Wednesday saw Senate Democrats block a vote on Barack Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000. The move by the senators came as Senate Republicans put forth, not one but, two votes: one was to extend the Bush tax cuts and the other was to raise taxes per the words of Barack Obama.
“My recommendation is we give the president what he asked for,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The Republicans finally put Democrats in a position where they demonstrated that even Democrats realize that the tax cuts are good and should be extended to all Americans. The senators were caught between a rock and a hard place but not because it was a difficult choice. Rather it is because of political pandering in an election year.
While Senator Harry Reid pointed the finger at Republicans trying to obstruct Obama’s tax plan, the Republicans were calling for the vote! Reid said, “The program of the Republicans in the Senate has been to divert and deny and obstruct. I asked the presiding officer when we started what are we doing here today? We’re on a small business jobs bill. A pretty simple piece of legislation but extremely important.”
Blah, Blah, Blah. The Republicans were not going to let Senate Democrats get away with this. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said, “It’s mind-boggling to me, Senate democratic leadership turned down an opportunity to vote on President Obama’s tax increase bill …it tells us that the president’s tax increase plan is not just an economic disaster, it’s a political loser. And they know it. It tells us in spite of the big talking from the president’s Chicago reelection campaign about evil Republicans who want to extend all of the 2001 and 2003 tax relief, vulnerable members of the Senate’s Democratic conference do not want to be anywhere near the president’s tax increase alternative.”
So what we have here is that the party seems to be in a conflict with their leader. Obama can’t seem to get a vote out of them for what they want to do about taxes and tax cuts. I could give them some advice and just tell Barack Obama to take a flying leap, but I doubt it would do any good as too many Democrats have already hitched their horse to Obama’s cart. Now they can just be seen for what they truly are: They are those that put a worthless jobs bill, bigger government and their own political careers before letting the American people keep more of their hard earned dollars.
