House Democrats Find their Spines!!

Posted: December 9, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Breaking News, Democratic Politics, POTUS, president teleprompter jesus, Team Obama | Tags: , , | 60 Comments

Wow!  Maybe a future of being outnumbered has caused House Democrats to finally rediscover their party affiliation!  This is hot off the CNN Political Ticker.

Defying President Obama, House Democrats voted Thursday not to bring up the tax package that he negotiated with Republicans in its current form.

“This message today is very simple: That in the form that it was negotiated, it is not acceptable to the House Democratic caucus. It’s as simple as that,” said Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen.

“We will continue to try and work with the White House and our Republican colleagues to try and make sure we do something right for the economy and right for jobs, and a balanced package as we go forward,” he said.

The vote comes a day after Vice President Biden made clear to House Democrats behind closed doors that the deal would unravel if any changes were made.

“Wow did the [White House] mishandle this,” a senior House Democratic Source told CNN. “Breathtaking. Members have major substantive concerns and they should have gently guided people to the finish line.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon said: “They said take it or leave it. We left it.”

I guess last minute visits by VPOTUS and last minute guilt trips by POTUS just didn’t work.

President Obama warned his fellow Democrats on Wednesday that they risk plunging the country into a double-dip recession if they reject his tax-cut deal with Republicans.

It also appears that the Dream Act will die in the Senate.  This is from NPR.

A measure that would have given grown children of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship stalled and likely died Thursday in the Senate, after Majority Leader Harry Reid was unable to persuade enough Republicans to give the measure the 60 votes it needed to avoid a GOP filibuster.

The DREAM Act, which passed the House Wednesday by a 216-198 vote, would create the citizenship path through college or military service. Reid, a Nevada Democrat who won a tough re-election in November, promised his constituents that he’d bring the measure to the Senate floor.

Reid’s request that the Senate table the motion passed 59-40. Given the lack of Republican support and the dwindling number of days left in Congress’s lame duck session, the chances that the act will be re-considered are slim.

This is all happening at a time when a Bloomberg poll shows that more than have of Americans say they are worse off than they were two years ago.  Count me in that number.

More than 50 percent of Americans say they are worse off now than they were two years ago when President Barack Obama took office, and two-thirds believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a Bloomberg National Poll shows.

The survey, conducted Dec. 4-7, finds that 51 percent of respondents think their situation has deteriorated, compared with 35 percent who say they’re doing better. The balance isn’t sure. Americans have grown more downbeat about the country’s future in just the last couple of months, the poll shows. The pessimism cuts across political parties and age groups, and is common to both sexes.

The negative sentiment may cast a pall over the holiday shopping season, according to the poll. A plurality of those surveyed — 46 percent — expects to spend less this year than last; only 12 percent anticipate spending more. Holiday sales rose by just under a half percent last year after falling by almost 4 percent in 2008.

Hopefully, we’re at some kind of tipping point.  You certainly can see the tide turning against POTUS in left blogosphere and even in the media.

Dear Answerperson: My boyfriend is a liberal Democrat and ever since the president announced his tax deal with the Republicans, he has been impossible to live with. First he burned his “Audacity of Hope” sweater. Then he began messing up the cat’s litter box, claiming he needed to draw “lines in the sand.” Now he wants to call off our wedding because he says that when you put your trust in people, they break your heart.

Stay tuned.  Things are getting interesting.

US Senate: Defenders of about 0.3 percent of the population

Posted: December 4, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Elections, legislation, Team Obama, The Bonus Class, U.S. Economy | Tags: , | 31 Comments

News on the Senate vote on various Democratic Tax Plan compromises has just come through on The Hill and Memorandum. Two plans were introduced for votes.  Both failed.

United Senate Republicans joined a small handful of Democrats on Saturday to defeat a pair of proposals to extend some of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts signed into law by President George W. Bush.

Voting nearly identically, the Senate twice failed to meet a 60-vote threshold necessary to move forward on both proposals. Meeting in a rare Saturday session after agreements fell through for a Friday vote, the results were widely expected. They were also somewhat premature, as the White House is still negotiating with congressional leaders on an alternative compromise proposal.

The first proposal by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) would have extended the cuts only for individuals with incomes of up to $200,000 and families with incomes of up to $250,000. That failed by a vote of 53-36, with all GOP senators in opposition as well as Democrats Russ Feingold (Wis.), Joe Manchin (W.V.), Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Jim Webb (Va.).

The second proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) would have extended the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanently for incomes of up to $1 million, among other provisions such as a one-year extension of unemployment benefits and cuts in capital gains, estate and dividend taxes. That failed, 53-37, with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) joining the ‘no’ votes.

The Schumer Bill was referred to as the “Millionaire’s Tax” since most of his provisions applied to only about 0.3 percent of the population.  Both plans essentially extended tax cuts to 98% of the population.  Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell referred to the votes for both plans as “theatrics”.  This is because Republicans had already signaled their intent to filibuster both plans.  Patricia Murphy, writing for The Capitolist at Politics Daily, had this analysis.  I bolded the last sentence to give you an idea of how well negotiations appear to be going.

As Democrats and Republicans continue to spar over the issue, time is running out for them to find a solution. If Congress fails to come to an agreement before the end of the year, rates for all Americans will return to 2001 levels when the Bush-era policy expires on December 31st. In addition to income tax hikes, the changes would increase the estate tax, the marriage penalty tax, taxes on dividends and capital gains, and the Alternative Minimum Tax.

While Democrats pushed their floor votes this week, a bipartisan group of senators and House members met behind closed doors with the Obama administration to hammer out a compromise on the tax issue. Vice President Joe Biden, filling in Saturday for Obama in the White House weekly address, made no mention of the negotiations, but said if the tax cuts aren’t extended “millions of middle-class families will see a big bite out of their paychecks starting Jan. 1. And that’s the last thing we should let happen.” Obama, speaking later at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, said he was “very disappointed” that the Senate had not approved the tax bill. Continued Tax relief for the middle class should not be held “hostage” by those supporting an extension of the lower rates for high income Americans, he said.

Media reports indicated late last week that a deal had been reached to pass a two-year extension of all the tax cuts, along with a one-year extension of unemployment benefits, and the also new START nuclear arms treaty. But senior Senate aides familiar with the negotiations tell Politics Daily that Republicans feel little pressure to give in to Democratic priorities when they feel confident they can prevail on the tax issue without concessions.

It seems evident to me that the US Senate is willing to play political games with ordinary people’s lives.  The Republicans appear to want to hold START, unemployment extensions, and the tax cuts for the majority of Americans hostage as they represent the interests of the very few uber wealthy and seek gridlock for their own power agenda.  The Democrats have been out maneuvered once again.  A year ago, this predicament would have been thought unbelievable.  If you think it’s bad now, just wait until the jr. senators from Kentucky and Illinois enter the chamber.

Soylent Orange

Posted: December 2, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Democratic Politics, legislation, Surreality, Team Obama | Tags: , | 34 Comments

The next Speaker of the House appears to be full of himself and ‘it’.   Here’s a sample headline form the column The Capitolist at Politics Daily: John Boehner Calls Vote on Middle-Class-Only Tax Cut ‘Chicken Crap’.  Yup, that’s fairly succinct.

Although no Democrats have agreed with Republicans to make the Bush tax cuts permanent for everyone, 31 moderate House Democrats signed a letter this week calling for a temporary extension of the tax cuts for higher incomes while the country continues to fight its way out of recession.

“I’m tying to catch my breath so I don’t refer to this maneuver that’s going on today as chicken crap. But this is nonsense, right?” Boehner said. “The election was one month ago. We’re 23 months from the next election and the games have already started to set up the next election.”

The source of Boehner’s ire was a House vote earlier Thursday that will prevent Republicans from offering their own bill to make all of the Bush tax cuts permanent for all Americans, including the highest earners, when the full chamber considers the middle-class cuts later in the day. The House voted 213 to 203 to vote only on the middle-class tax proposal, with 32 Democrats voting with the Republicans to keep the process open.

Earlier, Rep. David Drier (R-Calif.), who offered the Republican alternative, called the Democrats’ plans to vote only on their bill “a joke.”

“I think it’s very evident that this House could, with a majority vote, ensure that we don’t increase taxes on any Americans during these very troubling, difficult economic times,” Drier said. “The fact of the matter is that any member of this House that votes in favor of the measure before us is voting for a tax increase. They are voting in favor of increasing taxes on American businesses and investors.”

No Rep. Drier, you’re voting to return tax levels for the extraordinarily rich back to the extraordinarily job-abundant and budget-balanced Clinton years.   There is absolutely no evidence that those tax cuts created jobs and there’s no evidence that not extending them to the richest will harm the economy.  This is especially true since corporate profits are attaining record levels and corporate executives are getting record bonuses while we also maintain an incredibly unacceptable unemployment rate. You’re expanding the deficit for your donor’s interests.  We’re not buying your B.S. for one moment.

So, where is our illustrious POTUS on this?  The ONE every one was waiting for? Try Dana Bash’s CNN Political ticker headline on for size:  Tax deal getting close, Democrats worried Obama may cave. Now, that’ s leadership that can!!!

Multiple congressional Democratic sources tell CNN that a compromise to extend all Bush-era tax cuts temporarily is getting close, and that there is increasing concern among Democratic lawmakers that the White House will not fight hard enough to get Democratic priorities in return.

“The goose is cooked,” said one senior Democratic source, “the question is what the larger deal is going to look like.”

Many Democrats are unhappy at the prospect of giving up on their goal of permanently extending tax cuts only for those making $250,000 and less. Sources in both parties say a deal in the works would extend all expiring Bush era tax cuts for all income levels for two or three years.

In exchange, Democrats are hoping to squeeze out of Republicans a wish list of concessions. Democratic sources say that list generally includes: A lengthy extension of unemployment benefits, without having to find offsets to pay for them; extending college tuition tax credits set to expire at the end of the year; extending the so-called “make work pay” tax credits also expiring December 31st; and the HIRE act, tax credits for businesses that hire unemployed workers.

So, it comes down to Let’s Make a Deal for middle class livelihoods by maintaining the status quo for the aristocracy.  We get the kibble, they get the banquet.

More from Politico on what’s likely to happen come January when Agent Orange actually gets the gavel. Ask not on whom the gavel falls, it falls on you.

House Republicans seem intent on blowing up the staid appropriations process when they take power in January — potentially upending the old bulls in both parties who have spent decades building their power over the federal budget.

The plans include slicing and dicing appropriations bills into dozens of smaller, bite-size pieces — making it easier to kill or slash unpopular agencies. Other proposals include statutory spending caps, weekly votes on spending cuts and other reforms to ensure spending bills aren’t sneakily passed under special rules.
On some level, their plans may create a sense of organized chaos on the House floor — picture dozens of votes on dozens of federal program cuts and likely gridlock on spending bills. And don’t forget that a lot of these efforts will die with a Democratic-led Senate and a Democrat in the White House.

Once again, it’s the worst government that corporate money buys working to make our lives miserable.

Breaking NEWS: The house just passed tax cuts for those families making up to $250,000.  The measure is expected to die in the Senate.