House Democrats block tax plan vote. Interesting /nt

They should be outraged by this

. . . since THEY control the power of the purse, not the President.

I honestly have no idea how else the President was supposed to regard that House vote to extend MC Tax Cuts last week, especially when coupled with stalling in the Senate on extension of Un-Employment Benefits.

I mean, did anyone REALLY think those MC Tax Cuts would get through without adding on the Top Bracket Tax Cuts? And if they knew that, which they had to have known and if they didn't well then they're just too stupid to be doing what they are doing - as I was saying, if they knew that Top Bracket Cuts would HAVE to be added and they are against that, why did they put on their little theatrical display in the first place except to CYA?

The Senate acted as if they has principle by putting two MC tax bills up for predictably failed cloture votes.

Either they just stand back and say they aren't interested in continuing the middle to lower income tax breaks or they do something to preserve them before the expiration date next month. It isn't as if it's the President's fault that the debate has come down to the last hour.

Do they want, and how will they defend the extension of expiring unemployment benefits?

Do they want, and how will they defend the Earned Income Tax Credit?

Do they want, and how will they defend the Child Tax Credit?

Do they want, and how will they defend the American Opportunity Tax Credit?

That's been the question to THEM for the past year and they just passed weak, unsupported bills and did NOTHING but sit back and let the President organize a deal to preserve the tax breaks that affect tens of millions of middle to lower-income wage earners. Now they want to scurry around behind him and snipe, hoping that he'll get the blame for their own failure and intransigence in defending against these middle-income tax increases.

bite them.

. . . so hypocritical and typical of them to try and shift responsibility to the President by an abdication of their own.

in part because of the Professional(ly) ideological "Left" ( as differentiated from the in-the-real-world-Social-Justice-trenches Left ) throwing an ideological fit over this Tax Deal.

. . . in saying they'd get out of the way of those and let the other initiatives come for a vote if they got their way on the upper-income cuts. But, you're right that dragging this out will disadvantage any move to advance the other items on their agenda.

blame the whole thing on the President and deny their own complicity in how it is working out.

. . . but its clear that Democrats aren't yet willing to face up to the tax expiration deadline and their own failure to find a vehicle to advance the unemployment benefit extension. They don't seem to know if they want to just walk away from the whole thing or if they give a damn about doing something about advancing those middle-income and jobless initiatives they've been claiming they support. So, they're busy doing what they do best; looking for somewhere to shift the blame for their own intransigence.

(though those Build America Bonds DO seem like a rational "line" for them to defend).

If Dems try to say they oppose the President's tax cut package because the "Left*" wants them to (and the "Left" is backing DREAM & repeal of DADT) and then the Dems ultimately find it politically necessary to "cave" on the President's tax deal, the "Left" (whatever that is) gets further isolated, except to the extent that they can claim responsibility for successful DREAM and an end to DADT.

.............................................

*There is no Left, as a movement, only a collection of issue groups competing AGAINST one another for that label, mostly for the purpose of destroying this administration, rather than for anything that it does FOR any shared objectives.

be CONSEQUENCES. What consequences? Well, the Senate WAS stalling on UI, just for starters.

Run out the clock and deal with it in January? This is going to be a real mess.

in the President's package, soooooooooooooooo . . . . BIG states like California, at minimum, are going to Love:Hate this Tax Deal. The Poison Pill = the Republicans' speciality.