House Dems Will Not Force Vote On Middle Class Tax Cuts

[babylonsister]

Good or bad idea? Both sides have merits.


House Dems Will Not Force Vote On Middle Class Tax Cuts
Christina Bellantoni | September 13, 2010, 4:17PM


House Democrats won't be forcing a vote on extending the Bush tax cuts for middle class taxpayers, a senior House leadership aide tells TPM.

As we've been writing about today, Democrats are gleeful over a window of opportunity they see just in time for the midterm elections over Minority Leader John Boehner's positions on whether to make the George W. Bush tax cuts permanent for everyone but the wealthy.

That's what President Obama is pushing, and Boehner suggested Sunday he would support such a vote if that were his only option. He walked it back, but it begged the question about whether the Democrats would present such an option with a House floor vote. Will the Democrats force Boehner's hand?

A senior House leadership aide says no.

"We shouldn't force his hand, we should let the Republicans dangle out there with their divisions exposed and keep hammering them on holding middle class tax cuts hostage for $700 billion in debt-financed tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans," the aide said.

more...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/house-dems-will-not-force-vote-on-middle-class-tax-cuts.php?ref=fpblg

[DrDan]

1. so wouldn't it be better to force the vote?

btw - an update at the bottom of the link suggests there may well be a vote

[babylonsister]

2. Thanks; I didn't see the update. I don't know what would be

better. A Dem talking head on tweety just said Pelosi won't allow the vote before the election if it means the rich get their tax break.

I'm sure there will be a whole new story tomorrow.

[TheMuse]

3. Not sure if they should hold it up

And play politics with it. Although it looks like it could hammer republicans, what if you lose in the midterms? Then it becomes even harder to get passed what needs to get passed, and you have squandered an opportunity. And if you get it passed now, it counts as a win for the Dems. They can run on that, you know.

[kentuck]

4. Maybe if the Repubs want to play politics with the issue....

Let the Repubs slither in and make a proposal. It is their bill. They already made the decision to let them expire at the end of this year. They wrote that into their bill. They are not holding the best hand in this battle. Why did they write the bill so it would expire this year? Time for the Dems to draw a line in the sand. Personally, I think the $250K level the Dems offered was a little high. What's your bid, Repubs?

[gratuitous]

5. I suppose making a little campaign hay out of this would be gauche

Start talking up how the tax cuts are expiring (history lesson: The Republicans passed the original tax cuts through {gasp!} reconciliation, which meant they had to set a time limit on the cuts, and now their brilliant strategy has been shown to be . . . wanting), and that maybe it's time to start paying back some of the deficits the Republicans ran up with their ruinous fiscal plan. After all, who in their right mind cuts taxes and then launches a war? Two wars, even?

When we get the predictable caterwauling from the Republicans, we could allow that yes, perhaps "raising" taxes isn't the right thing to do, at least on the people who've paid so heavily in the last 10 years. People like those who've lost their jobs, or their houses, or their kids to those two wars (Remember those two wars? Boy, they were once all shiny and new, weren't they?). So that would mean continuing a lower tax rate for the poor and the middle class, even some of the upper class folks. But the wealthy? The ones who have made out so well during the last 10 years? How many children of the Masters of the Universe have died fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan? And how has the bottom line improved for the wealthy since 2001?

Maybe it's time to look to the winners to pay to support the society that has rewarded them so nicely during the past 10 years. So far it's been the poor and the middle class paying for and dying for the wealthy and their wars. Let's look to the Bushes and the Cheneys to pay a little more of their fair share, shall we?

Run it that way, and this could be a BIG winner for Democrats.

[kentuck]

6. They borrowed this same money to enrich themselves...

and added it to national credit card for the kids and grandkids to pay. Now we are asking them to pay some of it back.

Your post is right on!

[gratuitous]

7. The sudden concern over the debt is just too precious, isn't it?

The foxes, feathers in their fur and blood dripping from their mouths to mingle with their tears, decry the debilitated state of the henhouse, and demand that it be restored to its former chicken-domiciling glory. Oh, but don't bother with so much chicken wire next time, 'kay?