They were extended permanently, something Republicans wanted but couldn't do in the 10 years since they originally passed, The two prior passes of them 2003 and 2010 both had expiration dates, and yes, were unpaid for which is part of the reason the first run of them expired in the first place, and the AMT fix too. And some of the spending is temporary.
Republicans had no chance at beating O, or at least many here seeing them as beating him, at this, because they had very scrambled messages.
First it was about blocking tax increases, yet they were not blocking automatically timed tax increases by killing House bills, Jan 1 this became apparent as that was the official day taxes went up.
Then it was about deficits, and about spending. So they opposed passing these tax cuts because of deficits yet opposed any tax increases so were against tax cut extensions?
Rush talks about ‘low information voters’
But what information?? That is why most of us knew the outcome ahead of time.
Lastly, this was only made possible by Bohner putting the bill up for a vote, and they House Rs will vote him back in tomorrow. All the NOs were Kabuki. It was just a show.
“They were extended permanently, something Republicans wanted but couldn’t do in the 10 years since they originally passed”
Bingo,
check, check, and checkmate.
Boehner has shown himself to be an unprincipled, prevaricating POS. He promised to not conduct business like Pelosi did when he took over, yet he holds negotiations about huge public policy issues in private with the wannabe dictator and his minions, just like San Fran Nan. Boner promised not to vote on any bills until they were posted for 72 hours so the people would have a chance to look at them. What happened to that promise? Don’t forget that the whole sequestration situation is a result of Boner’s lousy deal with Obama over the last debt limit. You can be Pollyanna if you want and tell yourself that this deal is not so bad but in real life, this deal sucks for America and Boner got rolled by Obama. Again. What is wrong with standing on principle? I guess that is hard to do when Boner apparently has no principles. I believe that with Boner’s “leadership” the stupid party will manage to take the results of one of the biggest wave elections in history (2010) and do absolutely nothing with the majority before handing the House back to Pelosi in 2014. How much do you want to bet that Boner folds again on the debt limit? I am really concerned that Boner will fold on the upcoming AWB too because that is all the Boner seems to be capable of doing.