In a private caucus meeting, House Democrats said that they would not pass the Obama concession tax plan as it stands:
“In the caucus today, House Democrats supported a resolution to reject the Senate Republican tax provisions as currently written,” Ms. Pelosi said. “We will continue discussions with the president and our Democratic and Republican colleagues in the days ahead to improve the proposal before it comes to the House floor for a vote.”
The caucus vote, which is not necessarily binding, nonetheless put Ms. Pelosi in a rare direct conflict with the White House, which is pressing Congress to approve the tax cut proposal.
“House Democrats share the president’s commitment to providing the middle class with a tax cut to grow the economy and create jobs,” Ms. Pelosi said. “The House passed a bill last week to provide tax cuts for all Americans but not a bonus tax cut to millionaires and billionaires. The extra tax cut for the top 3 percent does not create jobs and increases the deficit. (New York Times)
As Chairman Burton pointed out, the “tax deal” was a giveaway to the Republican goals. It blocked attempt after attempt to balance out the funding, and instead handed billions of dollars to a tax cut bonus for the wealthiest in the country. But, this isn’t just a national blog, so there’s more to the story. The tax plan, as written, would have piled another $2.7 billion or so onto the California budget deficit next year because of the way the the estate tax is handled.
California has collected hardly any estate tax revenue for several years in the wake of the 2001 Bush tax law changes. Come 2011, absent any action on the federal level, the estate tax law would revert to 2001 law, in which case the state would gain $2.7 billion in revenues.
But the tax framework negotiated between President Barack Obama and Republicans appears to eliminate the mechanism that once provided estate tax revenues for states like California, according to the Tax Policy Center of the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute (hat tip to the Legislative Analyst’s Office for sending the link). That mechanism was phased out over the past few years, so the fact that it has again been eliminated was not entirely a surprise.(SacBee)
So instead of providing additional stimulus to the states to help us preserve education, public safety and other important day to day expenditures, the tax plan was to take away funds from the states? The estate tax is one of the most common sense items in our whole arcane tax structure. After all, America, as a nation, was founded on anti-dynastic principle. The development of a group of new oligarchic families should not be welcomed by even the most anti-government amongst us.
In the end, I think Speaker Pelosi might have even pulled some punches. The deal was a mess from the get go. While we took a beating on Nov. 2, we still control most of the levers of government. We don’t need to cede power just because John Boehner is coming. We’ll see what the next step is, and whether the Republicans are willing to really play for the nation’s interest or whether they stick to grandstanding.
Over and over again, she’s stood up to Republicans. Without her, many of the accomplishments the Obama administration likes to point to would never have happened. If the White House and Senate hadn’t stopped her, they’d have been much better. She will be missed as speaker.
The President doesn't negotiate with Democrats terrorists.
Let’s stop using Faux “News” framing for once, OK? They’ve been pushing to get the left at each others’ throats for a long time, and we’re starting to do their job for them.
Getting angry at Obama for this tax compromise ignores pretty much everything that happened over the past two months. He, Reid, and Pelosi all pushed hard for votes on the tax policy before the November election, but the vast majority of the Democratic Congressional Caucus refused. They were too stupid and/or too cowardly to realize how the vote would have given them a cudgel over their GOP opponents, so they punted.
So once they betrayed their own party by refusing to back them up, Obama was left with pretty much no bargaining power to push the GOP with. It was the fault of Congress, not Obama.
And considering that, Obama still managed to get the GOP to concede to a three month extension on unemployment benefits as part of the deal. I wouldn’t have expected the GOP to concede a shaved penny, let alone that much.
Now, like any sane lefty, I hate this deal because I know the tax cuts have to expire. But I can see how Obama thought that shafting the unemployed by giving them no help was an unacceptable price to pay for victory on the tax cuts. If we can’t see his point on at least that, then we don’t deserve to call ourselves liberals.
Disagreeing with him is one thing. But this ridiculous demonization needs to stop. Our enemy is the GOP and the extremist right-wingers they suck up to. Let’s focus our ire on them, instead of wasting it on a circular firing squad.
We elected the WRONG Democrat in 2008
President Pelosi would have been COMPETENT
Obama is just a lot of talk
He’s Weak, Cowardly and Incompetent
Why not try to pass Tax Legislation when you have 60 Democrats in the Senate? Why not pass the DADT Repeal then ?
Team Obama is all about re-electing and glorifying ‘Fearless Leader’ and nothing else
This Adminsitration is worse than Jimmy Carter’s
It’s all ‘Opportunism Knocks’
ANYBODY BUT Obama in 2012
Bernie Sanders made history today by standing up for progressives and for Americas middle class.
Where were California Senators Boxer & Feinstein?
Hey Senator Boxer, Senator Feinstein…where were you when you should have been on the Senate floor representing your contituents in California and supporting Senator Sanders?
Really…what did you do for us today while Senator Sanders was representing your constituents here in California?
Hopefully we’ll see you and hear you on the floor of the Senate on Monday.
One could come up with an acceptable compromise tax package, but this one that was negotiated by VP Biden and the the Republican Minority Leader in the Senate is NOT a balanced compromise. I would say it’s about 80-85% Republican and 15-20% Democratic. NOT a compromise worth supporting.