"I don't wanna grow up, I'm a nuanced individual who makes fine distinctions in the course of intellectual discourse....."
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 $5 million, the Speaker said, “is not good policy. It does have not have a favorable impact on the deficit. It does not create jobs, It does not grow the economy.”
As to the overhaul compromise, Pelosi said, “Members will have to make their own decisions.”
“I applaud President Obama for his side of the ledger,” Pelosi said. “I’m sorry the price that had to be paid for it is so high.”
according to polls 68% of respondents wanted this
Nothing funnier than Democrats pretending to care about spending or deficits.
Version of Donkey...I mean Mule Skinner Blues:) dedicated to the party of jackasses...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXV9_WilcHs&feature=related
No, they voted to keep some tax rates where they are. There is no tax cut in this bill anywhere.
Still don’t see how this cost 800+ billion dollars.
...well, that was my point. The Dems have been claiming it was tax cuts for the rich for months. Now it’s being spun as quite a different matter.
Just think, you and Barney Frank both wanted the tax cut bill to die. Clever company that you're keeping!
The Govt stinks at creating wealth. Cutting taxes on businesses will generate more revenue for the govt coffers. History is replete with examples. Most Dems and a few Reps will never understand this. The “rich,” not the govt, middle-class or the poor create wealth and jobs.
No doubt. What about all the spending in this bill?
They successfully diverted us from privatizing it; you know it’s too risky to turn a small portion of it into a private account.
So now the same party that didn’t want to privatize.. has nut jobs within it’s ranks that want to confiscate private retirement accounts to fund their supposedly more secure models.
Party of the middle class my a%$; party of the dirt poor and super rich.
And nearly 100% of those people don’t understand what got passed...all they cared about was keeping their taxes low regardless of actual cost.
Which is a good idea but the GOP should have made the case that this needs to stand on ITS OWN. No other strings attached...simple up down vote to extend the Bush tax cuts.
People need to wake up and understand this type of legislation is no different than selling your soul to the devil and shame on the GOP for failing or having the coverage to point out that.
TXConservative25 wrote:
“To see Bush’s predecessor and successor lobbying for his tax cuts brought a certain joy to my heart.”
You got it! You know you have won the argument when your opponents cave like this.
Liberals on other boards are just going mental! They realize what a defeat this is. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x25551#25568
The way this is going to go: Liberal stimulus packages, economy stalls and Democrats defeated; payroll tax cuts and tax cut extension, economy recovers and Obama and Republicans fight for the credit.
Watch Obama triangulate away from the leftist loons on this one.
I want whatever you guys are smoking.
This no way a victory for Bush, the GOP or the American people.
This is one of the worst pieces of legislation ever to be put forth - the strings attached for a temporary 2 year extension are nation killing.
This will go down in history as the largest stimulus package ever attempt with the largest amount of spending ever attempted.
What you obviously haven’t seen because you haven’t read the bill are all the provisions funding Obama’s programs that now the GOP can’t block next year.
The GOP should have stood their ground, brought the case to the American people killed this bill and the first order of business in 2011 would have been to make these tax cuts permanent and have it stand alone.
Why are you guys are so eager to be played by Obama and the Dems...haven’t we underestimated them enough already?
I love it how they call it a victory for Obumbles when he got practically NOTHING.
Amazing. My soon-to-be-ex (thank GOD!!) Congressidiot Carol Che-Porter STILL doesn’t get it.
[The estate tax is the most vile act of the Federal government. It exempts corporations and penalized private ownership.]
True, now I will have to give the government 35% of my homes value on my death, this will destroy many inheritences for my (our)children now that the !$#% DC wackos laid this on our back. Many farmers children will lose thier farms and buisnessmen children their buisnesses.
This dem communist administration has destroyed America quite remarkably.
[”In a floor speech Thursday night, Pelosi endorsed the estate tax amendment but pointedly refused to explicitly back the underlying bill.]
This is the same stupid woman who asked the Congress to pass the healthcare bill so that than (afterward) we can see what is in it?
I hate the US DC marxist democrat and rino politicians who passed this huge 35% death tax on all homeowners who paid taxes on the monies they earned and taxes on their land and houses and are now taxed yet again.
May they .... for thier hate bills.
The Democrats are the party of the super-rich anyway. They just keep the poor in tow to stay in power and hide most of their income behind tax-exempt foundations.
I appreciate your nuance. I should have said that some of the naysayers may be arrogant libertarians or trolls.
"I don't wanna grow up, I'm a nuanced individual who makes fine distinctions in the course of intellectual discourse....."
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