Obama applauds Senate test vote on tax cut plan

Pence Wont Vote for Tax Compromise
Rep. Mike Pence (R., Indiana) just announced that he will not vote for the tax Compromise. Saying that “the American People did not vote for more stimulus,”  and higher Deficits and Debt, Pence told Sean Hannity, “I will not vote for this tax deal.” “I’ve no doubt in my mind that the first order of business for the new Congress [if the compromise does not pass] … will be to enact a bill that extends all the current Tax Rates on a permanent basis,&r...;

Obama applauds Senate test vote on tax cut plan
President Barack Obama is praising a test vote in the Senate supporting the Compromise tax plan he negotiated with Republicans. He says it proves both parties can work together. The president spoke at the White House on Monday after the Senate surpassed the 60-vote threshold it needed to advance the Legislation toward final passage. A vote that would send the proposal to the House is expected Tuesday. Obama says the plan would help create jobs by providing 13 months of jobless benefits to the un...

Owens op-ed in support of tax-cut compromise
Rep. William L. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, has offered the following editorial about why he will be supporting President Obama's Compromise on the extension of the 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts when it comes to the House floor for a vote soon. Like many of my Democratic colleagues, I have long supported making the Bush-era Tax Cuts for the Middle Class permanent while letting the Tax Cuts for the ultra wealthy expire. But unlike many in Washington, I have urged leadership of both parties to Compromise on ...

Poll: Strong support for unemployment extension
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll found strong public support for most of the elements of President Obama’s Compromise deal with Republicans that would extend the Bush Tax Cuts and federal Unemployment Benefits — particularly the Unemployment extension, which was favored by more than 2/1 margin. Nearly 70 percent of those asked in a recent poll back a Bipartisan tax Compromise that is set for its first vote Monday afternoon on the Senate floor. Of the four major elements in the pa...

Franken, Klobuchar back unemployment extension/tax-cut compromise
Supporters of President Obama’s Tax Cut Compromise with GOP Senate leadership defeated a threatened Filibuster by mostly Liberal Democrats through the use of Cloture Monday evening. Minnesota Democratic Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar were among those voting for cloture. The bill could see an Up or Down vote as soon as today. Klobuchar said she voted to advance the bill because of the middle-class tax cuts contained in it. Franken said he supports the measure reluctantly, citing an exte...

Moodys Swings
Can someone tell me why the same guy, at the same Ratings agency, does a 180 in less than one week, when the deal hasn’t changed an iota? December 7, 2010: Moody’s Says Tax Rates Won’t Lead to U.S. Downgrade By Susanne Walker - Dec 7, 2010 3:15 PM ET Tue Dec 07 20:15:11 GMT 2010 Moody’s Investors Service Inc. said an extension of the Bush-era Tax Cuts agreed upon by President Barack Obama won’t lead to a downgrade of the nation’s Aaa Credit Rating. “The ext

Romney opposes tax deal, with care
Mitt Romney, in an op-ed whose delay -- the tax deal has been out for a few days now -- reflects the exquisite care he's taken with his position, opposes it: The deal has several key features. It reduces Payroll taxes, extends Unemployment Benefits and keeps current Tax Rates intact. So far, so good. But intermixed with the benefits are considerable costs of consequence. Given the unambiguous...

New Mexico senators split as tax-cut deal passes Senate test
The Tax Cut deal which includes extending tax cuts for Americans making more than $250,000 a year is still going on right now due to inclement weather across the country but it already has more than enough votes to pass. The deal passed the Senate 83-15. Among those who voted against invoking Cloture, or ending debate and allowing a final up-and-down vote on the bill, is New Mexico’s senior senator, Jeff Bingaman. Sen. Tom Udall voted to invoke cloture on the deal made between the White Ho...

Romney announces opposition to tax deal, in major blow to GOP's united front
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Tuesday came out against the tax deal reached between President Obama and congressional Republicans, saying the temporary nature of the Tax Rate extension would limit the positive economic impact and correspondingly make the Deficit worse. Romney’s move has the potential to spur broader opposition to the deal among Republican lawmakers than has previously been seen, and is clearly intended by the former Massachusetts Governor as a play for sup...

Thune: 'Easy' and 'expedient' to criticize negotiated tax deal
GOP Sen. John Thune on Tuesday hit back at opponents of President Obama's tax-cut Compromise, saying that their position represents support for higher taxes. Thune (S.D.) — a potential 2012 Presidential Candidate — appeared to take a veiled shot at some high-profile members of his own party, warning that the country cannot afford to let "the perfect becom[e] the enemy of the good" when it comes to the expiring Bush Tax Cuts. "Now, it's easy to stand on the sidelines and to criticize this...

UN climate talks close with countries in agreement
At Friday night’s closing plenary, delegates to the United Nation’s climate talks emphasized Compromise and balance. Afterwards, they returned to meetings, and in the early morning hours on Saturday, agreed to continue discussions next year on the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period and the design of a Green Climate Fund and the creation of low-carbon development plans by industrialized nations. Governor-elect Susana Martinez indicated that she may not keep key campaign p...

Al Franken Holds His Nose And Votes For Obama's 'Bad Policy'
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) voted to end debate on the Bush Tax Cut Compromise yesterday, but he's not happy about it. In a strongly-worded statement sent to his supporters today, Franken pokes at President Obama for negotiating the deal, which he called "bad policy." "A lot of people are unhappy that the President punted on first down, and I'm one of them," Franken wrote in the message to supporters. "Extending the Bush Tax Breaks for the super-wealthy will explode our Deficit over the next two ye...

Whos Not Paying Their Fair Share of Income Tax?
Democrats just won’t shut up about how the rich aren’t paying enough in taxes. It’s all about fairness, they tell us. There are people who need the money, and the rich don’t need it, so the government should be able to take it and give it to someone else. They talk about it like it’s their money and by not taxing it more they’re somehow giving money to millionaires. It’s maddening. What’s more maddening is that the wealthiest Americans pay the mo...

Moodys Raises Specter of U.S. Downgrade After Tax Cut Deal
Pragmatism! Moody’s Investors Service, a leading credit Rating Agency, warned in a report on Monday that the Tax Cut Compromise could imperil the U.S. government’s top Aaa rating, though a downgrade remains highly unlikely. The Moody’s report pointed to provisions such as a temporary Payroll Tax holiday and extensions of Unemployment Insurance and the Bush-era tax cuts as likely to produce “substantially higher Budget Deficits,” even Accounting for an expected boo...

Deficit Fraud Romney: Jobless Benefits Are Too Expensive, But The Bush Tax Cuts Increase Revenue
Yesterday, the Senate approved the tax deal that President Obama negotiated with Congressional Republicans by an 83-15 vote. The Legislation now moves to the House, where Democrats are saying that they might tinker with the Estate Tax cut that Republicans are insisting upon. But it isn’t only on the left that opposition to the deal exists. A few House Republicans have disparaged the deal for including too few Tax Cuts and too much help for the jobless. In a USA Today op-ed today, former ...

Senate may punt final tax vote another day
After yesterday's successful vote to move the Tax Cut bill forward in the Senate, it seemed likely that the upper chamber would approve final passage of the Compromise Legislation today and send the bill to the House. But, as of this morning, there are no votes scheduled for today in the Senate on the bill. Here's why: After a Filibuster is successfully broken - as it was yesterday - Senate rules require an additional 30 hours of debate before moving to the final vote. That 30 hours won't expi...

Tax deal passes Senate test vote
WASHINGTON — A Bipartisan bloc of senators easily propelled President Obama’s Tax Cut Compromise over a key procedural hurdle yesterday, clearing the way for a final Senate vote as early as today, and setting the stage for a potential showdown later this week among divided Democrats in the House. A looming Jan. 1 deadline — when Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire, raising taxes for most Americans — brought Democrats and Republicans together in the Senate to advance Obam...

Romney Opposes Tax Cut Deal
Mitt Romney writes: Death and taxes, it is said, are life’s only two certainties. But in the wake of President Obama’s tax Compromise with congressionalRepublicans, only death retains the status of certainty: The future for taxes has been left up in the air. And uncertainty is not a friend of investment, growth and Job Creation. The deal has several key features. It reduces Payroll taxes, extends Unemployment Benefits and keeps current Tax Rates intact. So far, so good. But intermi...

Issa Criticizes Uncertainty in Tax System
By John D. McKinnon A high-profile House Republican is criticizing the increasing unpredictability of the U.S. tax system. In a statement on Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), currently the top Republican on Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the Compromise tax deal struck between the White House and congressional Republicans “is an incomplete effort that fails to create a permanent tax structure giving businesses the kind of long term predictability needed to support invest...

Tax deal clears key hurdle - next up is Senate vote
Final Senate approval could come as early as Tuesday on the hotly contested tax deal negotiated by President Barack Obama and Republican leaders. The deal cleared a key procedural hurdle Monday, with an 83-15 vote to end Senate debate on the measure, which includes a two-year extension of the Bush-era Tax Cuts set to expire December 31. The plan would also extend Unemployment Benefits for 13 months, cut the Payroll Tax by 2 percentage points for a year and continue a series of other Tax Breaks....

Sam Seder: I don't trust Obama with my retirement insurance, do you?
Contemplate what this statement means: "Most of our long term Debt and Deficit has to do with Social Security". It's a pretty banal falsehood. Social Security has never contributed a dime to any Deficit or debt. It's fully self-funding and has been for the past 70-plus years. Even in the worst-case scenario, where we don't lift the cap on Payroll taxes, Social Security won't contribute to the Debt or Deficit - it will merely pay 75% of due benefits after the year 2037. What's truly stunning, a...

Today in Washington - December 14, 2010
Taxes and spending are on the House and Senate agenda for today.  After the Senate passes the President’s tax deal, the House may blow up the Compromise by changing the Death Tax.  Later this week, Senate appropriators are reportedly trying to sneak through a massive new Omnibus spending bill.  They are planning on offering an Omnibus Spending bill as a complete substitute for the Continuing Resolution, a bill to fund the federal government at 2010 levels

House Democrats Balk Over Estate Tax as Senate Moves to Approve Tax Deal
A majority of House Democrats will likely oppose the Senate Compromise on a tax bill expected to go to the House later this week, but Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Monday he thinks it will ultimately pass. In a Speech to the National Press Club, the Maryland Democrat said the Senate Legislation may have to be upended when it reaches the House, particularly over the Estate Tax, which would force changes to be sent back to the Senate.  That leaves open the idea the House may start another ...

Weekly Audit: Sanders Filibusters Tax Cuts, Electrifies the Left
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a self-described Socialist who caucuses with the Democrats, became a folk hero to Progressives when he took to the floor of the Senate for nearly nine hours on Friday to speak against the plan to extend Tax Cuts for the wealthy in exchange for extending Unemployment Benefits for millions of workers and extending Tax Breaks for the Middle Class. On the Senate floor, Sanders accused his Republican colleagues of wanting to roll back the New Deal: And that is, they want...

Darrell Issa uncomfortable with tax deal - Jake Sherman
Count a future GOP committee chair as one of those icy on President Barack Obama's tax Compromise with Republicans. California Rep. Darrell Issa, the future chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, said the tax bill that passed a key procedural hurdle Monday is "an incomplete effort that fails to create a permanent tax structure giving businesses the kind of long-term predictability needed to support investment, Economic Growth and Job Creation." Continue Readi...