[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
United States News Title: Pelosi pledges to win changes as House Dems reject tax-cut deal The House Democratic Caucus on Thursday rejected the tax deal negotiated between the White House and Senate Republicans. The non-binding vote of the caucus held during a closed-door meeting puts tremendous pressure on House leaders to win changes to a proposal the White House has presented as a "take it or leave it" package. (To see where Democrats fall on the tax compromise, check out The Hill's Whip Count here) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a brief statement after the vote indicating that lower-chamber Democrats will fight to alter the bill. "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," Pelosi said. “Democratic priorities remain clear: to provide a tax cut for working families, to create jobs and economic growth, to assist millions of our fellow Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and to do this in a fiscally sound way.” Democrats have appointed Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the assistant to the Speaker, to represent the caucus in future negotiations on the bill. Van Hollen was a part of the so-called Gang of Six, a short-lived group created last week to crunch a compromise with the White House and congressional leaders from both chambers. The White House, however, abandoned those talks and focused instead on meetings with Senate Republicans. It is now insisting that the deal worked out with Senate Republicans cannot be changed. But that position appears to have provoked outrage among House Democrats livid that the package would extend all of the tax cuts signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, including those for the rich. Sponsored by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the resolution says simply that Democrats oppose floor action of the tax deal in its current form. "We have tremendous concerns about what was given away by the White House," DeFazio told reporters in the Capitol basement after the vote. DeFazio said the voice vote was "virtually unanimous," with only one or two members expressing dissent. "We have given our leadership license to force the Senate and the White House back to the table to get a better deal for the American people," he said. Asked if leadership had agreed to do that, DeFazio replied, "Well, they're not going to get a bill if they don't." DeFazio said he spoke to the Speaker prior to the vote and she "did not express any opposition to what we proposed." DeFazio said the next step is for leaders to "go back to the bargaining table — and this time they don't have a side-bargain between Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell," the GOP leader in the Senate. President Obama on Monday stirred a firestorm when he announced a deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels. House Democrats passed an alternative bill last Thursday extending those cuts only to individuals earning below $200,000 and families earning below $250,000. Both sets of tax cuts expire at the end of the year. The deal also includes a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits. Democrats are as angry about how the deal was put together as they are about its substance. They see the White House as abandoning bipartisan talks with Republicans and Democrats to work out a deal with just Senate Republicans. Vice President Joe Biden visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday to deliver the message to House Democrats that the White House viewed the deal as a "take it or leave it" accord. In the lead up to the vote on the DeFazio resolution, supporters could be heard from the hallway chanting, "Just say no!." "There came a point where clearly they decided to cut a deal with the Republicans," Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on Tuesday. DeFazio had another take on that episode: "We had a representative in the room bargaining, while the deal was being cut somewhere else." "[Biden] basically said, 'Take it or leave it,' " DeFazio said. "We left it. It's up to them." The White House has been aggressively pushing the deal all week, arguing Democrats risk plunging the country into a double-dip recession by rejecting it. At a testy news conference this week, Obama defended his negotiating stance, saying Republicans were not going to budge on their insistence that all of the tax cuts be extended. The president compared the GOP to hostage takers and said he had to act in order to help middle-class taxpayers and the unemployed. DeFazio had intended to bring up his resolution next Tuesday, but news reports indicating the Senate is leaning toward accepting the deal caused him to expedite the timeline, DeFazio said. Fifty-five Democrats had signed a petition to force a vote on the resolution. Some Democratic leaders remain reluctant to attack the White House-GOP deal directly. In very cautious comments to reporters after the vote, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) punted on questions about where he stands on the current proposal. "The president said he would fight for the middle class," he said. "I'm with him on that." With the lame-duck session quickly coming to a close, Congress is running out of time to finalize a deal on the tax-cut extensions. Asked if the short window threatened the House Democrats' push to return to the bargaining table, DeFazio suggested the lower-chamber remain in Washington this weekend to hash out a deal. "I don't think there's an imperative the House go anywhere," he said.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Nancy Pelosi (#0)
YOU GO, GIRL!
The problem for Pelosi now is that like a Long Losing Sports team the fans have been angry/demanding and now they're just ignoring it.
|
|
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|