Senate Democrats line up to oppose Obama tax deal

[Joanne98]

Source: Politico


Several Senate Democrats on Tuesday morning criticized the White House and Republican tax deal, saying that President Barack Obama gave up too much to a recalcitrant opposition party.

The initial pushback suggests that the White House will have to woo a handful of reluctant Senate Democrats to back the wide-ranging compromise in order to get the measure over the finish line before the tax cuts expire at year’s end. And as Republicans are poised to gain new power in the House and Senate next year, Democrats are worried that Obama will be eager to leave them behind in order to advance legislation that draws significant GOP backing.


“I still seemed puzzled with the president’s enthusiasm and the Republicans giving an income tax break for people that make over a $1 million,” said Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu. “It’s very discouraging that we are actually borrowing $46 billion to apply an income tax relief to individuals and families earning more than $1 million.”

Landrieu added: “But why the president thought he had to give in on this? Why he didn’t have the confidence in a Democratic Caucus to hold the line? I don’t know.”

Asked what he thought about the deal, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said: “Not much. You asked what I think of it? Not much.”

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said she needed “to hear about the consequences of this.”





Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46074.html

[gateley]

1. This is interesting - with both Dems AND Reps willing to buck the bosses. nt

[harun]

64. Senate Dem's, House Progressives, House Blue Dogs and Tea-Partiers

all oppose this.

Too bad this isn't a Democracy or we wouldn't be having this problem.

[CountAllVotes]

2. Sen. Mary Landrieu

She is right but I find this to be beyond "discouraging". I prefer the word DISGUSTING. We add another $46 billion to the deficit and we cannot even help the neediest among us that are just trying to exist on next to nothing.

[xxqqqzme]

21. She has no room to comment.

“I still seemed puzzled with the president’s enthusiasm and the Republicans giving an income tax break for people that make over a $1 million,” said Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

She's puzzled? She is one of the DINOs consistently not backing Obama.

[GoCubsGo]

28. No kidding.

I'm puzzled that she actually said that. I'm shocked, actually, and pleasantly shocked for a rare change.

[Carolina]

30. exactly

I was surprised by HER comments. Who knew??

[CountAllVotes]

34. surprised she didn't think it was a good idea

given her record! :mad:

:kick:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

61. Especially since she voted for the cuts in the first place.

:eyes:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

66. Ring this bell.

Landrieu VOTED for the Chimp tax cuts!


:patriot:

[FreeStateDemocrat]

62. She's looking for a deal sweetener, one vote for sale.

[treestar]

3. Why don't THEY work on their Republican colleagues then?

Are they so powerless in the body they got elected to?

Why don't THEY help get a more favorable deal? Are they just sitting around waiting for the POTUS to do it? He's not even a Senator and THEY are!

[No Elephants]

14. LOL!

[treestar]

20. That's funny? so you think they have no power at all?

They should just sit around waiting for the POTUS to do it?

That would certainly make us powerless too.

The concept of the Presidency as an all powerful place is getting rather sad around here. So Senators are just place holders? They can do nothing either (and I suppose we the people can really do nothing at all).

[No Elephants]

27. Straw person much?

[BeyondGeography]

4. The sausage factory is kicking into gear

Problem is, opponents of the compromise on both sides are going to want concessions. How all that gets reconciled will be interesting.

[somone]

5. Filibuster!

[billlll]

6. OPPOSE the compromise. No tax cuts!

Stand firm .

[monmouth]

7. Could this have been the plan all along? Save face for the POTUS but

have the tax cuts fail later in the Senate. I'm grasping at straws I know. I'm thrilled the unemployed are getting a break, that worried me. Perhaps this is the plan..

[No Elephants]

16. No, Timmeh wanted this.

[glinda]

38. Our taxes go up we loose the house. If faced with Obama faced in deciding, I would rather the middle

class get something.

[RKP5637]

8. The death of a country for many. Where will we be in another 10 years or so with

this type of logic. This is a ripoff and Americans should be up in arms. Forget "we" the people, it's now "we" the wealthy. Imagine where generations of youth will be in this country, eventually. Their future will likely be dismal. IMO I'm watching the democratic party unravel.

[Pirate Smile]

9. Ha - The Senate is why we've had all the problems we've had. If the friggin Senate could pass

what Obama and Democrats had campaigned on then we wouldn't have a problem.

The Senate is why we've had to compromise on everything from Stimulus to HCR to FinReg.

Give me a f#$king break from anyone in the Senate bitching about how anything has turned out. The House passed it. The President would sign it. The f#$king Senate is who can't make it happen.

[No Elephants]

17. LOL!

[tpsbmam]

10. Now is the time to push them to filibuster and oppose this crappy deal! n/t

[disillusioned73]

11. Hold the line... maybe it's our parties turn to say no

:dem: it seems to have worked for the other side, so :wtf:

[No Elephants]

18. Having to embarrass a President of your own Party is tough.

[Moostache]

25. BULLSHIT - not when that president is embarassing the party's values!!!

If Obama can't take the heat, he should stop spitting on campaign promises and calling it something else...
Stop dropping to his knees every time a Republican says "Boo!"...

[disillusioned73]

31. Embarrassing yes, but absolutely necessary..

:dem:

[Lorien]

12. That's a pretty tepid "pushback"

why do I get the sick feeling that they're just going to be pushed OVER in the end? "I don't know" 'not much" "I need to hear the consequences of this" (HEY-LOOK AT THE YEARS SINCE THE TAX BREAKS TOOK EFFECT!) the spine free zone remains intact.

[bc3000]

13. When you're to the right of Landrieu, you may as well just call yourself a republican

[No Elephants]

19. Obama's alleged compromise is right of many Republicans, even cons like Scarborough.

Timmeh Geithner, a registered Republican until Obama wanted to appoint him, and Kissinger's pal.


He feared a double dip recession and stayed true to his Republican principles of "You don't raise taxes on ANYone during a recession, even those whose annual salary is a million a year or more."

Obama didn't cave to Senate Rethugs. He agreed with his Rethug Sec of Treas.

[Le Taz Hot]

63. +1 n/t

[indimuse]

15. KNR! n/t

[Moostache]

22. I will donate to the re-election campaigns of EVERY Senator to oppose Obama on this.

I am already refusing to donate any funds to an Obama re-election campaign, so any money that I would have given to his campaign is now available to the Democratic Senators that show the guts to do what's right and to stand on principles!

[perdita9]

23. Earth to Mary Landrieu!

Why didn't Obama have faith in a Democratic Caucus?

Are you freaking serious??? The Congress, with big Dem majorities, has been an embarrasment of not being able to get their sh!t together. Ben Nelson? Joe Lieberman? There are any number of unreliable turncoats in your ranks.

Want to impress the progressives? Get enough of your colleagues together and filibuster the damn bill. You have the power, let's see you use it.

Or more likely, let's just watch you fold and then you, like the GOP, will blame everything on Obama.

[bc3000]

35. Good point

[tekisui]

24. Kill the Deal!

[julian09]

26. A the very least make tax cuts for under 250k permanant

and higher temporary, then cave.

[BeyondGeography]

29. I like that

Decoupling was the least we could do, IMO. Probably a deal breaker for McBoehner though.

[bc3000]

33. I disagree

It seems to me, given the deficit/debt situation, the only rational justification for the extension of tax cuts is as a temporary stimulus.

[bongbong]

32. Interesting who opposed the tax cuts

At least one DINO (Landrieu) were included in the opposition.

It's more evidence for the whack-a-mole theory of legislator voting patterns. "You vote yes on this one, I'll vote no. On the next one, we'll switch. That way, us fat cats with a D behind our names can keep giving lip service to Democratic principles but the votes will never quite be enough to actually pass them."

[defendandprotect]

37. We should be taking names of those supporting this -- !!

[defendandprotect]

36. All Dems should be bucking this -- what the hell is Obama doing...???

We're now going to borrow more money from China to continue tax breaks

for the RICH????

[t0dd]

39. Mary Landrieu: 'Obama-McConnell Plan' Is 'Almost Morally Corrupt'

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mary Landrieu, a conservative Democratic from Louisiana, lashed out Tuesday at President Obama's deal with congressional Republicans that allows tax cuts for the wealthy to be extended for two years.

Extending the tax cuts for those making more than a million dollars a year is borderline immoral, Landrieu charged. "I'm going to argue forcefully for the nonsensicalness and the almost, you know, moral corruptness of that particular policy," said Landrieu, walking into a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats. "This is beyond politics. This is about justice and doing what's right."

Landrieu was fuming about the deal. On her way into the meeting, she slammed the tax-cut extension as a needless giveaway, adding, "That's all I have to say." But it wasn't. She emerged from the meeting a few moments later to continue prosecuting her case to reporters.

"It's what I'm calling the Obama-McConnell plan. We're going to borrow $46 billion from the poor, from the middle class, from businesses of all sizes basically to give a tax cut to families in America today, that despite the recession, are making over a million dollars. I mean, this is unprecedented. Unprecedented. I want to repeat that," she said. Landrieu added, however, that she had yet to make a decision on the final package and was speaking strictly about the extension of tax cuts for the wealthy.

...

Landrieu put today's tax-cut debate in the context of the poverty and joblessness facing African Americans across the country. "The median net worth of African-American families -- net worth, not income -- in this country today, according to our census, is $5,000. You want me to repeat that? $5,000. So we are borrowing money from constituencies, and large segments of the population like this," said Landrieu. "I want you all to get your heads around this."

Obama had allies in the Senate who would have fought the extension of the tax cuts, Landrieu said, if only he had relied on them. "Why the president didn't think there were forty or fifty or sixty of us to defend him on this principle, I don't know, but he basically didn't think anybody of us cared much about it. Well, I want him to know I do care."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/mary-landrieu-obamamcconn_n_793272.html

---

Even though she is a hypocrite (since she voted for tax cuts for the rich in 2001), we can certainly reflect on the somber truth of what she says.. that this deal is nothing more than a reverse Robin Hood

[polichick]

40. No "almost" about it. That said...

Fuck you Landrieu!

[TwilightGardener]

41. She's delusional. Wasn't she there when the vote failed?

[young but wise]

42. +1

Twice.

[somone]

43. Corrupt. Indefensible. Obscene.

[TwilightGardener]

44. Then I guess the Senate should've passed the middle class only tax cut, right?

[rpannier]

45. There's one to back Sanders' filibuster

Hopefully, there will be more
I don't care why they do it. I just hope they do

[TwilightGardener]

46. Why can't they just hold the vote again for the measure that failed, now that

they're all rabid about it?

[quakerboy]

49. Because it would still fail

We have a situation where one edge is unwilling to accept a 40/60 loss, and the other is unwilling to accept anything less than a 100/0 win. I guess we will find out if the 2 ends of the spectrum are able to accomplish a united goal even though though they have hugely different reasoning.

I doubt they can. But if they can, even if I do not agree with either grouping, I would find it to be a hugely positive sign for the ability of our democracy to survive.

[defendandprotect]

53. Notice it's Sanders standing between us and this latest Obama deal .... !!!

Thank you, Bernie!!

How about running for President on the Dem ticket??

[Cleita]

47. If you get a chance catch Lawrence O'Donnell tonight or

try to get a transcript on line. He pretty much took her statement apart and her hidden agenda behind it. Pretty interesting and pretty damning.

[dennis4868]

50. She voted for the Bush tax cuts...

so she should shut the fuck up!

[Faryn Balyncd]

48. Will she support Bernie's filibuster?

:kick:

[hayu_lol]

51. She claims to be a democrat...

but almost always votes Repugnant.

[defendandprotect]

52. Quite something coming from Landrieu -- but she's correct ... !!!

[madrchsod]

54. what the hell got her all pissed off?

could she be worried about getting reelected....

[MellowDem]

55. Mary is a morally corrupt asshole hypocrite...

who can now be "real" now that she doesn't have to worry about re-election.

The deal isn't a complete "reverse Robin Hood" in that the tax cuts were extended for everyone and also that it gained the extension of unemployment benefits among other things that generally help the poor.

[MrSlayer]

56. Coming from this thing, the statement is laughable.

While she is right, she has no business talking about any legislation being "morally" corrupt.

[Very_Boring_Name]

57. I don't get the comments here

I'm no fan of Mary Landrieu, but did she say anything here that anybody disagrees with? Why all the hostility?

[Hardrada]

59. She dares to criticize our Rulers!

Whom we must worship and dare not even think ill of.

[The Second Stone]

58. The woman is taking pot shots solely for public consumption

She never fought for anything for the poor and middle class that I can recall. Now that it is a done deal she is piling on Obama because it is popular. I'm not happy with this deal either, but Landrieu is an utter opportunist. If she votes against it, I reserve the right to change my mind, but she is just posturing.

[harun]

65. +1

[elleng]

60. This from Landrieu's mouth? OMG!