Daily Archives: December 4, 2010
Saturday morning and I’m watching the Senate vote on the tax bill…
Right now they are voting on the Baucus Amendment, which is identical to the bill passed by the House last week. This extends tax cuts across the board up up to $250,000 per family income. If this fails they go to the Schumer Amendment which extends the Bush tax cuts up to $1,000,000.00.
I don’t believe either of these will pass, since the Republicans are holding out for complete extension of all Bush tax cuts… including those for the very wealthy which will cost our country over a trillion dollars this year. However, what will be seen in public is that the Democrats are trying to deal with the two problems of the economy and the deficit, while the Republicans are holding out to make the deficit much, much worse and to benefit the very wealth 1% at the top of our population.
It looks like we are getting a straight “NO” from Republicans (even Brown from Massachusetts and Collins from Maine who were hinted at to be crossovers.) I didn’t see on the Democrat side what Ben Nelson did, or if any other Dem went for the Republican side. It’s no surprise but fucking Lieberman just went with the Republicans (What a surprise!, says my wife.)
Vote on this one was 53 to 36… since, due to the filibuster it needs 60 votes, this one didn’t make it.
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Harry Reid just interrupted the proceedings to go over the next week’s schedule.
Now they are voting on whether to move forward with the Schumer Amendment with the million dollar break.
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Schumer’s Amendment would extend unemployment for a year as well.Since it looks like all the Senators are on the floor now, this vote should go faster than the last. Looking at the floor I see that Democrats are talking to Democrats and republicans are talking to Republicans and no pleasant interaction is happening between parties. Our Senator Rockefeller has voted against this one, and I’m surprised. Perhaps I shouldn’t be, but when even Ben nelson votes for it, I wonder why Rockefeller ties in with the right on this one. Lieberman voted No on this one as well.
Tom Harkin has voted No on this one… and, if so, there must be a reason. Durbin has voted No as well. Something tells me they want to go to the original drafting of the bill with no amendments. Or else they are trying to make sure nothing gets through and the Taxes are automatically restored on January 1st (which, as you know, would be my preference.)
Vote is 53 – 37 and the motion is not agreed to.
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Now Mitch McConnell is giving a speech to insult Democrats for wasting time and claiming that there is BiPartisan demand to extend the tax cuts for everyone, including the wealthy, and he also claims that the public agrees (just not the 70% who have been polled.)
So now we’re going into open speeches by both sides. It begins with Mary landrieu (D – Louisiana) commenting on Mitch McConnell’s insults and questioning if he is not embarrassed by saying publicly that his main goal is to prevent Obama from being reelected in 2012.
God, it’s hard to watch this crap.
Related Articles
- Senate Showdown Over Tax Cuts (abcnews.go.com)
- Senate to Vote on Democratic Tax Cut Plans (abcnews.go.com)
- You: Senators Vie for Last Word on Tax Breaks as Expiration Nears (nytimes.com)
- Senate to vote on Democratic tax cut plans – The Associated Press (news.google.com)
- Senate Sets Votes on Two Proposals to Extend Tax Cuts – BusinessWeek (news.google.com)
- Senate Showdown Saturday: Tax Cut Votes on the Way – ABC News (news.google.com)
- Obama wins symbolic tax vote but battle rages (nationalpost.com)
- The relative ease of finger-pointing (washingtonmonthly.com)
- Saturday Showdown at the Senate: Weekend Tax Cut Votes on the Way (blogs.abcnews.com)
- US’s Schumer: Hopes Senate Tax-Cut Votes On Sat Clarify Debate (forexlive.com)
- Biden: Senate should extend middle class tax cuts (reuters.com)
- Saturday …The Senate will be in Session (ynative77.wordpress.com)