Notice the curious case of passivity and resignation coming from the so – called “progressive” and “liberal” caucuses in the House of Congress lately on this Republican Wet Dream of extending the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthiest segment of our society during a Depression ? And unfunded foreign occupation/wars causing an immense deficit?
There are a few faint sparks of realization in the Democratic caucus, that the President’s trade he cut with Republican Senators to gut Social Security (and hope nobody notices) by decreasing the payroll tax for it 2%, in exchange for extending some unemployment benefits for millions, for a year, maybe is going to get them in even bigger trouble down the road. Even if their own President is willing to call them a bunch of “purist” poopyheads in public, to get what he wants.
The House Rules Committee vote on the rule to let this abomination go through was supposed to be this evening, and now it’s delayed. Speaker Pelosi has decided on a curious tact of allowing a scootch of dissent on the whopping Estate Tax giveaway, while ignoring the rest of the Senate’s version of the tax bill as being worthy. Extending the Bush – era tax cuts is going to add another trillion dollar hole to the deficit. This pathetic Congress can’t even get it together to at least come up with a coherent narrative as to why the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthiest were part of a national policy disaster which caused our current problems, and should be repealed.
http://thehill.com/homenews/ho…
The House was set to vote on the rule governing debate on the broad tax bill, but the measure was withdrawn at the last minute when leaders realized it was likely to be rejected. Liberals opposed to the deal Obama struck with Republicans were upset that the procedure approved by the House Rules Committee on Wednesday did not allow them a clean opportunity to vote on the legislation the Senate passed on Wednesday. A final vote on the tax deal had been planned for Thursday evening.
Under the rule approved Wednesday, lawmakers would first vote on an amendment to the estate tax provision of the tax bill, which Democratic leaders want raised to a higher level. If that measure passed, the entire tax bill would return to the Senate, meaning lawmakers would have, in effect, approved the underlying measure with the single change to the estate tax. Liberals objected to that procedure, saying they wanted an opportunity to reject the entire bill, not just the estate tax provision.
If the estate tax amendment failed – which is expected – then the House would vote on the underlying Senate bill.
Notice how the above Hill story says they expect the estate tax amendment to fail also. Yes, this is such a crappy deal that President Obama cut with the Senate Republicans, that we also are going to watch them make sure billionaires like the Walton Family can pass on larger estates, while millions of regular Americans continue to lose their life savings and meager retirement funds to foreclosures, job losses, and medical bill bankruptcies, because that Health Care Bill has mostly NOT been implemented.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D, NY 28, Rochester, Buffalo, Erie) of the so – called Progressive Caucus, one of the most “Liberal” members of the House, is the current head of the Rules committee that is working this charade. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L…
http://www.rules.house.gov/bil…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said some Democrats criticized procedures that would only allow lawmakers to introduce one amendment to the bill, and which, if passed, would send the amended package immediately back to the Senate. The current rule allows each party one amendment and an hour and a half of debate time, with 45 minutes of the Democrats’ time being granted to those in opposition to the bill. The likely amendment would be a change to the bill’s estate-tax provision, presented by Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.).
“A lot of members are saying ‘I’d like to amend it, but I’d like to vote against it,’ ” Waxman said.
Catch 22 ! You vote against the Estate tax in the House, and this POS tax giveaway goes directly back to the Senate who then gives it gift wrapped to the President to sign !
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who led the charge against the tax deal, said he wants Democrats to be given a chance to make additional amendments to the bill, including changes to tax cuts that could threaten revenue for Social Security.
The leadership is not allowing debate over Social Security because “they don’t have the time,” Welch said. He said Democratic leaders were not “twisting arms” on the matter and would allow dissenting members to state their case.
Still, he said the momentum from the Senate would make it difficult to block the bill.
“I think the die was cast basically in the Senate,” Welch said. “Where we had an opportunity … was by making senators who were going to hold the middle-class tax cuts hostage to the tax cuts at the high end, make them debate that and vote that over and over again.”
They don’t have the time ?
Then why the **** is the Senate going to blow all that non existent time, taking 50 hours reading the budget bill in the Senate ?
12/16/10 GOP will paralyze Senate Floor with reading of 1,924 page spending bill.
http://thehill.com/homenews/se…
Republicans will paralyze the Senate floor for 50 hours by forcing clerks to read every single paragraph of the 1,924-page, $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill.
Senate clerks are expected to read the massive bill in rotating shifts around the clock – taking breaks to drink water and pop throat lozenges – to keep legislative business on track, according to a Democratic leadership aide.
If Republicans follow through on their threat, legislative business couldn’t resume until late Saturday in order to give the staff enough time to read the bill aloud, according to a Democratic leadership estimate.
Sen. DeMint (R, SC) : “Again, We’re trying to run out the clock.”
Sen. Kyl (R, AZ) : “”To suggest that we can dual-track an issue as important as the funding of the government with this almost 2,000-page, $1 trillion-plus bill at the same time that we are seriously debating the START treaty is a fantasy.”
So called Liberal bloggers, paraphrased: “We’re trying to ignore this latest betrayal because it makes it awkward on the Holiday Cocktail Circuit.”
My personal interactions with my real friends – I don’t know of anyone who actually supports this continued capitulation routine, nor the crappy Republican policies being put forth as “compromises,” with a Dem supermajority which refuses to govern with it.
consider themselves to be the ‘canaries in the coal mine’ since they are taking steps with the newly introduced Continuing Resolution to kill off as many canaries in the coal mine to protect Americans from environmental, safety, and other risks. For example, the proposal includes a 22 percent reduction in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, massive cuts in basic science research, budgets slashing seeking to essentially eliminate U.S. government research on climate change, … a true anti-science syndrome agenda.