Senate Republicans block middle-class tax bill

[ProSense]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the Senate on Saturday blocked Democratic legislation that would renew low tax rates for individuals' income up to $200,000 and families' income up to $250,000, letting them rise for the wealthiest.

The legislation failed on a procedural vote as Republicans complained that it did not also retain low tax rates for those in the highest income groups.

The Obama administration and congressional leaders are expected to continue talks next week on a compromise. Without action, the tax cuts for all income levels, which were enacted during the Bush administration, expire on December 31.

The Senate is also scheduled to vote on another Democratic proposal that would extend the expiring tax cuts to income up to $1 million annually. This measure is also expected to be blocked.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101204/ts_nm/us_usa_taxes_senate_1

---

Via Daily Kos:

By a vote of 53-36, the Baucus Amendment to the bill Speaker Pelosi used as a vehicle for the House's passage of the bill failed this morning in the Senate. It got no GOP votes, with Feingold, Manchin, Nelson (NE), Lieberman and Webb dissenting.

<..>

[geckosfeet]

1. So. The repubs are against tax cuts. Burn them. eom

[molly77]

37. The goal?

It is all spelled out in these videos.

http://www.youtube.com/...

2.
http://www.youtube.com/...

3.
http://www.youtube.com/...

4.
http://www.youtube.com/...

5.
http://www.youtube.com/...

6.
http://www.youtube.com/...
Climate Research Center - 10 years of emails from the...with explanation

7.
http://www.youtube.com/...

Tags: Wikileaks

Video 5 European war on poor . Take resources from all over the world. Seige mentality almost like wanting to build a feudal style moat around Europe for protection. IMF used as a form of weaponry. Iceland was talking about selling off bits of nature before they refused the bail out. i.e. water and their geo thermal energy.

Special Forces handbook which breaks Geneva Convention. I trust WikiLeaks even more after seeing these videos. It is evident that the US is also declaring war on the poor.These videos prove it is a world wide phenomenon.

[geckosfeet]

80. US corporations and wealthy are declaring war. The US military is and always has been

their tool of choice to maintain their grip on wealth and power.

Point is, repubs want tax cuts for the wealthy, not for the people who need it.

[ejpoeta]

2. they want them together. they don't want them done separately.

they know that if the middle class tax cuts are extended separately they won't get their rich tax cuts.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

3. And oh how RW media is spinning, lying, twisting these results. nt

[AlbertCat]

38. And oh how RW media is spinning, lying, twisting these results.

OBAMA & DEMS FAIL TO PASS MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUTS

[66 dmhlt]

66. "Big 4" headline on GOP blocking Middle Class Tax Cuts

ABC:

Senate Showdown May Pave Way for Year-End Tax Deal
Hope for year-end tax deal as GOP senators block bills to extend cuts for all but top earners

http://abcnews.go.com/news

CBS:

• GOP Senators Reject Tax Cuts for Middle Class

http://www.cbsnews.com/
(Hands-down, CBS has the most accurate one)

MSNBC:

Senate bid to renew tax cuts fails

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Faux "News":

Senate Rejects Obama's Tax Cuts Plan

http://www.foxnews.com/

[Iliyah]

79. Those tax cuts did not

create nor help us Americans. But ya see the tea bats GOP still fighting for it. Money brought the House for the craze. I see GOP ruly don't care about the unemployed, but hey, they stayed at home or voted for them. From this point in time, those who sat out and those who voted for them. F-You, and Merry Christmas from the GOP!

[stray cat]

4. They should also vote against a Trillion dollar increase in the deficit and vote them all down

No one is fighting for fiscal responsibility independent of politics

[Nancy Waterman]

5. Campaign ads should read

Rep x voted to end unemployment insurance for the unemployed while supporting unfunded tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires that are ballooning the deficit. This is what you will always get when you vote for Republicans.

Somehow the American people haven't figured this out yet and they need to be told in no uncertain terms. It should be shouted from the rooftops from now on for then ext two years. Let it really sink in.

[LibDemAlways]

9. There are millions who are still blinded by the Repukes'

claim to be the party of good Christian "family" values. They absolutely need those voters and they promote the hell out of that shit. And it works.

[Segami]

17. Shouts of the coming ' Fire & Brimstone ' for supporting Libruls always works with the mindless RW.

[LibDemAlways]

21. Amazes me that the elderly, who should know better, are taken in.

I have several elderly relatives who think Dems are evil people whose mission it is to abort babies and convert others to a gay "lifestyle" (their words). As long as the Repukes keep peddling that line, people like them will keep voting R no matter how badly they're financially screwed.

[savalez]

74. They are hopefully the last generation to think that.

[crazylikafox]

39. +1000

[Wednesdays]

62. Also, you know the general campaign commercial noise will drown all that out

Does this remind you of certain commercials running just a few weeks ago?

"Congresswoman Demo Crat isn't the darling she wants you to think she is. Do you know what she was doing on May 10th? (Insert ominous music here) Well, we don't know either. And Ms. Crat refuses to say. Reputable sources tell us, she was hanging around with socialist groups, with terrorist cells...or, even with Osama bin Laden himself. On another occasion, she went to the movies with her husband, and...money changed hands. (Show closeup of dark-skinned hands counting out money) Congresswoman Crat is documented to have donated money to the State University...the same university whose students sometimes visit Internet pornography sites."

"Let's bring honesty and integrity back to Washington. Let's send J.P. Moneybags. A family man, a Christian, an honest-to-goodness fiscal conservative. A man who shares your values, not the values of Nancy Pelosi and Demo Crat. (Insert as ugly a picture as could be found of both.)"

"I'm J.P. Moneybags, and I approve of this message."

Mainstream America laps up that shit like mother's milk. :( And, you know Repukes have 3 times the money to spend on commercials, so that's all you'll ever hear on the airwaves.

Who cares about what so-and-so voted for 23 months before? Just so long they don't vote for the godless, corrupt DEMONrat.

[Jawja]

87. Then the dumbasses

will claim it's the "lies of the LIBERAL MEDIA."

They will, because I know some of these people.

[Still a Democrat]

6. Feingold?

Hmm.

[ProSense]

25. Understandable

Feingold is a deficit hawk.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

49. I agree. And I agree with Feingold who probably voted NO because he wants

all tax cuts to expire. We can't afford tax cuts. We need jobs. Can't have both tax cuts and balanced budget with NO jobs, or at least unemployment insurance benefits.

[Owl]

58. Exactly.

[LibDemAlways]

7. The Repukes are greedy bastards. If they personally can't keep

their own tax cuts, they don't want anyone else to benefit. This is personal.

[DeadEyeDyck]

81. there were some DINOs involved

don't know which ones. Nelson for sure.

[LibDemAlways]

82. They might as well change their D's to R's. They are useless. n/t

[Faygo Kid]

8. Of course! And now the cave-in follows.

A "temporary" extension for the rich, and a very brief extension of unemployment benefits - the last extension ever.

[stubtoe]

18. I'm afraid you're right, but I hope that instead they're allowed to expire.

THAT should get the R's talking for a change.

[xxqqqzme]

45. This is what I don't understand.

All this drama w/ nothing getting accomplished (because the Dems are not using it to their advantage). Let them all expire in 27 days.

[CBHagman]

85. Because of filibuster rules, 40-odd people can block things.

Heck, one senator can gum things up, and frequently does.

Note that the House easily passed the tax cut for those making $250,000 or less, but there's no filibuster in the House. In the Senate you need agreement to advance something, and the entire Republican caucus signed a letter saying they would allow nothing to get done. See link.

http://republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=blogs.view&blog_id=d2fd96b0-535d-49ab-9e12-5f204fb330dc

The majority of the public's against that, but McConnell and Co. can do it, because the rules allow them, and they're exploiting the late hour as well.

[4dsc]

10. Spread the word far and wide nt

[glinda]

11. Sure. Give it to them but take away all of the write offs that they get.

[niceypoo]

13. That is what Kennedy did

He lowered the top rate, but closed the loopholes so they ended up paying more.

[shanti]

19. and we know

what happened to kennedy....

[Karenina]

70. Indeed.

[SpiralHawk]

12. Why do Republicons want to raise taxes on average Americans?

Major suckage from the party of fatcats.

[alfredo]

29. Yes, if it means not giving the republicans everything they want.

[liberal N proud]

14. This will all get twisted by 2012 and used against the Democrats

and more importantly against the President.

The meme in 2012 will be that President Obama raised your taxes.

[corkhead]

24. no matter what happens, the pukes and corporate media will twist it against the Dems

they should at least do the right thing since they are going to be "in trouble" anyway

[Thor_MN]

27. The sunset was GOP policy. Bush raised taxes in 2011 when he signed the bill.

That is the plain truth. The Bush tax cuts are done at the end of the year. Nothing can prevent them from ending. Any tax cuts for 2011 are Obama tax cuts. Bush and the GOP are responsible for tax rates increasing at the end of the year.

[liberal N proud]

42. Do you think that will stop them from using it against Obama?

[Thor_MN]

53. They will try, the real question is will they succeed?

[liberal N proud]

69. They do have the M$M to do the talking for them as usual

[laundry_queen]

41. What do you mean by 2012

They are saying that shit on tv NOW.

[liberal N proud]

43. All part of the 2012 strategy

[COLGATE4]

57. We won't have to wait for 2012 for that one - I expect to hear it

start on Fux News today or tomorrow (and 24/7 until 2012!).

[tavalon]

15. So, does that mean that our taxes will remain the same through the end of December

making April look much like last April and only having to pay the piper more for 2011?

[jaybeat]

16. Can someone explain why they don't have to actually fillibuster?

I mean, couldn't Harry (not saying he would, of course) require the Repugs to read from the phone book, 24/7, keeping the Senate in session all day and all night, right through Xmas and New Years? They'd look like the douche-bags that they are, and the Dems would look like they actually give a shit about America. (I know, that answers the question of why they *won't* but I want to know if they could...)

[harun]

47. Explained...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/23/the-myth-of-the-filibuste_n_169117.html

[jaybeat]

73. Thank you. And the Senate rules suck. (nt)

[harun]

89. Yep, allows 40 individuals to thwart the will of 300 million people.

Un-democratic and corrupt.

[elleng]

20. McCaskill complaining now, on C-Span2.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

22. Ben Nelson, Jim Webb, and Joe Lieberman May they ROT IN HELL!!

I never trusted Jim Webb even when everyone here was so deeply in love with him....he was a REGISTERED fucking republican for his ENTIRE life until he switched to the Democratic Party just so he could win a seat because his own party was over saturated and which he would NEVER have won as a rethuglican.

He has ALWAYS been and ALWAYS will be a rethuglican in his soul and in heart

[Quixote1818]

51. What was Feingold doing voting against this??? Anyone know? nt

[PeaceNikki]

86. I think Feingold wants ALL the tax cuts to expire

They're unfunded and lead to the Bush Crash. They were a GOP trap.

[COLGATE4]

59. K&R

[indimuse]

23. REPUKES belong in J!A!I!L!!!!!

bucha criminals!!!

[dmosh42]

26. What happened to reconciliation!! Could have passed!

Once again the Dem leadership working hand in hand with Repukes. This has everything to do with revenue and appropriations, and like the heath insurance bill, could have been used. The Repukes always used it to pass legislation under Bush.

[Milo_Bloom]

61. We wasted reconcilition on the health insurance bill.

[savalez]

75. used.

[alfredo]

28. CNN wording of byline is not bad.

"Two Senate procedural votes on Democratic measures to extend George W. Bush-era tax cuts for people who are not super wealthy failed today, preventing the measures from moving forward."

[Frisbee]

30. I guess some time very soon...

we will be hearing the White House saying' "It was the best we could get". I am sick of them caving to the repukes time and time again, and then telling us "it was the best we could get". They have never gotten the best they could get because they rarely make a real effort other than meeting with repukes and folding like a cheap lawn chair.

[Democat]

31. Countdown to Obama giving Republicans everything they asked for and more.

As usual.

[TatonkaJames]

32. And we'll sit back and complain while...

In other countries they're out demonstrating in the streets. Seems people in other nations, when they
know they're getting screwed show their anger which got results here in the U.S. in the 60's.
But not now. We just sit and complain in front of our wide screen TV's, drinking beers watching the game
or playing video war, believing after all the failed promises, that everything will work out just fine.
Heck, they even demonstrated in Iran after the elections this year knowing full well they could and were
arrested, jailed, tortured and killed. That takes moxie.
At least everyone's fingers are getting a workout.

[pansypoo53219]

33. LET THEM ALL DIE.

if you are serious about the debt/deficit.

NOT 1 MORE DOLLAR TO THE RICH WHO DO NOT DESERVE IT.

OR FUCKI9NG NEED IT!!!!1111 ELEVENS!!!11111

[Xenotime]

78. Exactly. It's time for dems to get heavy handed.

[perdita9]

34. GOP SOP

The Repbublicans will agree to a tax cut for the Middle Class ONLY IF millionaires and billionaires get the lion share of the largess.

Sort of like scraps falling from a banquet.

[Ozymanithrax]

35. Republicans vote for largest tax increase in history...

Republicans vote to raise takes on the middle-class.

Republicans, the party of Tax, borrow, and spend; bankrupting a country near you for persoal political gain.

[earcandle]

36. May I suggest..let the tax cuts expire, but change the death tax rule to....

let the first 5 million owned in cash and property be exempt
from the estate (death) tax.  This will definitely help both
the middle class folks who own property and it will help most
of the rich as well.  

Those who own more than 5M in cash and property will pay the
55% death tax on amounts that exceed that limit of 5M for the
privilege of living in a free country where they can make such
obscene amounts. They pay their share of rebuilding America.  


That should appease a great majority of folks, yes?  And allow
us to get back the annual tax revenue that we need to keep to
repay what has been borrowed from our social security savings,
to pay down our debt, to build capital to restart jobs
programs, build infrastructure, keep state/county government
jobs intact.  

We are missing a lot of money from our coffers when we let the
rich have tax cuts and collect no estate tax.  That is one of
the reasons government is not working.  

Another idea is to make everyone pay a flat tax of $25% on
revenues earned for those above poverty level or some
reasonable amount for a growing middle class, no schedule C
needed to expense or write off anything, and then kill the
death tax all around.  

I think it is unfair, no matter what economic bracket to
charge a 55% death tax on what peeps built up to benefit their
heirs.  Just seems unfair and there are more of us that are
cash strapped who will lose property or have to take out new
mortgages to keep properties.  Who really wants to keep giving
banks that money again, and again and again.  For why?  

[Telly Savalas]

84. Why would these proposals fare any better in getting through the Senate?

[delightfulstar]

40. Rethugs - Still Screwing Voters After All These Years...

Imagine the crap we're going to have to put up with in January. We have nearly 10% unemployment and are trying to climb out of an economic abyss, and they want to raise taxes. I get taxed on straight income, so I'm screwed if something doesn't materialize here. They can go straight to hell.

[Initech]

44. The GOP - screwing American voters since 1862!

[SOS]

46. Let the whole stupid thing expire

As the law was written.

Economy and federal debt were in better shape from 1945-2000 under previous tax structures.

I'd gladly pay $2.50 a week more (my Bush tax cut) to stick it to the rich.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

63. +1

In agreement. We've got to get started cleaning up the mess left after the party of the 2000s. I didn't get to make the mess, but I don't want to leave it for my kids to clean up, either.

[mainer]

48. All the cuts should simply expire.

For everyone.

Even if tax cuts are taken away for the very rich, it's still not going to be enough to touch the deficit. There simply aren't enough people in that tax bracket to raise enough revenue.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

64. Yup!

In agreement. We've got to get started cleaning up the mess left after the party of the 2000s. I didn't get to make the mess, but I don't want to leave it for my kids to clean up, either.

[alfredo]

71. I think Obama wants them to expire too, but he wants to

show the republicans for what they are: heartless bastards. (Think rope a dope.)

Obama needs to keep "reaching across the aisle." The more he does that and the Republicans rebuff his efforts at bipartisanship, the worse they look.

"We'd have tax cuts for the middle class if it wasn't for Republican obstructionism."

[AllyCat]

50. Why can't the Democrats block stuff like this? Let it all expire.

Then let the 'cons stand up in front of the American people and say they are for "tax cuts". Let them ALL expire. I called my Congress Critters this week and told them as much. Just let them all expire.

[earcandle]

91. that would be best.... let the bush legacy go away entirely.

[sarcasmo]

52. The only reason for someone making under 200,000 a year to vote Republican, IMHO is

Stupidity!

[totodeinhere]

67. Not necessarily. To some voters, social issues are more important than finances.

If you are strongly anti gay marriage or anti abortion or against undocumented workers, you might vote Republican regardless of your financial situation.

[sarcasmo]

68. Ah yes, the wedge issues created to divide the masses.

[Name removed]

54. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[savalez]

76. Pubs block the bill and you blame the Dems..... Alrighty then.

[smuglysmiling]

55. Why doesn't this get passed under reconciliation?

As remember from all the prior crowing months ago during health-care, if it regards the budget it can be passed with a simple majority under reconciliation. That is how the tax cuts were passed in the first place...seems you can do the same with a replacement...

[rasputin1952]

56. I just sent my jackal Senator a scathing e-mail...

I'm stuck with (Ben Nelson-?)...:grr:

I'll get to Johanns later, I expected him to follow the slime path of the GOP, he's a pig.

[Milo_Bloom]

60. Good. Let them ALL expire.

[angstlessk]

65. Why can't Obama pull a bush and extend them the way bush passed them last time

LET THEM SUNSET IN 10 YEARS!!!!

[alp227]

72. But won't the next Congress be able to write ANOTHER tax cut bill

if this Congress does nothing or somehow successfully limits tax cuts to the lower and middle classes? That being said, F off, GOP. When will the voters ever learn?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

83. that's why we need to let them expire....let them all expire

[Hawkeye-X]

77. Fuck the Republicans. It's time for their punishment - NUCLEAR OPTION

RIGHT THE HELL NOW.

[Change Happens]

88. These same tax cuts were passed using reconciliation, do it NOW to reverse them!

[TomCADem]

90. The Corporate Media Will Continue To Push The Narrative Of Giving Republicans A Free Pass

...and blame Obama for the actions of Republicans.