, “is not good policy. It does have not have a favorable impact on the deficit. It does not create jobs, It does not grow the economy.”
As to the overhaul compromise, Pelosi said, “Members will have to make their own decisions.”
“I applaud President Obama for his side of the ledger,” Pelosi said. “I’m sorry the price that had to be paid for it is so high.”
Just go back to the 26 weeks that are in the unemployment law and never give any extentions!
The estate tax break, which will cost $68 billion in lost tax revenue, has little economic impact because it mostly affects the already affluent, who are less likely to spend their tax savings.
Why doesn’t someone challenge the Estate Tax as Unconstitutional?
Well said.
Yep, just one more misktake on the part of the Pubbies....Can we find a group that is any more stupid than those in Congress?
And the art of politics will never be understood or mastered by Kamikaze Conservatives. They will be forever on the loosing side of their ‘issues’ because they would rather be right than affective.
Yes, Kamikaze Conservatives.
Eggsactly!
The ‘Progressives’ lost the argument! Apparently, what’s been going on the past ten years, that which they claim got us in this mess, is good enough to continue!
ROTFLMAO!
It’s difficult sometimes to understand the mindset of some folks here on FR. Despite the demrats hanging a bunch of earmarks and such on the bill; and their failure to eliminate estate taxes, this bill is a win-win for conservatives.
Demrats passage of this bill demolishes their tedious and oft repeated tenets of (1) Bush tax cuts were only for the rich and (2) tax cuts either caused the recession or tax increases will spur the economy.
Also, apparantly these naysayers don’t quite get the fact that the Tea Party candidates have not yet been seated.
I suspect these people are arrogant libertarians and/or trolls.
aside from John Roberts, Bush is a mini Obama on nearly every issue.
If the media were objective, the headlines would be saying, “Stimulus fails, tax cuts necessary to save economy”.
A few years ago Social Security was a major crisis. What happened? Don’t really hear about it anymore. Whatever happened to Algore’s lockbox?? Hee Hee.
A few years ago Social Security was a major crisis. What happened? Don’t really hear about it anymore. Whatever happened to Algore’s lockbox?? Hee Hee.
Perhaps you can explain why this is a good deal.it let Obama off the mat, we cave on unemployment, is the full of pork and subsidies,it is only temporary, it allowed a vote on don’t ask don’t tell, the ratification of the start treaty, and potential passage of the dream act. principle is one thing but the politics says Obama and Reid slaughtered us over this deal.
Why are they called “Bush tax cuts” and not the repeal of “Clinton tax increases?”
(See also repeal of “Clinton DADT.”
There are no tax cuts.
Dale, I personally think we (both Republicans, and Conservatives) did pretty good. Remember, we are presently in a near-completely-Democrat Congress and Senate, and we actually preserves GW’s tax breaks. Not bad, considering. Yes, I know, the UI is crap, and it is non-PAYGO-compliant, and these are valid concerns. But considering the lay of the land, I rack this a WIN.
Correct.
I suspect these people are arrogant libertarians and/or trolls.
Incorrect. People who are wrong are not necessarily trolls.
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