Cheney Breaks Tie, Senate Passes Nickles Amendment

FNC

[William McKinley]

Just saw. The Senate voted 51-50, with Cheney casting the tie-breaking vote, to pass the Nickles amendment which reinstitutes to the budget, for a period of three years, the elimination of double taxation on dividends.

[William McKinley]

The bill itself has not passed. They still have more amendments to pass or reject. But the Nickles amendment has passed.

[mombonn]

He's not really an R.

Sure he is, if you add two letters - AT.

;-)

[William McKinley]

Oops. You are right.

But I bet McCain is more liberal than that Nellie too.

[aristeides]

I find it hard to believe that it will be possible politically to get rid of these "temporary" cuts. Nothing prevents future Congresses from extending the cuts by similar "temporary" periods.

[FreedomPoster]

>>we..got Zell Miller

Woo-hoo! Go Zell. My Dem Senator is more conservative than at least half-a-dozen RINO's.

[aristeides]

Was the expectation of this vote the reason the stock market was up?

[NeoCaveman]

RINO's Chaffee, McCain, and Snowe

Good Democrats Nelson(NE) and Zell Miller

[Capitalism2003]

any idea when we will see the final final final vote on passage of the tax cut??

[StarFan]

I'm confused as approximately four minutes ago foxnews broke away from their regular programming to announce that Cheney will be breaking the tie vote momentarily. Watching C-Span now to get a better read on it.

[William McKinley]

The stories on the market I am seeing don't credit that. For example:

"The market is being pushed higher more on the news of individual corporate profits and comments like IBM's rather than the economic backdrop, which is mixed at best," said Brett Mitstifer, senior portfolio manager at Value Line Asset Management, which oversees $4 billion.

But he said Wall Street also got some signs business conditions may be on the mend. One was an early report that factories in New York State ramped up activity and hired workers in May. Another was a drop in the weekly number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/030515/markets_stocks_23.html

Should make for a nice rally tomorrow, if things like this go as one would expect (which they rarely do lol)

[NeoCaveman]

A heck, you got to have a final vote once the ammendments are done then a conference with the House. Then the final vote in both Houses

[William McKinley]

I was watching it. They broke away to say the Cheney did vote to break the tie. They showed John Breaux railing about it, and he was talking about what they had just done.

[Tuxedo]

Yeah, I will also take this time to apologize for the State of Ohio for George "RINO" Voinovich.

[William McKinley]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/906941.asp?0cv=CB10

WASHINGTON, May 15 — The Senate moved closer Thursday to passing Republican-drafted tax cut legislation when Vice President Dick Cheney broke a tie to approve a proposal to suspend taxes on stock dividends for three years. The vote sidestepped a major obstacle to Senate work on the $350 billion package of tax cuts, which, if passed, would still face difficult bargaining on a compromise between House members and senators.

...

The main stumbling block in the Senate had been President Bush’s proposal to eliminate taxes on dividends. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., broke the logjam by offering an amendment to go ahead with that tax break but phase it out after three years, answering the objections of moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats that the break would balloon the deficit.
Nickles’ plan would eliminate taxes on 50 percent of dividend income for one year, then eliminate the whole dividend tax for three years. The full tax would resume in 2007.

[OldFriend]

Buffet no doubt has a huge short position in the market and must be taking a big hit as the market goes up. He either has to cover the difference or be sold out!!!

[NeoCaveman]

Yeah, I will also take this time to apologize for the State of Ohio for George "RINO" Voinovich.

Hey he got his 15 minutes of fame, then folded and voted for the Nickles ammendment unlike that witch Snowe.

[the_doc]

Chaffee is from the 3rd most liberal state in the Union. Not much he can do really. His papa was the same way.

You are sounding a little bit like a Democrat, friend FReeper. Remember that it's not the Senator's job to get himself re-elected. That being the case, it's not even the Senator's job to do what the majority of his constituents want him to do.

In short, it's his job to do what is right, not what is popular. This is axiomatic in the idea of a Republic.

So, I don't plan to cut the RINOs any slack whatsoever. If they aren't going to do what is inarguably right--i.e., eliminating double taxation--then they need to leave the Senate and start working for a living for a change.

(RINOs aren't ideologically dumb. Heck, they are ideological prostitutes. The funny thing is, they manage to convince themselves that their hyper-democratic ideals are okay ["We have to do the will of our constituents!"), whereas their position is ultimately self-serving. They are essentially just Democrats who have discovered that they have a better shot at getting elected if they run under the name of Republican.)

[William McKinley]

Actually, probably this would be a good time to send him a letter thanking him for NOT following along with McCain, Snowe and Chaffee.

Positive reinforcement and all that.

[Tuxedo]

Dems have about 20 more amendments, most not germane. God, I hate how the Senate does business! It's like watching paint dry.

[VRWC_minion]

Bad news for the Lott lovers.