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December 08, 2010
Joe Biden to Address Fuming House Dem Caucus
Biden to address fuming House Dem caucus
Vice President Biden will address a fuming House Democratic caucus on Wednesday, a day after lawmakers roundly panned a tax cut deal the White House negotiated with Republicans.
At a caucus meeting Tuesday night, more than a dozen House Democrats stood up to criticize President Obama’s tax proposal, complaining that the administration caved too quickly on party priorities while shutting out Democratic lawmakers, sources in the room said. Of the 15 to 20 Democrats who spoke at the meeting, only a couple voiced support for the proposal, according to a Democrat in the room.
“I don’t think the president should count on Democratic votes to get this deal passed,” Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said after leaving the meeting. He added Obama “went from zero to compromise in 3.5 seconds.”
“We got rolled,” one Democratic congressman told The Hill in describing the sentiment within the House caucus. One lawmaker, whom Democrats would not name, drew applause when he urged his colleagues to vote down the Obama-GOP plan and force the new Republican majority to confront the expiring George W. Bush-era tax cuts.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders presented the president’s proposal to the party rank-and-file while making clear they were not endorsing it. The plan calls for a two-year extension of the entire slate of Bush tax cuts, along with a 2 percent reduction in the employee payroll tax, among other items.
The chief sticking point for House Democrats, aside from a temporary extension of tax cuts for the wealthy, was the proposed adoption of a GOP-favored plan to set the estate tax at 35 percent for individuals worth more than $5 million. The House passed a bill last year that would set the inheritance tax at 45 percent with an exemption starting at $3.5 million, and Democrats characterized the administration proposal as a needless giveaway to the GOP.
Pelosi made a brief statement after the meeting, repeating her comments earlier in the day that there's "unease" among Democrats toward the compromise. She said the various proposals should be judged based on their effects on jobs and the deficit. The White House-GOP compromise, she said, fails both tests.
The Speaker didn’t respond when asked if she would bring the proposal up for a vote or seek to change it in any way.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also declined to comment after the gathering.
"We're still talking," Hoyer said.
Some liberal Democrats are already threatening to oppose the bill unless some of the benefits for the wealthiest Americans are removed.
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Angry Liberal Activists Shut Down WH Switchboard
Liberal activists angry about President Barack Obama’s concession on tax cuts for upper-income Americans crashed two phone lines at the White House and are gearing up for another onslaught of calls to Senate Democratic leaders in an eleventh-hour push to kill the deal.
Supporters of the New York-based Agenda Project shut down two phone lines for most the day Monday in White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett’s office, according to the group’s founder, Erica Payne. And even though Obama ultimately announced a bipartisan deal that extends tax cuts for the wealthy, Payne said her group, which boasts 10,000 supporters, has plans to push back every step of the way.
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Wild Thing's comment........
Interesting for me is they got the unemployment extensions. They wanted bipartisanship, now they have it and wahhhhhhh!
Crybabies!
It always shocks me when I see or hear how the left hates those that have done well financially. I will never understand that. I am all for everyone being a success.....well except for Obama, I want him to fail at all he does while in office. I am talking about income and success of the American Dream.
Posted by Wild Thing at December 8, 2010 04:40 AM
