The House Democrats have made it clear they won’t accept the bipartisan compromise worked out by President Obama. This is being considered by the outgoing House while the Democrats still have the majority.
I heard rumblings that the Senate may pass the “agreement” first. That’s a definite “Don’t do that!”. It could set up the same trap as the Obamacare bill used. The Senate could pass “some” bill, the House passes what they want, and then use “Reconciliation” to force a Senate vote with only 51 votes instead of 60. If the Republicans in the Senate allow the vote to happen first, they are doing it knowing the outcome and “playing games” to pretend to vote for it when they are allowing the Democrats to actually control the outcome.
The alternative is to not pass a tax bill before the end of the year and let the incoming House and Senate “fix” things in January with retroactive changes. Not a great plan, but the ugliness is just beginning. This is the Republican Party’s last chance. If they go back to holding hearings over sterioids in baseball and funding bridges that have to national purpose, the Tea Party will dismember the Republican party before 2012.
I hope and pray you are correct. The man-tan from Ohio listened to the voters and increased entitlements, spending and the deficit with Barry ‘FO’ O’Bama – so the speater to be has already shown his colors.
You probably read between the lines before the election that I hoped for a challenge when the incoming new blood voted for Speaker – but the people already there know how to use their power against the “naive” new arrivals. The key chairmanships have gone to the “let’s compromise to get along” leaders. Often times it is when Republicans have control that the worst things happen (Medicare part D comes to mind)
Things seem to be getting unruly in London. There is the smell of revolution in the air.
More Dem shell games. And they are SO dumb they may kill the bill themselves. It NEVER ceases to astonish me just how STUPID they can be.
There are no tax cuts here. Since there are no tax cuts there will be NO stimulative effect on the economy.
How long does a reduction in taxes have to be in place before they are the new tax rates? You have to blame the RePubs as well for letting the law pass to have the Bush tax rates expire. What were they thinking?
If the Dems force this down our throats via the criminal tactics used with OsamaCare, then all RePubs should abstain during the vote and let the Dems alone pass the new “Middle Class tax cuts” we hear so much of. The RePub leadership (is that an oxymoron?) should tell them to chant “Won’t see you in two years” during the vote.
If every RePubs abstains, the Dems will NOT complete the vote, because the Dems will want that kind of exposure on the issue of taxes.
There is no such thing as a permanent tax cut – on the other side, there are definitely permanent spending obligations.
If this thing passes, it will leave POTUS with an unspent slush fund of over 2 trillion to emasculate any republican effort to defund the health care, the epa, etc. In other words, the only power the republicans have gained in this last election is the choice to fund. They can’t repeal or “fix” anything without the support of the senate and the signiture of the president, they can only refuse to appropriate. If the executive doesn’t need the money to do what it wants, congress could vote a bill of impeachment, but that would be tried in the democrat controlled senate. Talk about an “imperial presidency”!
Just noting that contrary to the Constitution and good politics, the Republicans passed the revenue bill first in the Senate – now enabling Princess Pelosi to load up the bill with everything including the kitchen sink – and cramming it all through as a reconciliation bill beyond the constraint of a filibuster in the Senate.
The NAB is really concerned that the “performance tax” may get stuffed in.
I don’t understand how this junk is legal, nor why it’s never challenged in court. Congress did the same thing during the Clinton administration, passing a retroactive tax increase by starting in the Senate, then having the House completely rewrite a non-revenue bill during “reconciliation” to give the appearance that they were somehow involved in originating the tax bill. The Republicans in the Senate could have easily killed the scam by filibuster on the basis of the scheme being unconstitutional. Clearly they must have wanted the big spending and tax increases to occur while blaming the Democrats for it. History repeats itself.