Does anyone trust these guys?

The Bush Tax Cuts for Millionaires and Billionaires… will they get extended? This from FireDogLake today:

clipped from fdlaction.firedoglake.com Michael Bennet gets caught in a moment of rare honesty with an open mike in the Senate: “It’s all rigged. The whole conversation is rigged. The fact that we don’t get to a discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in the lame duck. It’s just rigged.” Of course it is. They know what they want — a deal to extend all the Bush tax cuts for two to three years. It’s just a matter of how the Democrats can set the Republicans up to take the blame, yet not do it in a way that causes political blowback for them. They tried for months to get the Republicans to share the blame for the health care bill, and couldn’t pull that off either, so I doubt their competence has improved significantly. So, Nancy Pelosi will preside over her little piece of stunt theater today in the House, taking a meaningless vote that will surprise nobody when it fails because she set the bar for success at 290 votes, which they can’t possibly hope to achieve. But gosh darn it, they tried

… and this from FireDogLake’s Founder. Jane Hamsher:

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Kentucky. Isn’t that where Mitch McConnell comes from?

Of courser, it beats spending money on Education…
Thanks to PZ Myers at Pharyngula:

clipped from scienceblogs.com Hooo-weeee! Look what the state of Kaintucky is gittin’ for $37 million!   This ain’t gonna be free: the state guvmint is kickin’ in $37 million in tax incentives to help a gang of Bible-totin’ theocrats build a fancy Disneyland for ignoramuses. This is what it’s gonna look like, they think: Lookie there: the centerpiece will be a genuwine, life-sized, full scale copy of Noah‘s very own ark, all 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits of it, and they say it’s gonna be built with materials and methods as close to possible as the ones in the Bible. Where they gettin’ gopherwood? And are they really gonna build it with handsaws and mallets and wooden pegs? That’s gotta be impressive, but it’s gonna be tough to git’r done by 2014. They also claim this big ol’ project is going to make 900 jobs in Kentucky. I don’t believe it. Read your Bible. They’re cuttin’ corners here with their non-floatin’ critter-free ark, so I’m expectin’ they’ll hire six, at most. And that’s generous.

Those Kentukyans just stuck us with Rand Paul, too. How they spend their tax money is their business. Hope to hell it’s not Federal Tax Money, because that means some of it is mine.

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Morning with the House of Representatives…

“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

– Mark Twain

I’m having a morning of amusing television watching the House of Representatives on C-Span debate the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts. Well, right now they are debating the rules by which they will debate the subject (which is funny enough in and of itself).

The Democrats are pushing to extend the cuts to 98% of Americans who earn less than $250,000 a year while restoring the taxes on Millionaires and Billionaires. Republicans are threatening a standoff… either give tax cuts to everyone, including the wealthy, or have the vote held up and watch it die in the Senate.

The republicans are, essentially, wasting as much time as possible with the goal of getting into the next Congress and passing  return to the Bush tax cuts as a return legislative move.

Of course, the thing that would work now is the Democrats in the House pushing this through and the Senate finding two Republican votes to get the filibuster-ending 60 votes which would pass the legislation before everyone trots home for Christmas.

Is this likely to happen? Probably not. There is also the notion that the President has already agreed to a temporary extension for everyone and the wealthy would be taxed again a couple of years down the road. With change in control of the House, this would be highly unlikely…the Republicans, supporting the wealthy, would seek permanence of the extension.

While a fifteen minute vote on the first House rule is going on in the House, I switch to the Senate to listen to Byron Dorgan (D – North Dakota) compare the untaxed Wealthy with the middle class soldiers who get up this morning to get shot at by Afghanistanis. I don’t think anyone is listening (the Senate floor seems to be empty). I’m often curious if Senate speeches accomplish anything at all.

Back to the House where Democrats are voting for the rule and Republicans are voting against it. Surprise, surprise. Wouldn’t it be amazing if Congressfolk voted according to actual values rather than party lines?

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• Senate GOP Unanimously Pledges to Filibuster All Bills Until Dems Agree to Tax Cuts and a Budget (minx.cc)
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