Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
So the Septegenarian Ninja Turtle, Mitch McConnell, pulled a little jujitsu today in the U.S. Senate. Rather than force a cloture vote under the Senate filibuster rules as he does for every bill that comes to the floor, McConnell allowed Democrats to have their vote today on their middle class tax cut bill which allows the Bush tax cuts for those with more than $250,000 income annually to expire.
McConnell did not want to give the Democrats the spectacle of a GOP filibuster of middle class tax cuts. Yet Republicans voted against the bill anyway.
Democratic lawmakers said the Senate’s 51-48 vote is a political breakthrough that strengthens their election-year argument that Republicans are holding tax cuts for the middle class hostage in order to maintain breaks worth $160,000 a year to the average millionaire. Senate passes tax bill to keep tax cuts for the middle class. Don't get too excited guys:
The measure is dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled House, where leaders are preparing to vote next week on their own plan to extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for households at every income level through 2013.
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Moreover, McConnell said, the tax bill cannot advance because it is a Senate-originated tax measure. The Constitution requires all tax measures to originate in the House.
“The only reason we won’t block it today is that we know it doesn’t pass constitutional muster and won’t become law,” McConnell said. “What today’s votes are all about,” he said, is “showing the people who sent us here where we stand.”
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Only two of 53 senators who caucus with Democrats voted against the measure. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) said he opposes any extension of the tax cuts, preferring that lawmakers take up far-reaching tax reform this year. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) had the opposite complaint; aides said Webb “opposes raising taxes on ordinary earned income.”
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On an earlier vote, the Senate rejected a GOP plan to extend all the Bush tax cuts, 45 to 54. Senators from both sides crossed party lines, with Republicans Scott Brown (Mass.) and Susan Collins (Me.) rejecting the extension and Democrat Mark Pryor (Ark.) supporting it.
Just another day of gamesmanship in the U.S. Senate.
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To put it even more simply…the House Republicans will now have to explain why they voted for a TAX INCREASE on the majority of Americans.Wonder if Norquist will be pissed?
Not in this case. Holding this vote, to a thinking person, was meant to show who’s side each party is FOR. Now it will go to the House, and the Republicans will vote this middle class tax cut DOWN, because it’s not good enough that 100% of the people would get a tax cut UP TO $250,000 of their money…they want ANOTHER 10 pounds of flesh for the millionaires and billionaires…that are doing better now than ever before, and don’t NEED a tax cut!
What’s insulting is not this vote, what’s insulting is that Republicans think the American people are stupid. That’s the insult.
Holding a vote when the results are meaningless is insulting to every thinking, voting person!